NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. — Mohamed Bamba and Quade Green wore long looks of dejection on their faces as they trudged to their airplane on Sunday evening for their flight home from the Peach Jam.
The PSA Cardinals duo had just taken a 93-65 beating at the hands of Michael Porter Jr. and MoKan Elite in the Peach Jam championship game televised on ESPNU. It was the last time Bamba and Green will play for the New York-based AAU team.
But there wasn’t much time to mope, either.
As soon as they got home on Monday, both Bamba and Green turned right around and flew to Houston for training with the USA Basketball U18 team. Hamidou Diallo of the NY Rens — which lost to Team Penny in the quarterfinals — is also on the U18 roster. The team will make cuts on Thursday and pare its roster from 18 to 12.
“I told [Green] this was the last time we’ll play AAU together but it’s not the last time we’ll play together,” Bamba said, referring to the U18 team.
Bamba says he will use the Peach Jam loss as motivation to make the team and win a gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship beginning next week in Chile.
“It’s hard to not use this as motivation because there was a lot of errors that we made out there and you see a lot of things that you can just easily work on when you’re back on the court and work on your craft at,” the 6-foot-11 Bamba told SNY.tv.
Bamba initially envisioned a 2016 three-peat in which he won a state championship at the Westtown (Pa.) School, the Peach Jam and a gold medal.
He won the first title, but missed on the second.
“Obviously, we didn’t win the Peach Jam championship but in my opinion I think a gold medal surpasses that,” Bamba said. “I want a gold medal now.”
Terrance “Munch” Williams, the PSA Cardinals director, said: “It’s another opportunity for those guys [Bamba and Green] to play together some more, represent their country hopefully and at the end of the day try to continue a winning pedigree for their individual selves and go out and play with a talented collection of guys and try to compete.”
Bamba is also looking forward to facing Porter Jr. and Trae Young — the co-MVPs of the Peach Jam — in practice and “face-guarding them.”
“I’m looking forward to being on the same team as those guys, especially after competing against them,” Bamba said. “Those are two great friends of mine.”
The 6-foot Green, who work a blue Duke T-shirt with his long face on Sunday, helped spur the PSA Cardinals to the final by virtue of a brilliant performance in the semifinals where the New York team came back from an 18-point deficit to beat Team Penny. (Duke appears to be the favorite for Green, who also holds offers from Kentucky and Syracuse, among others.)
But he also felt responsible for the team’s blowout loss in the final.
“I think Quade did more than what we expected of him, especially in that semifinal game,” Bamba said. “In the final game, he was literally the reason we got to where we were and he’s literally the backbone and the heart of this team. I think he’s’ hanging his head about it, pouting, but I don’t think he did anything wrong in my eyes.”
Green showed at Peach Jam that he’s in the conversation for the best guard in the Class of 2017.
“He showed the ability to win and get you to the winning circle,” Williams said. “I think for any point guard that’s important, the ability to make your teammates better and then find a way to do some things that you like to do and you’re accustomed to doing. He balanced scoring with getting everyone involved and making plays that you need to make to win. As long as you put winning first, the sky’s the limit for him.”
On the recruiting front, Bamba still plans to cut his list to 10 in August.
“At some point in August, I’m not sure when,” he said.
Among the coaches on hand for him (and/or Green) at Peach Jam were Kentucky’s John Calipari, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski, UNC’s Roy Williams, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim and UConn’s Kevin Ollie.
“At the end of the day it’s nice to have those guys there,” Bamba said, “but it doesn’t make or break who I am.”
