College coaches flocking to Canada for Cole Anthony, USA U18 team

By ADAM ZAGORIA

The July recruiting period doesn’t begin for another couple of weeks, but college coaches will be flocking to Canada beginning Sunday to watch Cole Anthony and the USA U18 team compete in the FIBA Americas Championship in St. Catharines, Ontario.

College coaches are now permitted to watch the USA Basketball youth teams train in Colorado Springs, CO., and compete in their various international events — even when they don’t occur during live periods. The USA plays its first game Sunday evening against the Dominican Republic before facing Panama and the Dominican Republic Monday and Tuesday. The quarterfinals, semis and finals run Thursday-Saturday.

The 6-foot-3 Anthony from Archbishop Molloy (N.Y.) is ranked No. 6 in the 2019 ESPN 60 and is the highest-ranked guard on the USA team. Coaches from Villanova, Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina, Oregon, Louisville, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Ohio State are among those expected to watch Anthony, who is focused on bringing home a gold medal. A spokesman for the event said at last count, they were expecting about 30 American schools to be on hand.

“Me personally, I’m wide open in my recruitment,” Anthony said this week by phone from Colorado. “I just love to see as many college coaches as I can.”