Mason Named To USA Basketball Men's World University Games Team

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Aug. 15, 2001

DENVER, Colo. – University of Virginia guard Roger Mason, Jr., has been named to the final 12-man roster for the 2001 USA Basketball Men’s World University Games Team. The final roster was announced on Wednesday (August 15). The 14 finalists for the team have been training at the Denver Nuggets’ practice facility since August 10.

The team travels from Denver to Chicago, Ill., on Friday (August 17) and leaves for Beijing, China, on Saturday (August 18). The USA team competes in the World University Games from August 22-31. The team is scheduled to play Iran (August 22), South Africa (August 23) and Turkey (August 24) in preliminary round competition. The quarterfinals are scheduled for August 26 and 28, with the semifinals on August 30 and the Gold Medal Game on August 31.

Other players named to the team include Antwain Barbour (Wabash Valley Community College), Andre Barrett (Seton Hall), Earl Barron (Memphis), Lonny Baxter (Maryland), Dan Dickau (Gonzaga), Juan Dixon (Maryland), Melvin Ely (Fresno State), Lynn Greer (Temple), Chris Owens (Texas), Justin Reed (Mississippi) and Tyler Smith (Penn State).

The head coach of the USA Basketball Men’s World University Games Team is Jerry Dunn of Penn State. He is assisted by Rod Barnes of Mississippi and Al Skinner of Boston College.

The USA has a 40-game winning streak at the World University Games and has won six consecutive gold medals.

The 6-5 Mason is from Silver Spring, Md., and will be a junior at Virginia this fall. He established a UVa record and led the Atlantic Coast Conference last season by making 88.4 percent (122-138) of his free throw attempts. Mason led the Cavaliers and was sixth in the ACC in scoring last season with an average of 15.7 points a game. He scored a career-high 30 points against Gonzaga in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament.

He shot 47.6 percent (146-307) from the field, including 44.2 percent (42-95) from three-point range, and he averaged 3.7 rebounds a game during the 2000-01 season. He also had 72 assists, 33 steals and 14 blocked shots while averaging a team-high 32.0 minutes of playing time a game in 29 games.

Mason earned third-team All-ACC honors last season and was honored as co-recipient of UVa’s Bill Gibson Cavalier of the Year Award. He was a first-team All-State selection by both the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Virginia Sports Information Directors Association (VaSID). Mason was recently named among the Top 50 Preseason Candidates for the 2001-02 Wooden Award All-America Basketball Team.