The championship ways of the MSU men’s basketball program continued this summer on an international level.
Sophomore guard Marcus Taylor helped Team USA win the gold medal at the World Championship For Young Men on Sunday in Saitama, Japan. The American team defeated Croatia 89-80 in the gold medal game.
This is the second time Team USA has won the gold medal, with the first coming in the inaugural 1993 games.
Taylor didn’t play in the semifinal or final games, but left the tournament having competed in six games. He averaged 5.7 points, 1.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.
Two other Spartan cagers are also enjoying overseas success this summer.
Sophomore forward Adam Wolfe is the leading scorer for the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tour team, which is currently playing select teams in England and Ireland.
Wolfe has scored 34 points through two games, both victories, pumping in 18 points and shooting 82 percent from the field in Saturday’s 98-76 victory against Islington White Heat.
Sophomore forward Jason Andreas also contributed in the games. Andreas has totaled nine points and eight rebounds in the team’s two contests, highlighted by his seven-point, three-rebound effort against Ealing Tornados Select on Friday.
Football
Head coach Bobby Williams announced Friday two incoming freshmen will not play this season.
Defensive lineman Brandon McKinney and offensive lineman Alphonso Townsend failed to meet NCAA entrance requirements. Both players plan to begin classes at MSU on Aug. 27.
On the recruiting front, MSU’s 2002 class got a boost last week with the verbal commitment of cornerback Ashton Watson from Wayne High in Dayton, Ohio.
The 6-foot, 160-pound Watson, who runs a 4.53 40-yard dash, chose MSU over Ohio State, Georgia Tech, Indiana and West Virginia, the Lansing State Journal reported.
Following this season, the Spartans will lose defensive backs Cedric Henry, Broderick Nelson, DeMario Suggs and Lorenzo Guess, so replenishing the secondary was crucial for MSU in this class.
Watson, who totaled seven interceptions and 35 tackles last season, is the seventh verbal commitment for 2002.
He joins fellow verbal commitments quarterback Drew Stanton from Farmington Hills, cornerback Carlos Alexander of Akron, Ohio, safety Derron Ware and offensive lineman Nate Weber, both from Los Angeles, offensive lineman Kyle Cook from Macomb and running back Jaren Hayes of Lebanon, Pa.
Watson has been compared in playing style to former Spartan Renaldo Hill, now with the Arizona Cardinals, by recruiting experts.
MSU coaches can’t comment on recruits until a National Letter of Intent is signed, in February.
Women’s diving
MSU divers Summer Mitchell and Carly Weiden took third place Sunday in the women’s synchronized 3-meter final at the 2001 Speedo National Outdoor Diving Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The duo, which also finished in third place in the synchronized preliminaries Tuesday, finished with 262.23 points, 4.2 points less than second place and 24.66 points out of first place.
Mitchell, a junior, and Weiden, a senior, fell short in the 1-meter springboard competition this weekend. Mitchell advanced to the semifinals of the event, but finished fifth out of six and didn’t qualify for the finals. Weiden did not advance to the semifinals, finishing six places out of qualification in the quarterfinals.
