COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Wichita State men's basketball senior Ron Baker has been selected to represent the United States at the Pan American Games later this month in Toronto.
 
USA Basketball trimmed its roster to 12 following Sunday's practice – the last of a six-day training camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. WSU's Fred VanVleet was one of the final four players to be cut.
 
Baker – from Scott City, Kan. – is the first WSU player to ever appear on a Pan Am Games men's basketball roster.  He's also the first active Shocker in over three decades to represent the U.S. in international competition.
 
The 12-man roster includes seven collegians and five professionals – four from overseas and one who played last season in the NBA. In addition to Baker, they are:
 
Malcolm Brogdon (Virginia/Atlanta, Ga.); Bobby Brown (Dongguan Leopards, China/Los Angeles, Calif.); Ryan Hollins (Sacramento Kings/Pasadena, Calif.); Keith Langford (UNICS Kazan, Russia/Fort Worth, Texas); Shawn Long (Louisiana/Morgan City, La.); Taurean Prince (Baylor/San Antonio, Texas); Anthony Randolph (Lokomotiv-Kuban, Russia/ Pasadena, Calif.); Kaleb Tarczewski (Arizona/Claremont, N.H.); Romelo Trimble (Maryland/Upper Marlboro, Md.); Denzel Valentine (Michigan State/Lansing, Mich.); and Damien Wilkins (Indios de Mayagüez, Puerto Rico/Orlando, Fla.).
 
"It's a group of hard-working guys who have done a great job in camp of really playing together and being unselfish," said USA and Gonzaga University head coach Mark Few in a USA Basketball press release. "They came into camp with a great attitude and mindset to really work, and now we've got to start formulating and playing to our strengths.  This is a group that's got some versatility, and I think we should be able to play a couple different ways.
 
"I don't think I've ever in my whole life been put in a situation where you're choosing between 16 great guys. You could have made a call for any one of the guys on the list and it would have made perfect sense. We labored, and labored and labored over it for what we think we might need.  That's how we got down to these 12," added Few on the final selection process.
 
"I would like our strength to be that we can defend in a variety of ways and at the same time attack you on the offensive end with a variety of different looks.  I do think we're going to be really balanced. I don't think we're really weighted in one position, or one person really scoring the ball. I think we can hopefully get contributions from everybody in that regard."
 
Schedule:
The team leaves Monday for Chicago and will train July 13-16 at the Chicago Bulls practice facility before heading to Toronto for the competition, July 21-25.
 
The U.S. men have been placed into Group A and will play all three of its preliminary round games at 9 p.m. EDT, including Venezuela on July 21 (9 p.m. EDT), Puerto Rico on July 22  (9 p.m. EDT) and Brazil on July 23  (9 p.m. EDT). Competing in Group B will be Argentina, Canada, Dominican Republic and Mexico.
 
The top two teams from each preliminary-round group will advance to the medal-round semifinals on July 24, while the third and fourth-placed teams will play for fifth-eighth places. The semifinal winners will compete for the gold medal on July 25, and the semifinal losers will play for bronze.
 
About Baker:
An unheralded recruit who has blossomed into one of college basketball's premier players… Opted to forgo the NBA Draft for one last go-around at WSU and will be a trendy favorite for preseason accolades… A two-time First Team All-MVC selection and John R. Wooden Award All-American… One of only a dozen players in school history to begin their senior year with 1,100 or more career points… Has a solid chance to become the Shockers' all-time leader in three-pointers, heading into the year ranked fifth with 176 (72 shy of Randy Burns)… Also ranks 29^th in career points (1,145), sixth in three-point attempts (466), 29^th in assists (232) and 13^th in steals (10)… Team is 79-8 with him in the starting lineup over the last three seasons.
 
WSU and USA Basketball:
Aubrey Sherrod – an all-conference performer for the Shockers from 1981-85 toured with the U.S. Select Team in the summer of 1983. Antoine Carr (1979-83) was part of a Silver medal-winning team at the 1982 FIBA World Championships. Current WSU sophomore Conner Frankamp competed with the U.S. Junior National Team for two summers and helped bring home gold at the U17 FIBA World Championships.
 
WSU's most prominent international performance came in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, when a team coached by former Shocker boss Gene Johnson became the first U.S. squad ever to win gold. WSU products Francis Johnson and Jack Ragland were also members of that squad.
 

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Complete List of Shockers on the All-Time USA Men's Basketball Roster:
 
Jamie Arnold –
1994 U.S. Olympic Festival – North (1-3, 4th)
 
Antoine Carr –
1982 FIBA World Championships (7-2, Silver)
1982 World's Fair Tournament* - Knoxville, Tenn. (2-1, Silver)
1979 U.S. Olympic Festival – Midwest (0-4, 4th)
 
*- Pre World Championship exhibitions
 
Greg Dreiling** –
1981 U.S. Olympic Festival – Midwest (1-3, Bronze)
 
**- Also competed in the '82 Olympic Festival and the '85 World University Games after transferring to Kansas
 
Conner Frankamp -
2012 FIBA U17 World Championship – (8-0, Gold)
2011 FIBA U16 FIBA Americas – (5-0, Gold)
2010,11,12 - Developmental National Team Mini Camps
 
Francis Johnson –
1936 – Olympic Games - Berlin, Germany – (5-0, Gold)
 
Gene Johnson (Head Coach) -
1936 – Olympic Games - Berlin, Germany – (5-0, Gold)
 
Jack Ragland -
1936 – Olympic Games - Berlin, Germany – (5-0, Gold)
 
Aubrey Sherrod -
1983 – U.S. Select Team Tour (South Korea/Malaysia) - (12-0, N/A)
1982 - R. William Jones Cup - (8-0, Gold)
1982 - Seoul Invitational - (7-0, Gold)
 

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USA Basketball in the Pan American Games:
The Pan American Games are a multi-sport event featuring teams from North, South and Central American and the Caribbean, which are organized by the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) and played every four years in the year preceding the Olympics (2015, 2019, etc.).
 
Beginning with the first Pan American Games men's basketball competition in 1951, the USA dominated the first five events, earning five consecutive gold medals. At the 1971 Pan Ams, despite a record of 2-1 in the preliminary round, the USA did not advance to the medal round and for the first time in Pan American Games history, did not win the gold medal. The United States rebounded, however, for a 26-0 record over the next three Pan Am Games and captured its most recent Pan Am gold in 1983. Overall, the Americans have compiled an 87-15 record and captured eight gold medals, three silver medals and two bronze medals.
 
In 2011, the USA team, comprised of players and coaches from the NBA Development League, fought to a well-earned 94-92 bronze medal victory over the Dominican Republic in Guadalajara, Mexico.
 
Many USA Basketball athletes who have played in a Pan American Games have gone on to compete in the Olympic Games, while many others enjoyed stellar professional careers. In all, 34 Pan Am athletes have been a member of a U.S. Olympic squad, including Ernie Grunfeld, Grant Hill, Luscious Jackson, Michael Jordan, Christian Laettner, Danny Manning, Chris Mullin, Emeka Okafor, Sam Perkins, Oscar Robertson, David Robinson, Isiah Thomas, Jerry West and Jo Jo White.