The players I'm referring to specifically are Hickson, Costner, and now Tracy Smith. According to gopack.com Hickson is going out for the U.S. U-19 World Championship Team and Costner was invited to the Pan American Games Team trials. Scout mentions Smith is going to France on Team USA in the Junior World Championships.

Assuming all three made their respective squads, is their playing competitively over the summer a good thing?

Normally I would say yes, and I still probably would, but I remember Atsur coming back less than 100% after playing for the Turkish National Team last summer.

What do yall think? Discuss.

6/6/2007 8:24:01 PM

injuries and fatigue are the only concerns, albeit major ones

playing against world class competition is usually a pretty good thing though

6/6/2007 8:27:03 PM

Hickson is a punk ass

6/6/2007 8:28:31 PM

^ come again?

6/6/2007 8:31:06 PM

He's just suckin some sour grapes cause Hickson didn't go to UT

6/6/2007 8:40:52 PM

What's Tracy Smith doing this summer?

6/6/2007 8:59:45 PM

Scout mentions Smith is going to France on Team USA in the Junior World Championships.

6/6/2007 9:01:44 PM

It's a good way to keep in shape and learn more fundamentals. There's always that risk of injuries but these guys are young and fatigue shouldn't be a problem with the depth we should have this year. I say let them go and hope they represent State well.

6/6/2007 11:22:26 PM

Atsur got injured from summer ball this past year, but he also learned how to be a PG

6/6/2007 11:25:25 PM

^ guess its hard to argue with you there

maybe grant needs to go play summer ball and then maybe he'll come back and won't turn the ball over every other time he comes down the court

6/6/2007 11:27:31 PM

Quote :

"Hickson is a punk ass"

he's mad cuz hickson chose us over ten

[Edited on June 7, 2007 at 12:07 AM. Reason : .]

6/7/2007 12:07:45 AM

the team smith is gonna play with will also have jordan hamilton on it. he's one of our top targets for the 2009 class. hopefully tracy will be in his ear about the pack the whole time.

6/7/2007 6:33:14 AM

Quote :

"he's one of our everybodys top targets for the 2009 class."

6/8/2007 2:06:46 AM

Quote :

"Hickson is a punk BAD ass"

Fixed it

6/8/2007 2:29:23 AM

well i said our specifically because we're actually one of the school's he thinks highly of right now. not everybody can say that.

[Edited on June 8, 2007 at 9:19 PM. Reason : ]

6/8/2007 9:19:19 PM

playing against higher competiton is definitely a good thing for these guys. They need wake up calls that the transition from high school to college is tougher than they believe it will be.

And for a guy like Costner who had a reasonable amount of success he needs to play against this type of talent to remind him he has to keep working....

6/8/2007 10:11:48 PM

bttt

so it looks like our man hickson isn't on the u-19 squad. no explaination as to why.

http://www.charlotte.com/sports/story/180476.html

7/2/2007 1:13:01 AM