George Mason

June 12, 2001

LAS VEGAS - The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) has announced 19 finalists for the team that will represent the United States at the 2001 COPABA (Confederation of Pan American Basketball Associations) Tournament of the Americas.

USA Basketball selected the NJCAA, who is an active member of USA Basketball, to participate in the tournament. The NJCAA is responsible for the selection of coaches and players for the 2001 USA Tournament of the Americas Team. The team will conduct training camp Aug. 8-13 at Vincennes University (Ind.) and the squad will be pared down to 10. The 10-member team will compete in the COPABA Tournament of the Americas that is being held Aug. 15-26 in Neuquen, Argentina.

Dan Sparks of perennial junior college power Vincennes University (Ind.) has been named as head coach of the team, and Jay Harrington of Southwestern Illinois College and Bob Tipson of Champlain College (Vt.) are the assistants.

Marcus Banks j(Dixie College/UNLV), Antwain Barbour (Wabash Valley College / Elizabethtown, Ky.), Kenny Brown (Iowa Western C.C. / St. Louis, Mo.), Jason Detrick (Southwest Missouri State Plains / Newport News, Va.), J.K. Edwards (Indian Hills. C.C. / Clemmons, N.C.), Ebi Ere (Barton County C.C. / Tulsa, Okla.), Blandon Ferguson (College of Southern Idaho / Oakland, Calif.), Reggie Griffin (Cedar Valley College / Little Rock, Ark.), Marcus Hatten (Tallahassee C.C. / Baltimore, Md.), Jerry Holman (Minneapolis C.C. / St. Paul, Minn.), Chris Jackson (Garden City C.C. / Dallas, Texas), Darmetreis Kilgore (Tyler Junior College / South Bend, Ind.), Pervis Pasco (Pensacola J.C. / Clearwater, Fla.), Antonio Rambo (Southwest Illinois College / Memphis, Tenn.), Seth Scott (Utah Valley State College / Orem, Utah), Janerio Spurlock (Chipola J.C. / Cincinnati, Ohio), Joe Sykes (Marshalltown C.C. / North Hardin, Ky.), Darren Tarver (Wabash Valley College / Akron, Ohio) and Derrick Tarver (Howard College / Akron, Ohio) as finalists for the squad.

The players represent 18 NJCAA schools and of the 19 players expected to participate in the training camp, 14 will be playing at NCAA Division I colleges in 2001-02, while five are slated to return for their sophomore seasons at their NJCAA institutions.

The 2001 COPABA Tournament of the Americas, featuring 10 teams, will serve as the championship tournament for North, South and Central Americas, and will also serve as the qualifying tournament to determine the five nations from the Americas zone that will qualify for the 2002 FIBA World Championship for Men that is being held in Indianapolis, Ind. The United States has already qualified for the 2002 FIBA World Championship as the host country.