Four former Duke basketball players named as Team USA finalists

The Duke basketball program will have four players competing for a roster spot on the 2020 United States Olympic Men’s Basketball Team.

Members of the Duke Basketball program have been no stranger to being on the United States Men’s Basketball Olympic Team and 2020 will be no different.

While this will be the first Olympics since 2008 in which Mike Krzyzewski is not on the sidelines for Team USA, there are four former Blue Devils who were named as finalists for the roster.

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The 44 finalists will be dwindled down to a 12-man roster later in the year as Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Brandon Ingram, and Mason Plumlee look to make the roster for the United States.

Irving won a Gold Medal in 2016 in the Summer Olympics with Team USA while Plumlee won the Gold Medal in 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup as Krzyzewski led the team in both events.

Tatum is coming off his first summer with the National Team, but it was a disappointing performance in the 2019 FIBA World Cup as the American placed seventh in the tournament. Mason Plumlee also competed on the team with Jayson Tatum last summer.

Brandon Ingram is looking for his first selection to the United States Men’s Basketball National Team as the current New Orleans Pelicans forward is putting up career numbers in his first season with the Pels.

Team USA will be coached by Gregg Popovich, who was the head coach in the disappointing 2019 FIBA World Cup.

One of the major disappointments is that the list of finalists to compete for Team USA did not include Zion Williamson, who looks like he will be the face of the NBA in the years to come.

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The United States hasn’t lost a game at the Olympics since the 2004 Games, where the team finished with a bronze medal and led to the appointment of Krzyzewski as the team’s head coach who finished with a 75-1 record at the helm of the national team.

The 2020 Summer Olympics are set to begin on July 24 in Tokyo and run through August 9, with the basketball tournament starting on July 26 and ending on August 8.