The FIBA World Championships ended in celebration for Gators guard Michael Frazier II and Billy Donovan’s United States U19 team.
USA (9-0) defeated Serbia (7-2) 82-68 on Sunday in Prague to win gold at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championships for the first time since 2009.
With Sunday’s win, Donovan is 14-0 all-time in international competition. He led the U18 team to a gold medal last summer at the FIBA Americas Championship in Brazil.
Donovan’s U19 squad defeated its opponents by an average margin of 39.6 points per game in its nine contests. Its largest margin came against Russia on June 29. The United States won 115-47.
“I feel very, very honored my country asked me to coach this team,” Donovan said. “I think USA Basketball could have picked a lot of coaches who would have done a wonderful job.
“The World Championship at 19-and-under hasn’t been a real strong tournament for our country, and I think there was a strong commitment by (team director) Sean (Ford), by (assistant team director) B.J. (Johnson), by USA Basketball and everybody there to say, ‘You know, we’re really going to try to put together an incredible team.’”
Frazier, one of 12 players on the roster, went scoreless against Serbia in the title game but grabbed six rebounds in 15 minutes.
He had his most efficient game of the tournament a day earlier, scoring nine points on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc in USA’s 100-60 semifinal victory against Lithuania.
His highest-scoring effort was a 15-point showing on 5-of-13 shooting in USA’s 113-57 win against China on June 28.
Frazier’s two worst shooting performances came against Ivory Coast (1 of 8, two points) on June 27 and Brazil (2 of 12, five points) on July 1.
During the FIBA World Championships, Frazier averaged 6.7 points and 3.1 rebounds in 16.8 minutes per contest.
Overall, he shot 29.4 percent from behind the arc and 32.4 percent from the field.
Frazier competed in all nine contests, starting one.
Contact Landon Watnick at lwatnick@alligator.org.
Billy Donovan calls out to players against Savannah State on Nov. 20 in the O’Connell Center. Donovan won his second gold medal on Sunday.
