Tommy Lloyd glanced at the scoreboard, but his eyes were fixed on the number of fouls, not on his team’s lead.
The 2024 USA Basketball Men’s U-18 National Team led 60-46 in a scrimmage on Monday at Reed Court at the University of Colorado, but also committed more fouls than their opponents.
“We’re up 5-0 in fouls,” Lloyd said, “and we’ve just got to be a little more disciplined.”
It was one of several rare complaints from Lloyd during a scrimmage ahead of the 2024 FIBA U-18 Men’s Americas Cup, which begins June 3 in Buenos Aires.
“They’re talented players and people of integrity. I told them I’m going to coach them to a high standard and I’m not going to run this team like an all-star team,” Lloyd said. “I’m proud that they’ve entrusted me with coaching them. … Our motto is ‘talent breeds more talent,’ and I think they believe that.”
As the University of Arizona men’s basketball coach, Lloyd will be coaching a talented team featuring numerous players ranked in the top 25 by ESPN and 247Sports.
The U.S. team coaching staff trimmed the roster from 28 players on May 25 to 12 on May 28.
Among those 12 is Duke University-bound Patrick Ngomba, who is ranked 19th in the 247Sports rankings and 25th in ESPN’s top 100 for 2024 as of May 28.
Ngomba missed “almost all” of his senior year at Pope Paul VI High School in Virginia because of an injury that required surgery on his right foot.
But the 6-foot-10, 240-pound four-star recruit proved why he was selected.
Ngomba knocked back two shots for his teammates, who finished with layups and dunks on the other end.
He also slid into position in the paint to force difficult layups or force opponents into making circus shots with his long arms around them.
As his teammates ran down the court, Ngomba followed behind them, making up for their mistakes or catching passes from them.
Derrion Reed, a five-star recruit committed to the University of Alabama in the fall, made a pass from a double team at the top of the key, found Ngomba alone in the paint, and he lofted the ball for a dunk.
“(The leg) feels good, there’s no problem at all,” Ngomba said. “I haven’t played all season so it’s good to be here training. It’s helping me get my match feel back and gain some confidence.”
Lloyd praised his players’ efforts and unity despite their short time on the court together.
“I thought the guys worked really hard and you could tell from the way they played well that they were really focused in practice,” Lloyd said. “We’ve only played together a week, but the guys played really well. It’s good to play against outside competition and I thought the guys played really unselfishly and put in a lot of effort.”
The U-18 team will play in Group B of the AmeriCup, which also includes Belize, Brazil and hosts Argentina.
Since the AmeriCup began in 1990, the U18 team has won 10 of the 12 gold medals.
The U.S. basketball team has won the gold medal at the biennial AmeriCup for six consecutive years, except in 2020 when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lloyd is poised to win his seventh consecutive tournament victory.
“We’re ready to go,” Lloyd said. “First off, we’re going to watch the game (Wednesday) on video and learn from all the positive things that we did. Once we’ve done that, we’ll see if there are any commonalities in the mistakes that we’re making and address them.”
