Mathiang A Strong Candidate For Australian Team
June 08, 2015 | Men's Basketball
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - University of Louisville center Mangok Mathiang will be among 16 individuals competing for 12 roster positions to represent Australia in the 2015 World University Games team.
Training camp will begin on June 14 in Canberra Australia, with the final team selected over the ensuing three days. The group will then leave for China on June 18 for a series of warm-up games before heading to Gwangju City, South Korea for the World University Games to be played July 3-14.
Mathiang, who lived in Melbourne, Australia before moving to the United States in 2010 to attend prep school, started all four of the Cardinals' NCAA Tournament games and helped UofL post a 27-9 record last season, reaching the final eight teams in the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the last eight years. An All-ACC Academic team selection, Mathiang averaged 2.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and was sixth in the ACC with 46 blocked shots last season. The Cardinals' 2015-16 team co-captain, he hit the game-winning jumper with 2.7 seconds remaining in the Cardinals' 59-57 victory over No. 2 Virginia in the regular season finale.
Mathiang, who was born in Sudan, Africa, is one of three Australians of Sudanese origin that will participate in the training camp along with Deng Deng (Baylor/Long Beach) and Emmanuel Malou (Yuba College). Australian Coach Andrej Lemanis has an additional five players in training camp with U.S. collegiate experience, including Xavier Cook (Winthrop), Nicholas Duncan (Boise State), Peter Hooley (Albany), Mitch McCarron (Metro State) and Dan Trist (Lafayette).
Former Cardinal Luke Hancock, the Most Outstanding Player of the 2013 NCAA Final Four, was the last UofL player to participate in the World University Games, averaging 10.8 points and 3.0 rebounds for the USA squad in the 2013 games played in Kazan, Russia.
