James Jones and the USA U19 World Cup team begin their quest for gold on Saturday. Jones, the Joel E. Smilow, Class of 1954 Head Coach of the Bulldogs, is serving as an assistant coach for Team USA, which begins preliminary round play in the 2021 FIBA World Cup vs. Turkey on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. EDT. The tournament is being played in Riga and Daugavpils, Latvia. Video of the games is available on the FIBA YouTube page.
 
The World Cup features U19 teams from 16 nations. Joining the USA and host Latvia are Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan, Lithuania, Mali, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Serbia, South Korea, Spain and Turkey.
 
The USA was drawn into Group D, alongside Australia, Mali and Turkey for the preliminary round. After Saturday's opener vs. Turkey, Team USA meets Mali on July 4 (1:30 p.m. EDT) and closes preliminary play against Australia on July 6 (1:30 p.m. EDT).
 
The members of the USA U19 Team are: Patrick Baldwin Jr. (Hamilton H.S./Sussex, Wis.); Kennedy Chandler (Sunrise Christian Academy, Kan./Memphis, Tenn.); Jonathan Davis (Wisconsin/La Crosse, Wis.); Caleb Furst (Blackhawk Christian School/Fort Wayne, Ind.); Chet Holmgren (Minnehaha Academy/Minneapolis, Minn.); Harrison Ingram (St. Mark's School/Dallas, Texas); Jaden Ivey (Purdue/South Bend, Ind.); Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton/St. Louis, Mo.); Kenneth Lofton Jr. (Louisiana Tech/Port Arthur, Texas); Mike Miles (TCU/Lancaster, Texas); Adam Miller (Louisiana State/Chicago, Ill.); and Peyton Watson (Long Beach Poly Tech H.S./Long Beach, Calif).
 
Jamie Dixon of TCU is the head coach of Team USA, while Stanford head coach Jerod Haase joins Jones as an assistant.
 
USA men's teams have won seven gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze medal while compiling a 99-14 overall record in U19 World Cup play since the event launched in 1979. The USA has won four of the last six U19 golds since 2009.
 
Jones continues to build a strong resume with USA Basketball. In February, he was an assistant coach for the USA AmeriCup Qualifying Team that won a pair of games in Puerto Rico team. In addition, he served as an assistant coach for the 2007 USA Basketball Men's Pan American Games Team and was a court coach for the 2006 USA Men's U18 National Team Trials.
 
Jones, the all-time winningest men's basketball coach at Yale, is one of the most successful coaches in Ivy League history. He has guided the Bulldogs to 333 victories, which is the second most in league history, and his 180 Ivy wins are the third most in league history.

Jones has led the Bulldogs to five Ivy League championships – 2002, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2020 - three NCAA Tournament berths – 2016, 2019, 2020 - and six postseason appearances. His .612 winning percentage in Ivy games is by far the highest in school history.
 
USA U19 World Cup Team Schedule (Preliminary Round)
Sat., July 3 vs. Turkey, 10:30 a.m. EDT
Sun., July 4 vs. Mali, 1:30 p.m. EDT
Tues., July 6 vs. Australia, 1:30 p.m. EDT
 

Safe travels to Coach Jones & Team USA as they fly to Latvia today for the 2021 FIBA U19 World Cup. ?? ???? https://t.co/NWpdwOcST9

— Yale Men's Basketball (@YaleMBasketball) June 28, 2021