Cameron Thrives at U19 World Cup

CHICAGO – After traveling halfway around the globe to compete in a prestigious international basketball tournament, Flynn Cameron wasted little time reconnecting with the DePaul men's basketball program.

It was by no means an easy journey from the 2019 U19 World Cup in Greece back to Lincoln Park.

And yet, the day after his series of plane flights that began at 5 a.m. on July 7 and ended at midnight (including a six-hour layover in Toronto), Cameron was up at 8:30 a.m. to participate in the Blue Demons' mile run.

"My legs were a little swollen from all the air travel and still a little sore from the tournament," Cameron said.

A week later, he was practicing with the team and stayed afterwards with a number of teammates for some extra work. Among other drills in his post-practice regimen, Cameron took 250 shots from three-point range. At one point, the sophomore guard made 18 in a row.

That almost seemed like a natural follow-up to Cameron's final two World Cup games when he led his native New Zealand in scoring during a pair of uplifting triumphs.

It all began with three practice games before the opening tipoff on June 29 in Heraklion, Greece.

"We had 11 players back from the 2017 team that finished 11th," Cameron said. "I had to remember all the plays and show my teammates what I was capable of achieving. It helped having a year of college experience like some of the other guys."

Cameron and his country did not receive the greatest of draws, opening against the powerful pre-tournament favorite United States that was shooting for its seventh U19 World Cup title. USA began its march to the gold medal with a 111-71 win, the first of seven in a row.

New Zealand's Junior Tall Blacks rebounded to claim their final two games in Group A, 66-64 over Senegal and 77-75 against Lithuania.

"The Senegal game I wasn't mostly locked in," Cameron said. "It was the same day as my birthday and lots of my friends and family were texting and wishing me a happy birthday on social media. Then after a while, I found myself thinking about the game too much."

New Zealand trailed by as much as 16 points early in the fourth quarter and came all the way back behind an intense pressure defense to its first World Cup win.

"Our last game in the group phase against Lithuania was our best as a team," Cameron said. "We were actually up by 10 in the fourth quarter and held on to win."

Cameron & Co. opened bracket play with a Round of 16 matchup against a formidable team from Mali that wound up advancing to the World Cup championship game.

"I think we got a little too complacent in this game," Cameron said about the 77-62 setback that evened New Zealand's tournament record at 2-2. "But Mali ended up second only to the USA."

Ready for another bounce-back effort, the Junior Tall Blacks led Argentina in the fourth quarter of the Class 9-16 round. But after what they thought should have been a goal-tending call late in the game that altered momentum, New Zealand fell 84-79.

"Most of us were used to the rule in high school and college about goal-tending," Cameron said. "But under FIBA rules, you can tip a ball on the rim if it's on an upward flight. That led to a close loss."

And that would be enough of that. Cameron personally took charge from that moment and made sure his fellow Kiwis left this birthplace of Western civilization on an upbeat note.

He sounded the rally cry with 19 points, seven steals, five rebounds and five assists in an 87-71 triumph over Senegal in the Class 13-16 round. The Blue Demon guard converted eight of his 11 shots from the field as New Zealand evened its record at 3-3.

In the game for 13th place, Cameron led the Junior Tall Blacks to a 76-70 victory over the Philippines with 21 points, six rebounds and four assists, knocking down eight of his 12 shots. He wound up averaging 11.3 points, 6.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists against the world's best U19 players.

"Overall, this tournament was a success for us," Cameron said. "It was good to see how well New Zealand matched up against the rest of the world. It's a good way to go out as most of us will be too old to play in the next World Cup.

"We had to pay our travel expenses. Other countries like the USA and Australia have that taken care of. We played for our pride and to represent our country at the highest level. This was just the third time a New Zealand team competed in the U19 World Cup.

"Our motto was that you don't play four yourself---you play for New Zealand."

And now, Cameron is back in Lincoln Park playing for DePaul.

"I came back with the confidence that I can compete at the highest international level," he said. "But playing against the USA made me realize how much harder I need to work.

"Around the guys here, I'll have more confidence this season. For one thing, I'm no longer the youngest on the team.

"We're in good shape and will be a lot deeper than last year. There's still a lot of hard work to be done. The coaches are putting us in the right position to be a really competitive team this year. With all the new guys, we'll be ready to compete on a day-to-day basis."

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