Inside The Huskies

Mandaquit Earns National Team Spot, Plays in Switzerland Next Week

The incoming Washington freshman guard will play for his third USA team in as many summers.

Dan Raley

JJ Mandaquit, Husky signee, is U-19 USA national team player.
JJ Mandaquit, Husky signee, is U-19 USA national team player. / USA basketball

The University of Washington basketball team didn't really have a clearcut point guard last season.

It has a legitimate one now in freshman in incoming freshman JJ Mandaquit, who on Friday was selected to the USA team that will compete in the FIBA U19 World Cup on June 28-July 6 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The 6-foot-4 Mandaquit from Hilo, Hawaii, earned one of 12 roster spots for what is an overly impressive collection of American teenaged basketball players. He is now a three-time national team recipient.

His USA team opens against Australia on June 28. He previously played for U16 and U17 teams over the past two summers. He came home with gold medals won in Mexico in 2023 and in Istanbul a year ago.

Mandaquit is one of eight players who have settled on a college program, with two of his teammates having already spent a season at the NCAA level.

The players aligned with schools as incoming freshmen are Mikel Brown Jr. (Louisville), AJ Dybantsa (BYU), Daniel Jacobsen (Purdue), Jasper Johnson (Kentucky), Morez Johnson Jr. (Michigan), Nik Khamenia (Duke), Koa Peat (Arizona) and Mandaquit (UW).

Jacobsen, a 7-foot-4 center, played two games for the Boilermakers last season before breaking his leg.

Morez Johnson Jr. broke his wrist at Illinois last season and since has relocated to Michigan.

The four players still unattached as they head overseas are Caleb Holt, Brandon McCoy Jr., Jordan Smith Jr. and Tyran Stokes. McCoy, a 6-foot-4 guard from St. John Bosco High in the Los Angeles area, holds a UW offer among 23 that have come his way.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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