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What are former Badgers Micah Potter and Nigel Hayes-Davis doing with Team USA basketball?
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- What are former Badgers Micah Potter and Nigel Hayes-Davis doing with Team USA basketball?
If you happened to catch Wednesday's game between the USA and Canada, an Olympic exhibition as the teams prepare themselves for the Paris Olympics, you saw Micah Potter check into the game for LeBron James, take a pass from Jrue Holiday and hit a late corner three-pointer.
Yes, that Micah Potter, who averaged 11.6 points per game over two seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers from 2019 to 2021.
And guess what? Another former Badgers great, Nigel Hayes-Davis, is also hanging out with Team USA, with both players briefly seeing the floor in the 86-72 win over Canada . Hayes-Davis and Potter even got to meet Vice President Kamala Harris.
The two are part of the 2024 USA Select Team , a group of practice players who are currently or formerly high-level college basketball players. They practice against Team USA as part of the preparation, and they seldom get into exhibition games, but Potter wound up getting some minutes.
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The highest profile of these players is Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 recruit in the nation who's headed to Duke University next year and has held his own against some of the world's biggest stars. Flagg had nice things to say about yet another member of the select team , Wisconsin native Brandin Podziemski, who wrapped up his first year in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors by making the league's all-rookie team.
Potter has played in 26 NBA games over the past three seasons, including 16 last year with the Utah Jazz while playing on a two-way contract.
Hayes-Davis, who has seen action in nine career NBA games and was a standout for Wisconsin from 2013 to 2017, has been playing overseas, and he just signed a contract extension to remain with Fenerbahçe Beko in Turkey, where he's been since 2022. He was named MVP of the Turkey super league finals in 2024 and scored a EuroLeague-record 50 points in one game earlier this season.
Team USA will face Australia (July 15) and Serbia (July 17) in Abu Dhabi, and South Sudan (July 20) and Germany (July 22) in London in additional Olympic tuneups. Olympic play begins against Serbia on July 28.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why are Micah Potter and Nigel Hayes-Davis suiting up with Team USA?
