Tyrese Haliburton returned to Ames earlier this week with gold medal in hand.
The Cyclones’ sophomore point guard was one of the standouts of USA Basketball u19 team’s run to the title at the u19 FIBA World Cup in Greece last week. The Oshkosh, Wis. native was named to the All-Tournament team after averaging 7.9 points per game while dishing 48 assists to just seven turnovers in seven games.
“Just getting to play with different players and against different players,” Haliburton said of the experience. “In the States, there’s just a lot more athletic dudes. There, they’re more fundamentally sound and things like that. Just playing different players. It was a really cool experience for me.”
Haliburton, who will attend the Nike Basketball Academy in San Diego next month before the Cyclones embark on their foreign trip to Italy on August 10, entered the tournament already high on many NBA Draft experts’ boards. He left with even more people singing his praise.
Don’t expect the added exposure to faze him though.
“I guess that’s cool, too. That stuff doesn’t really matter to me,” Haliburton said. “As long as the people at Iowa State know who I am then I don’t really care.”
By the way, he said the gold medal is currently hanging in his bedroom in Ames, but after he gets a chance to show it to his friends, it will be headed back to Oshkosh for safe keeping.
Check out more of what Haliburton had to say about his trip to Greece in the YouTube video above.
