The Kentucky Wildcats and Big Blue Nation (BBN) are coming to Toronto, Canada to represent the United States of America at the 2023 GLOBL JAM.
Following their second straight early exit from the NCAA March Madness tournament, head coach John Calipari hinted and assistant coach Chin Coleman confirmed, that the Wildcats will travel to Canada for the second annual FIBA sanctioned, under-23 international event hosted by Canada Basketball.
Running from July 7-16, 2023 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in downtown Toronto, the ten-day event will feature U-23 select teams from Canada, Germany and Africa.
Kentucky will kick off the men’s side of the GLOBL JAM FIVES tournament against Germany on July 12th, will face Canada on July 13th and will close out the round-robin portion of the schedule on July 15th in a tilt versus the BAL Select U23 Team.
Expected to lose all six senior players, including Oscar Tshiebwe the 2021-22 NCAA player of the yea, Kentucky has announced a highly-touted and explosive recruiting class.
In a major coupe, Calipari scooped-up commitments from three consensus five-star recruits to secure his seventh No. 1 recruiting class during his fifteen-year coaching tenure in Lexington.
Six-foot-three combo guard DJ Wagner (Camden, NJ), Overtime Elite six-foot-one point guard Rob Dillingham (Charlotte, NC) and seven-foot center Aaron Bradshaw (Camden, NJ) will form a new nucleus for Big Blue Nation.
Wagner is the son of Dajuan Wagner Sr., a former Louisville Cardinals star point guard and sixth overall pick of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2002 NBA Draft.
Both Wagner and Dillingham have international experience, playing for the Team USA at the 2022 FIBA U17 World cup and 2021 FIBA U16 Americas Championship respectively.
The Baylor Bears featuring projected 2023 NBA first-round pick Keyonte George represented the United States and took home the bronze medal, falling 77-73 to Brazil during the inaugural GLOBL JAM tournament.
Kentucky last visited Canada in August 2010 and thumped 2023 U Sports national champions Carleton Ravens by 62 points during the 2022 Big Blue Bahamas tour.
