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Sports

Gibbs Heads to China for World University Games

The Scotch Plains native plays alongside top college athletes representing Team USA.

Sometime on Monday, Ashton Gibbs and 11 other players and three coaches will board a plane to China.

Consider it the next evolutionary step in the basketball life of the All-Big-East guard and Scotch Plains native.

Less than two months removed from testing the NBA waters following his junior year at the University of Pittsburgh, Gibbs has been selected to the USA men’s team that will participate in the World University Games. The games launch with an exhibition Aug. 11 in Huizhou, China. Actual competition starts Aug. 13 in Shenzhen.

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“This is very exciting for our family,” said Temple Gibbs, father of Ashton and Sterling – a rising freshman at the University of Texas – as well as up-and-coming 14-year-old Temple Jr. “It’s definitely one of the highlights of his career, playing for his country and getting to be around some of the best players and coaches in the country…. It’s just Ashton continuing to strive to be the best he can be.”

Gibbs has already earned several high-status honors, including All-Big-East First Team, a Wooden Award nomination and Associated Press All America Honorable Mention. His classroom achievements are equally impressive. Three times he has been a Big East Academic selection, and he is a candidate for Academic All-America his senior year.

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The World University Games’ USA roster was the result of tryouts among 22 players. Twelve were ultimately selected. The team is guard-rich, and features only three forwards and a pair of center/forwards among its 12-man roster. Gibbs will join Big East rival Scoop Jardine of Syracuse on the squad. Gibbs, a 6-foot, 2-inch graduate of Seton Hall Prep who led Pitt in scoring as a junior with 16.8 points per game and made nearly 50 percent of his 208 three-point attempts, is no stranger to the World Games. Two years ago in New Zealand Gibbs helped the USA Men’s U19 Team snap an 18-year championship drought.

“I’m excited,” Gibbs said in a phone interview from Colorado Springs, where the team worked out over the weekend at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. “It’s going to be a good experience. It will mostly be about basketball, but I’m looking forward to seeing a different atmosphere in another country. We’ll have a chance to walk around the city and look around.”

Gibbs was the third-leading scorer (9.8 points) and was second in assists on that U19 team that went 9-0 and beat Greece in the championship game. Gibbs scored 13 points in that contest, including knocking down a big 3-pointer down the stretch when Greece was making a late run.

Nor is Ashton the only Gibbs to have participated in an international event. Last summer, Sterling led the USA Team at the Youth Olympic Games in China, averaging 11.6 points at the 3-on-3 tournament.

At the World University Games this month, the USA joins South Korea, Finland, Hungary, Mexico and Israel in Pool D, one of four six-team pods. The top two teams in each of the groups advance to the medal quarterfinals on Aug. 20. The finals are slated for Aug. 22. The USA has medaled in all 19 World University Games since they began in 1965. That includes 13 golds, though the USA came up a point short to Russia in the 2009 championship and settled for its third silver.

Gibbs said he likes the makeup of the team, noting that the roster contains plenty of balance and includes big men who are big and athletic. He added that he looks forward to joining forces with Jardine, a 2011 Big East Honorable Mention.

“We played at some high school superstar camps,” Gibbs said. “We know each other’s games, so that will help that we can bring that to the table. We have a great relationship. It’s been good going up against him in practice every day.”

Gibbs will return for his senior year at Pitt after taking a shot at the NBA in April, when he announced for the draft and attended a tryout camp. Though he removed himself from the draft, he said the experience was invaluable in terms of identifying the areas he most needs to concentrate on and improve.

“I’m heading back to college with a winning attitude,” he said. “But I’m more confident, definitely [about getting to the NBA], knowing what I need to work on to get to that level.”

Temple said he agreed. “It’s something you basically get to do once every four years as a college player if you have any aspirations,” he said. “To test the waters and see what you need to do to get to that level. He tested good, not great, but he learned what it was all about.”

Temple said he or his wife might try to make it over to Shenzhen to watch their son play.

“We’ll have to see what happens,” he said. “We’ve still got the other boy [Temple Jr.]. Honestly, he may be as good or better than the other two.”

Correction: This article was amended July 8, 2011, to reflect the following correction: 

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Sterling Gibbs will attend the University of Maryland. Earlier this year, Gibbs did commit to play for Maryland. But following the retirement of the team's head coach, the school released Gibbs from his letter-of-intent, and he enrolled at the University of Texas. 

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