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1968 United States men's Olympic basketball team

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1968 United States men's Olympic basketball team
Head coachHank Iba
1968 Summer Olympics
Scoring leaderUnited States Spencer Haywood
16.3
← 1964
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The 1968 United States men's Olympic basketball team represented the United States at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico from October 13 to 25, 1968. Team USA won its seventh consecutive gold medal.

1968 USA men's Olympic games roster

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Name [1] Position Height Weight Age Team/School Home Town
Mike Barrett G 6'2" 155 25 U.S. Armed Forces (West Virginia Tech) Richwood, West Virginia
John Clawson G 6'4" 200 24 U.S. Armed Forces (Michigan) Naperville, Illinois
Don Dee F 6'7" 205 25 St. Mary of the Plains Col. (KS) Kansas City, Missouri
Calvin Fowler G 6'1" 170 27 Goodyear Wingfoots (St. Francis) Akron, Ohio
Spencer Haywood C 6'8" 225 19 Trinidad State Junior College Detroit, Michigan
Bill Hosket F 6'8" 220 21 Ohio State University Dayton, Ohio
Jim King F 6'7" 200 25 Goodyear Wingfoots (Okla. St.) Akron, Ohio
Glynn Saulters G 6'2" 175 23 Northeast Louisiana University Lisbon, Louisiana
Charlie Scott F 6'5" 180 19 University of North Carolina New York, New York
Mike Silliman F 6'6" 225 23 U.S. Armed Forces (Military Acd.) Louisville, Kentucky
Ken Spain C 6'9" 240 22 University of Houston Houston, Texas
Jo Jo White G 6'3" 195 21 University of Kansas St. Louis, Missouri

The roster was led by future NBA All-Stars Haywood (19 years old) and White (21 years old), who led the team in scoring, with an average of 16.3 points and 11.7 points respectively.[2] Haywood was the youngest player to make the USA basketball team at the time.

USA Basketball also selected 6 alternates to the U.S. squad; Tom Black of the Goodyear Wingfoots, George Carter of the US Army, Joe Hamilton of Christian College of the Southwest (TX) Junior College, Dan Issel of the University of Kentucky, Rick Mount of Purdue University and Charlie Paulk of Northeastern Oklahoma College.[3]

Notably absent from the squad or the list of alternates were Pete Maravich, who led the NCAA in scoring during his sophomore season at LSU and would go on to set the NCAA career scoring record of 3,667 points, and reigning NCAA Champion and Player of the Year Lew Alcindor, who chose not to try out for the Olympic team in protest at the treatment of African Americans in the United States, stating that he was "trying to point out to the world the futility of winning the gold medal for this country and then coming back to live under oppression."[4] Some of other NCAA stars, such as Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, Bob Lanier and Calvin Murphy, were also absent. As such, the Americans were severely weakened.

Staff

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Results

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By obtaining an 8–0 record, Team USA would earn its right to play in the gold medal game. The team who won the game would receive the gold medal, and the team who lost the game would receive the silver medal.

Final standings

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "1968 USA Men's Olympic Games Roster Archived January 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine." usabasketball.com. Retrieved on May 6, 2014.
  2. ^ Team Leaders.
  3. ^ "St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search".
  4. ^ "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar details passing on 1968 Olympics in new book". NBC Sports. May 22, 2017. Retrieved August 26, 2024.
  5. ^ "Kenneth Spencer Research Library Blog » Coaching Basketball Gold: The John B. McLendon Collection".
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