Tyrese Maxey injury will likely sideline him for rest of FIBA U18 tournament

2019 Kentucky basketball commit Tyrese Maxey suffered an ankle injury in a Team USA pool play game at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship on Tuesday, and it now looks as though he may be out for the rest of the tournament.

Maxey has had a strong showing in his FIBA games, averaging 13 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals in under 24 minutes per game going into Puerto Rico game on Tuesday where he was injured.

“I thought Tyrese was really good until he got nicked up,” Team USA coach Bill Self told Daniele Franceschi on Thursday. He went onto say that Maxey is doubtful for the rest of the tournament.

Last fall, many recruiting outlets had Maxey listed as the No. 2 point guard in the country in the 2019 class, behind fellow Kentucky commit Ashton Hagans. A lot has changed since then.

Hagans is almost certain to reclassify and will join the Kentucky Wildcats in 2018. Maxey has also improved as a scorer and is now looked at as a combo guard, and he insists he is capable of playing alongside anyone in the back court.

Maxey has impressed everyone at Team USA camp and has been a leader of this talented U18 team, so you have to think he is bummed to be missing the remainder of the tournament.

Team USA will take the floor today against Argentina, who the U18 team has not faced since 2006. Argentina’s only loss during pool play was to Canada, who appears to be the USA’s biggest competition at the tournament.

You can watch Team USA live at Youtube.com/FIBA. Tip off is at 2 p.m., assuming I have a basic understanding of Canadian time zones.