A pair of Arizona Wildcats are competing in school colors this summer. But this time, the colors represent the USA, not just the UA.
Bobby Dalbec and Allonzo Trier will both be expected to contribute heavily to their respective teams at Arizona this upcoming school year.
For now, the star athletes are spending the next few weeks leading Team USA on the diamond and on the court.
Dalbec, a rising junior who is both a position player and a pitcher, is off to a mixed start for USA Baseball’s Collegiate National team. The U.S. team is playing most of its games at the National Training Complex in Cary, N.C.
After having started seven of the team’s first eight games, the Colorado native was batting just .190 at the plate. However, two of Dalbec’s four hits were big flies.
In fact, Dalbec is the only player on the USA team to have hit a home run thus far.
For those who have followed Dalbec’s career at Arizona, that shouldn’t be too surprising. As a sophomore, he accounted for nearly half of the Wildcats’ 31 team homers with 15.
Dalbec also drove in 53 RBIs this past year, the team’s best, placing him second in the Pac-12 Conference.
Now that Dalbec is facing premier amateur competition — seven of the USA’s first ten games were against Chinese Taipei — and still delivering power, it can only be a sign of good things to come as he embarks on his junior season.
Something to look out for as USA enters the second half of its summer schedule is if Dalbec also gets some work on the mound. Down the stretch of Arizona’s 2014-15 campaign, he turned into one of the Wildcats’ most reliable pitchers.
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Allonzo Trier is competing for the USA Men’s U19 World Championship Team at the FIBA U19 World Championship. The team is led by none other than Arizona men’s basketball coach Sean Miller.
Trier, an incoming freshman who was a McDonald’s All-American in high school, scored 17 points in the U.S. 103-81 win over Croatia on Sunday.
“I came in right away and was really aggressive and played like myself,” Trier told usab.com. “I attacked the basket, made some 3s to help open the floor up and just made plays for my teammates and tried to ignite us in the press.”
With the win, Trier and the U.S. U19 team moved to 2-0 in preliminary group round, all but assuring a spot in the round of 16. The U.S. opened up the tournament with a dominating win over Iran.
By competing for the United States, Trier not only has a chance to win a medal for his country but can also earn valuable knowledge from his future college head coach. Trier will get to spend practically the entire summer learning from Miller.
If the U.S. wins the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship, it won’t be the first time an incoming Wildcat played a contributing role.
Two years ago, Aaron Gordon was named the MVP of the U.S. U19 after the Americans won the gold medal.
Trier and Miller would surely love to duplicate Gordon’s success.
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