Thompson, Casto make U19 team

Basketball: Washington State University sophomores DeAngelo Casto (shown above) and Klay Thompson have been selected to the 12-member USA U19 national basketball team.

The 12 players selected from the group of 17 will remain in Colorado Springs, Colo., through Thursday to continue training for the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship, July 2-12 in Auckland, New Zealand. The player selections were made by the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee, chaired by Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim.

A third WSU player, incoming freshman Brock Motum, has been selected to the Australian team.

Casto and Thompson are joined on the U.S. team by Seth Curry (Duke), Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh) , Gordon Hayward (Butler), Shelvin Mack (Butler), Darius Miller (Kentucky), Arnett Moultrie (UTEP), John Shurna (Northwestern), Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas), Howard Thompkins (Georgia) and Terrico White (Mississippi). The team is coached by Jamie Dixon of Pittsburgh.

The U.S. squad’s first game in the 16-nation tournament is July 2 against Iran.

Hoopfest needs more monitors

Basketball: The world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament is looking for a few more court monitors.

The 20th Hoopfest tournament will attract about 26,000 basketball players June 27 and 28. About 3,000 volunteers are needed to run the tournament, including the 600 court monitors to supervise the 6,000-plus teams on 427 courts.

Monitors are responsible for explaining the rules to the teams and supervising the courts during both days of Hoopfest. With the youth divisions, the monitors do referee the contests.

In return, monitors are given Nike shoes, shorts, socks, a shirt and a hat.

Hoopfest operations manager Chad Smith said his team is close to reaching its goal, but want to make sure they are set for Saturday.

Volunteers can sign up to be a monitor at spokanehoopfest.net.

Armstrong on final roster

Tour de France: Lance Armstrong will be on Astana Cycling’s final nine-rider roster for the Tour de France next month.

Armstrong, a seven-time Tour winner, will be joined on the team by three-time Grand Tour winner Alberto Contador, Andreas Kloden, Levi Leipheimer, Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia.

Three other riders from a list of seven will also earn spots on the roster for the Tour, which begins July 4 in Monaco.

Associated Press