University at Buffalo head men's basketball coach Reggie Witherspoon and his wife, Dawn,

headed to the baggage claim area at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport late last week

when they were stopped by a basketball fan.

He asked if the coach had attended the Gus Macker 3-on-3 tournament downtown the previous

weekend. Witherspoon wasn't there (NCAA rules prohibited it anyway), which led the fan to tell

Witherspoon he missed out on some great basketball.

"There was a lot of talent out there," the fan said.

Dawn Witherspoon turned to Reggie and whispered, "You're not going to tell him, are you?"

What Reggie couldn't bring himself to tell the fan was he had a good reason for missing the

Macker. Unbeknownst to the fan, Witherspoon spent the past month in San Antonio, Texas,

serving as an assistant coach on the gold medal-winning United States Under-18 National Team

at the FIBA Americas Championships.

Witherspoon joined coaches Jeff Capel of Oklahoma and Paul Hewitt of Georgia Tech in

guiding Team USA to a 5-0 record in the tournament, which included National teams from Brazil,

Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Capel was head

coach of the American team, which beat Brazil in the gold medal game last Wednesday.

"It was a great experience," said Witherspoon, who showed off his gold medal to kids

attending the UB basketball camp last Friday. "USA Basketball is such a first-class

organization. To be invited to represent the United States and Western New York was special."

Part of the fun was working with some of the finest young talent in the country. Washington

sophomore point guard Abdul Gaddy was the only player with college experience. Duke-bound

point guard Kyrie Irving was among six incoming college freshmen this winter. Five were high

school seniors headed by combo guard Trevor Cooney, who has verbally committed to Syracuse,

and Austin Rivers, the son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and the top shooting guard in

the Class of 2011.

Highly regarded players like Michigan State-bound guard Keith Appling and forward James

Bell, who is headed Villanova, were in the tryouts but didn't make the cut.

With all due respect to the Gus Macker, the basketball played on the streets of Buffalo two

weekends ago couldn't match what Witherspoon witnessed in Texas. About 20 NBA teams were

there, another indication of the talent level at the tournament.

You can understand if Witherspoon fantasized a time or two about having some of that talent

at UB. Alas, most of them have already committed to a school or narrowed down their list of

choices. But it's a nice thought anyway.

"It would be really nice to have just one of those guys playing at Alumni Arena,"

Witherspoon said.

One of the biggest benefits for Witherspoon was working with some of the sport's elite

coaches. Besides Capel and Hewitt, there was Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, who is chairman of the

USA Men's Junior National Team Committee, which included North Carolina's Roy Williams,

Washington's Lorenzo Romar and Illinois' Bruce Weber along with former Duke star Jay Williams.

Butler's Brad Stevens was a court coach during the tryouts as Witherspoon was in 2006.

"The exchange of ideas and the collection of people you can call on now going forward was

great," said Witherspoon, who also spent a lot of time with Doc Rivers as he contemplated a

return to the Celtics bench. "There was a lot good and interesting conversation going on. It

was a lot of fun to be a part of it."