John Thompson III '88 Named to U.S. FIBA Basketball World Cup Coaching Staff

John Thompson III '88, a Princeton basketball alumnus who spent the first four seasons of his 17-season head coaching career leading Princeton, has been named to Team USA's coaching staff as it prepares to qualify for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

The 32-team tournament will be held in China from Aug. 31 through Sept. 15, 2019. Thompson and fellow assistant Mo McHone will assist head coach Jeff Van Gundy for the Americas zone qualification games in November 2017 and February 2018. The top seven teams from the Americas zone, once the qualification process wraps up in February 2019, will advance to the World Cup.

The games for which Thompson will assist are set for Nov. 23 against Puerto Rico, Nov. 26 against Mexico in Greensboro, N.C., Feb. 23 against Cuba and Feb. 28 against Puerto Rico. Sites for the games other than the Mexico game are to be determined.

"John Thompson III is coming off an incredibly long and successful tenure at Georgetown that included a run to the Final Four in 2007," Van Gundy told USA Basketball. "I have long admired how his teams executed with such precision and force."

Thompson began his coaching career as an assistant to Pete Carril and then to Bill Carmody from 1995-2000, a span that included the final three seasons of current Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson's playing career and a run that saw Princeton win three Ivy League titles and play in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT every season. Once Thompson took over as head coach in 2000, Princeton went on to win two more Ivy titles in Thompson's four seasons, playing in the NCAAs twice and the NIT once.

"It is a privilege to be selected as an assistant with the USA Basketball Men's World Cup Qualifying Team," Thompson told USA Basketball. "I am honored to be part of the great tradition that USA Basketball has built, and I look forward to supporting coach Van Gundy and our players in any way possible."

Thompson graduated third on Princeton's career assist list, a stat that has been kept since the 1974-75 season, and now stands fifth with 347. He is one of seven Princeton players, since the stat began being kept, to record two or more 100-assist seasons, and was the second to do so. That group has added five more members since Thompson's graduation. Thompson was also the first Tiger with two recorded 10-assist games in his career, a group that now includes four players.

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