Villanova guard heads home after final round of cuts from USA Basketball U19

Ryan Arcidiacono was cut last summer when he tried out for a USA Basketball team, but this summer, coming off of a successful year of college basketball, the 'Cats point guard hoped for a better result. After surviving the cutdown to a roster of 16 players, Arcidiacono was not able to push for inclusion in the top-12 players who will represent the United States at the Under-19 World Championships in Prague this summer.

The team, coached by Florida's Billy Donovan, was selected by a committee of Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, Davidson’s Bob McKillop, Washington’s Lorenzo Romar, Purdue’s Matt Painter, and Villanova alumnus Curtis Sumpter.

"Getting down to 12 is the real hard part because in a lot of respects we easy could have kept 14-15," Donovan said in a statement. "There were some tough decisions, difficult decisions, but I think we feel overall that we have selected an athletic and versatile team. Our style of play will be an aggressive, up-tempo, running, pressing style."

As a freshman at Villanova, Arcidiacono averaged 11.9 points and 3.5 assists and was a unanimous addition to the Big East All-Rookie team.

Rising sophomore Mislav Brzoja will play in the U19 World Championship for Croatia this summer, and has been a regular selection for Croatia's youth teams in the past. Meanwhile, Dylan Ennis, who played for the Jamaican senior National Team last year is sitting out Summer 2013, according to Jay Wright, to focus on school.

On the bright side at least I can get chipotle everyday...

— Ryan Arcidiacono (@RyArch15) June 18, 2013

(h/t Fact for the tweet