Colonel junior guard/forward Anatoly Bose will have an opportunity to showcase himself on an international stage, as the Sydney, Australia native received an invitation to participate in a five-day camp with the Australian Men’s National Basketball Team in June.Australian Men’s National Basketball Team head coach Brett Brown, also assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA, confirmed the invitation. The Australian Men’s National Team, known as the Boomers in Australia, will use a series of camps in Australia in June and July to help them determine their final roster for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Istanbul, Turkey beginning Aug. 28.
“Toly really became a very reliable offensive player for us last year, and he really improved defensively for us as well,” Nicholls head coach J.P. Piper said. “I think this season he really turned the corner. I think this will be a critical summer for Toly. He needs to continue to improve, work harder and refine his skills. It shows all the work he’s done with our coaches and his teammates over the past few years has really paid off. I’d like to think this is a sign that our program is moving in the right direction. To have a player like this, obviously a majority of the credit goes to Toly, but our coaches and teammates have put a lot of time and energy into pushing him and challenging him. All those things together with his hard work and talent have really helped him reach this level.”
Bose put himself on Brown’s radar after a breakthrough junior season in 2009-10. The Sydney swingman finished the regular season ranked 16th in the nation with a 21.1 point/game scoring average. After the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament, Bose’s scoring average ranked 17th in Division I.
Bose proved to be one of the most consistent scoring threats in the country this season, scoring 20 or more points in 20 of his 30 games. Bose rattled off seven consecutive 20-point games from Dec. 3, 2009 through Jan. 13, 2010 and recorded a pair of 40-point performances.
Bose scored a career-high 46 points in a double overtime game at Northwestern State on Jan. 23 and set a career-high for a non-overtime contest with 40 points against No. 1 seed Sam Houston State in the first round of the 2010 Southland Conference Tournament on March 10.
Bose led the Colonels, owners of the eighth and final seed at the SLC, to a near upset of the heavily favored Bearkats. His 40 points against the eventual tournament champion and NCAA Tournament qualifiers finished seven points shy of tying the single game SLC record.
“I like that he can score,” Brown said. “Coach Piper has done a good job putting him in a place where he can succeed. We’ll see if he can guard those big athletic players on the wing. We’ll see if he can create his own shots and shoot off the screen. But, he’s the kind of versatile scorer that you would like to have at your disposal. You can’t help but be excited with the progress he’s made.”
“This will be a fairly intense experience, and it will expose him to a higher level of basketball than what he sees here at practice,” Piper said. “Next fall, he will be the best player. When he goes to this camp this summer, he will probably be towards the bottom end of that in terms of talent and experience. I think it’s a huge advantage for him to be able to work against higher-level players. It’s working through this challenge to meet this higher level of play is just going to make him that much better.”
Bose will head home to Australia for a five-day introductory camp beginning June 20. The June camp is designed to help identify younger up-and-coming players, Brown said. Should Bose impress the coaching staff in June, he will have a chance to work with some of the Boomers’ more experienced international players at a second camp in July before Brown and his staff make the final selections for the 2010 FIBA World Championships.
Bose already brings some international experience to the table. In 2006, Bose was a member of the All-Australian Under-19 Team, and as a prep player, Bose was invited to the Nike All-Asia Camps where he was the slam-dunk contest winner.
