WKU Basketball: A.J. Slaughter, Polish National Team Open Olympic Qualifying With Win over Angola
Former Western Kentucky guard A.J. Slaugther has been named to the Polish national basketball team as the Poles enter their final 2020…
Former Western Kentucky guard A.J. Slaugther has been named to the Polish national basketball team as the Poles enter their final 2020 Olympics qualifying tournament.
While the news was brought to the attention of The Towel Rack staff by Nation of Blue’s Anthony Wireman, the Polish team made the official announcement back in February.
(It’s worth reading the article — translated, of course — to see how they label positions. Guards are ‘quarterbacks’ and there’s a position called ‘the thrower’ that I’m pretty sure are two guards but I’m not 100% certain?)
A native Kentuckian, Slaugther holds dual U.S./Polish citizenship, gaining the latter in June of 2015. He’s represented the Poles in the 2015 and 2017 EuroBasket tournaments as well as in the 2019 FIBA World Cup, where Poland finished eighth.
Slaugther played four years on the Hill and finished his Hilltopper career with 11.7 points, 2.5 assists and 1.3 steals. His senior year saw him lead the Sun Belt in games played (34), minutes played (1240), three-pointers attempted (220) and points (595).
The Shelbyville native has enjoyed a long overseas career that I could explain, or you could click here for the roundup. It’s not laziness, I just don’t understand the set up of European professional hoops.
Poland is currently competing in the Kaunas Olympic qualifying tournament consisting of six teams split into two three-team groups. The Poles are grouped with Angola (who Poland defeated, 83–64, on Tuesday) and Slovenia.
Lithuania, South Korea and Venezuela make up the other group.
In that win over Angola, Slaugther finished with 16 points, a second-best mark for the Poles and the third-best mark in the game as a whole.
On Wednesday, Slovenia and Angola will square off before a July 1 meeting between the Poles and Slovenes to end the qualifying round. A Wednesday win by Slovenia will automatically put them and Poland into the semifinals, along with the top two finishers in the other group.
The semifinals will be played July 3 with the final taking place on Independence Day. Only the winner of the final will be Tokyo bound.