The Mainland Eagles leave New Zealand for the United States tomorrow.
The team will play 17 games in 16 days. It has 13 warm-up games before competing in the Tarkanian Classic from December 17 to 20.
The Eagles will play in the prep division, which includes 12 preparatory school teams and three other international teams.
The side is coached by former Nuggets player-coach Mark Dickel, who had a sterling college career for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 1996 to 2000.
He led the NCAA in assists in his senior year and went on to forge an impressive professional and international career.
The Mainland Eagles Academy has been established to support the development of players throughout the South Island and, in particular, to help young athletes pursue their dreams of playing college basketball in the United States.
Junior Tall Black Sam Timmins is conspicuous by his absence in what is otherwise a very talented group of junior basketballers.
Richard Rodger was a standout for Kavanagh College, which won the New Zealand small schools title, while Benoit Hayman, Jamie McDonald, Matt Dukes, Josh Petermann and Joe Cook-Green all played for the Otago Boys' High School team which won the national title.
A 10-strong girls team will also head to Las Vegas later this month to play a series of games. Nine of the players are from Otago and one is from Ashburton.
