New Haven’s Tremont Waters wowing crowds, starring as Puerto Rico advances in FIBA World Cup
New Haven’s Tremont Waters is only 25, but he’s already accomplished just about everything a young basketball player could dream of.
The former Notre Dame-West Haven star has played in the NCAA Tournament, suited up for the Boston Celtics in the NBA, played alongside No. 1 overall draft pick Victor Wembanyama in France, and this month, his audacious game has brought him to the FIBA Basketball World Cup.
Waters, who now plays professionally in Puerto Rico and whose mother is of Puerto Rican descent, has been starring for the Puerto Rican national team at the event, which began Aug. 25 in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia. The 5-11 guard is averaging a team-leading 16.7 points and 8.7 assists through three games, and has helped Puerto Rico advance to the tournament’s second round.
Waters scored 19 points and dished out 11 assists in a 101-96 overtime win over an upstart South Sudan team on Aug. 26, racked up nine points and nine assists in a 94-77 loss to gold medal-contender Serbia on Aug. 28, and then went off for 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting and six assists in a 107-89 win over China, which clinched Puerto Rico a spot in the second round.
The tournament features two rounds of group play, so Puerto Rico now moves into a group with Italy, Serbia and the Dominican Republic, beginning Friday. The top two teams in the group will advance to the knockout stage, which begins Sept. 5, but records from the first stage of group play will carry over, so Puerto Rico (2-1) will likely have to win both of its second-round games to advance.
The Puerto Ricans will face Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl Anthony-Towns and the Dominican Republic on Friday (8 a.m. ET, ESPN+) before taking on Italy on Sunday (4 a.m. ET, ESPN+).
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone who watched him at Notre Dame-West Haven or in the Greater Hartford Pro-Am, but Waters has brought his skillful, outlandish brand of basketball to the World Cup. He wowed the basketball-loving crowd in the Philippines when he pulled off a nutmeg move, splitting two Chinese defenders by dribbling through the legs of one of them before stopping on a dime and dishing out a perfect bounce-pass to teammate Ismael Romero for the slam.
The move made highlight reels everywhere, with SLAM Magazine’s Twitter account calling him “crazy” for pulling it off in a game.
If Waters and Puerto Rico find a way to advance to the knockout round, they’ll guarantee their highest finish at the World Cup since 2002 (7th). Puerto Rico has never medaled at the event, though it has six top-10 finishes, including fourth in 1990.
And if it can muster a high enough finish at this event, Puerto Rico will have a shot at an Olympic berth for the first time since 2004. If that happens, you can cross off another item on Waters’ basketball bucket list.
