Assembling some of college basketball's most promising talents, U.S. Air Force mentor Reggie Minton led the U.S. to a 7-0 record and the World University Games gold medal in 1993.

The USA opened the 22-team tournament with a 122-55 thrashing of Gabon. The USA's only problem versus Gabon was a uniform mix-up which delayed the start of the game for approximately an hour and forced the U.S. team to play the first half wearing blue tee-shirts with numbers in red tape on their backs. The mix-up had little effect on the U.S. as the Americans stormed to a 122-55 victory as Donald Williams scored 18 points. Two days later, the USA recorded a 107-59 pounding of Estonia. Michael Finley led the U.S. offensive charge with 17 points.

The USA cruised through the medal qualifying round posting victories over Ireland, 93-64, Italy 103-73, and Croatia, 106-65. The U.S. crew used a balanced scoring attack that saw every player score in each of the three games. Richard Scott checked in as the USA's leading scorer with 21 versus Ireland, while Eric Piatkowski's 19 points took top honors against Italy, and Carlos Rogers tallied 20 points versus Croatia.

Meeting China in the semifinals, just as had been the case in five of the USA's first six games, the Americans opened an early lead and cruised to the 129-91 victory in impressive fashion. The USA again received a balanced scoring effort as 11 of the 12 USA players scored, including six in double figures. Sharone Wright led the U.S. with 17 points, while Kentucky's star point guard Travis Ford, who missed the prior game because of a knee injury, added 16 points. The win bolstered the American's record to 6-0 and secured a position in the next day's gold medal tilt versus Canada.

The USA's perfect record and aspirations for a gold medal nearly came to an end as an inspired Canadian team forced the Americans to mount a second-half comeback before the U.S. earned a 95-90 win.

Controlling the entire first half, Canada led by 17 points, 41-24, with 3:48 to go in the first half, however, the U.S. managed to cut the Canadian's lead to 12, 52-40, by halftime.

Trailing 59-50 with 16:43 to play, the U.S., behind five points from captain Damon Stoudamire, went on a 16-0 scoring run to regain the lead, 66-59 with 12:50 to play. The U.S. went on to lead by as many as 10 points, but Canada rallied to cut the lead to one 87-86 with 2:48 to play. However, an Ed O'Bannon basket was followed by a jumper from Finley and the U.S. was back in front by five, 91-86. Canada cut the lead to three, 91-88 with 1:48 to play, but the USA's Stoudamire countered with a basket with 1:21 left to push the U.S. lead back to five and the USA managed to hold off the Canadians from there for the 95-90 victory and the gold medal.