The USA Basketball U19 team coached by Colorado men's basketball head coach Tad Boyle and featuring incoming Buffs freshman Cody Williams fell to Turkey, 84-70, Sunday in the bronze medal game of the FIBA U19 Men's World Cup in Hungary.

The Americans finished the tournament 5-2, having lost to France, 89-86, Saturday in the semifinals.

In seven games in the tournament, Williams, a five-star recruit who's widely projected as a top-10 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, averaged 7.9 points and 3.6 rebounds in 16.4 minutes per game while shooting 45% from the field (18 of 40) and 25% from 3-point range (two of eight). In that time, he also had eight assists, six turnovers, seven steals and four blocked shots.

He had a pair of uneven performances in the U.S.' two losses to end the tournament. Against France, he started, but played just 10 minutes, finishing with no points on 0-of-2 shooting, an assist, a rebound and a turnover. He improved in the loss to Turkey, with 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting and a 6-for-6 showing from the free-throw line, four rebounds, two assists, two turnovers, two steals and a block in 24 minutes off the bench.

Until the semifinals, the U.S. was having its way against the field. In pool play, the Americans defeated Madagascar and Lebanon by a combined 119 points while edging Slovenia, 77-72. They went on to defeat China in the round of 16, 92-69, before dispatching Japan in the quarterfinals, 105-61, a game in which Williams put together his best offensive performance of the event, scoring 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting with three rebounds, an assist, two turnovers and a steal.

"This is a group of tremendous young men who have great futures ahead of them,” Boyle said in a statement released by USA Basketball. “It’s my job as a coach to get buy-in, and I just couldn’t get buy-in at the defensive end of the floor. We had a short period of time to gel offensively which is why you have to rely on your defense and taking care of the ball. Tonight, we wanted to control the offensive glass and we didn’t, and combine that with 21 turnovers and number of possessions heavily favoring Turkey, we just weren’t good enough.”

Boyle had more success with USA Basketball last summer, when he coached the USA U18 team to a gold medal at the FIBA U18 Americas Championship.

This year's U.S. roster was critiqued as lacking talent compared to previous squads that were sent to the U19 World Cup. ESPN NBA Draft analyst Jonathan Givony described this year's World Cup as a "big wakeup call for USA Basketball. Will have to recruit and prepare better. Talent gap has been erased."

There's merit to the argument. Of the 12 players on the U.S. roster, six were ranked outside the top 40 of their respective classes and of the five top-10 prospects on the team, only Williams was older than the 2024 class.