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And with good reason.

The couple from Scotch Plains, N.J. have not one, but two sons representing their country this summer with USA Basketball.

Sterling Gibbs, a rising junior point guard at Seton Hall Prep in West Orange, N.J., is competing with the under-16 team in the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Mendoza, Argentina.

And on Thursday, Ashton Gibbs, a rising sophomore point guard at Pittsburgh, was chosen to play for the under-19 squad in the upcoming U19 Championship in Auckland, New Zealand.

"It's real exciting," Sterling said by phone Thursday from Argentina. "I was able to talk to my mom, my brother and my dad.

"It really kicked in when my mom told me how proud she was. That's when I started to choke up a little bit."

Brothers competing for USA Basketball is not unprecedented.

Last summer, twins David and Travis Wear of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif., played together on the U.S. U18 team that traveled to Argentina. The twins will be freshman next season at North Carolina.

Seth Curry is currently on the U19 team, and his older brother, Stephen, a projected lottery pick, won a world championship in 2007 with the U19 team.

Yet Ashton and Sterling are competing for two different teams at the same time.

"It's very exciting," Temple Gibbs, the boys' father, said by phone. "It's just something that you never really expected. I'm just happy for the boys."

The U16 team improved to 2-0 on Thursday with a 102-76 victory over Venezuela in which Sterling scored 13 points off the bench.

"The whole atmosphere is a whole lot different," Sterling said.

"As soon as we walked into the gym little kids were asking us for our autographs. Feeling like a pro player, that feels good."

Sterling said the players had visited the nearest McDonald's several times "because we weren't exactly used to the food."

As far as his college plans, Sterling has garnered interest from Villanova, Rutgers, Seton Hall, St. John's, Maryland, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh and Indiana and currently lists Villanova as his leader.

"I would say right now the favorite would be Villanova," Gibbs said.

"I just like the way that they play and how their guards play. They're just an open offense. There's not real set plays. They just like to have players who could just make plays."

As for this summer's plans, Temple and Jaqui won't make it down to Argentina to see Sterling, but they could trek to New Zealand next month to watch Ashton play.

"We would probably go to New Zealand," Temple said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

Ashton wasn't even on the original invite list for the U19 tryouts, but he and incoming Pittsburgh freshman big man Dante Taylor of Greenburgh, N.Y., were asked to try out for the team after several other players withdrew. Taylor didn't make the final cut for the team, which is led by Pitt coach Jamie Dixon.

"Coach Dixon just gave me a call and told me that they added me and we went from there," Ashton said by phone from Colorado Springs, Colo., where the trials were taking place.

The U19 trials also included several other players with ties to the metropolitan area, including West Virginia point guard Darryl "Truck" Bryant, who played at St. Raymond's High in The Bronx, and Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor of St. Anthony in Jersey City.

Tyshawn Taylor made the team, but Bryant did not, leaving Gibbs as the leading candidate to play point guard. He and fellow New Jersey native Travon Woodall, who played alongside Taylor at St. Anthony, will compete for the starting point guard job next year at Pitt.

"We're a pretty good shooting team from the perimeter and we have some big guys who can shoot the ball, so I think that's going to be a strength," Dixon said of the U19 team. "I'm concerned that we don't really have experienced point guards, but I think we've got some wings that can make some plays.

Several other local players will also be at the World Championship in New Zealand, including Rutgers guard Mike Rosario and Fordham guard Jio Fontan, both of whom played at St. Anthony and are on the Puerto Rico U19 team.

Ashton will have to catch up to his little brother, though. Sterling is already a globetrotter, while Ashton will be making his first trip out of the country.

"It was just a great honor for both of us," Ashton said.