CORPUS CHRISTI (FIBA Basketball World Cup) Young Egyptian joining US colleges to develop their basketball careers became a norm in the past few years.

After Anas Osama Mahmoud signed a national letter of intent to join the University of Louisville in April, Ehab Amin became the latest Egyptian willing to step into the College rankings.

Last week, Amin signed a national a letter of intent to play for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Amin and Mahmoud have represented Egypt on the world stage at youth level, and both are potential picks to wear the country's colours in the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup which will be held in Spain later this summer.

Egypt's head coach coach Amr Aboul Kheir has never hidden his desire of calling up some US based Egyptians for the team's preparations ahead of Spain 2014, and Amin, a 1.89m point-guard has realistic chances of earning a place in the preliminary squad.

Amin is one of the top prospects in the North African country and his international caps at youth level speak for themselves.

The 18-year-old Amin led Egypt in scoring at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship held in Lithuania with 15.7 points, and paced his country to the gold medal at the 2011 FIBA Africa U16 Championship for Men held in his native Alexandria, Egypt.

And Texas A&M-Corpus Christi head coach Willis Wilson is adamant that Amin is a top recruit.

"His international experience is something that should ease his transition into college basketball," Wilson said.

"He can run the point and he is also a pretty strong shooter. He will give us some additional depth at the guard position this year, and down the line we will look to him to take over at the point," the coach said of Amin.

Later this summer, Egypt will return to the World Cup for the first time since 1994 and will play their Group phase in Granada, along with hosts Spain, Serbia, Brazil, France and Iran.

Egypt will open their World Cup campaign on 30 August against Serbia, and will take on hosts Spain on Day 2.

FIBA