Hunter Dickinson and Justin Moore had a grand plan for their summer.

The two teammates from DeMatha Catholic (MD) were going to try out for the USA Basketball U18 team and then hopefully win a gold medal at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in St. Catharines, Canada.

After that, they would join up with their Team Takeover squad and compete for — and hopefully win — the Peach Jam title next month in North Augusta, South Carolina.

"Yeah, that's the plan," the 7-foot-2, 256-pound Dickinson said by phone this week from Colorado Springs, Colorado, where the U18 team is training.

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But after USA Basketball named their 12 finalists on Tuesday afternoon, both Dickinson and the 6-4 Villanova-bound Moore were cut, leaving them to focus on winning Peach Jam. Takeover, which is a perfect 16-0 through EYBL regular-season play, last won the Peach Jam since 2010.

"I think it's really cool because last year we really had to go on a run to make Peach Jam," said Dickinson, a class of 2020 prospect being courted by Notre Dame, Maryland, USC, and Wake Forest, among others. "This year the games are really easy, a lot of blowouts.

"We probably practice harder now that we're undefeated," he added.

DeMatha coach Mike Jones, who has experience coaching USA Basketball youth teams, said he and his staff are proud of what Dickinson and Moore, as well as Earl Timberlake, who was trimmed in the first round of cuts, have accomplished so far.

DeMatha won the prestigious Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) title, the Maryland State Private school championship, and the Alhambra crown during the regular season. 

"[Dickinson and Moore] have the opportunity to make history, to go undefeated all the way through and win Peach Jam," Jones said. "Obviously, I'm rooting for them to do that."

He added: "This is the time where it's kind of cool for us here at DeMatha because we can kind of sit back and be fans. We don't have to be in the trenches with them right now. We can sit back and watch them get all the accolades that they've worked hard so far."

Jones had hoped those accolades would include making the USA Basketball final roster, but Kansas coach Bill Self and his staff had to make some hard cuts. Armando Bacot, the 6-10 forward from Trinity Episcopal (VA) who is being pursued by Duke and North Carolina, among others, and who runs with Dickinson and Moore on Takeover, did make the final team.

"It was tough getting it to 12," Self said. "It was tough getting it from 33 to 18, but even with the 18 we've had a couple of extra days with and know how committed they all are to trying to make the team, knowing that different guys look better on different days and in different situations, it was tough getting to 12 because there are a lot of interchangeable parts."

Among the final 12, eight have EYBL ties: Bacot; Cole Anthony (Archbishop Molloy HS/Briarwood, NY); Ayo Dosunmu (Morgan Park HS/Chicago); Kamaka Hepa (Jefferson HS/Barrow, AK); Trayce Jackson-Davis (Center Grove HS/Greenwood, IN); Tyrese Maxey (South Garland HS/Dallas); and Mark Watts Jr. (Old Redford Academy/Detroit); and Coby White (Greenfield HS/Goldsboro, NC).

"I think the committee made some good selections, and I'm excited about working with this group," Self said. "One of the things I think they bring to the table is versatility. They're very interchangeable. I can see us playing four little guards around a big. I could see us playing two bigs, two little guards and a three. I think this team has some different things they'll be able to do, depending on how we stack up against our opponents. The other thing, and this goes for all 18 guys, the appearance is that they really like each other. The appearance is that they'll be a fun group to spend two weeks with, which obviously is very important to teams being successful, of guys understanding that some days it might not be their day, it might be somebody else's day."

Anthony, Bacot, Jackson-Davis, Maxey, and Watts were members of the 2018 USA Basketball Junior National Select Team that took part in the NCAA Next Generation Sunday at the 2018 NCAA Men's Final Four.

The USA Men's U18 national team, in the hunt for a fifth-straight gold medal, will compete in Group A and open preliminary round play against Dominican Republic on June 10 (6 PM EDT), followed by a June 11 (8:15 PM EDT) clash against Panama and tip-off against Puerto Rico on June 12 (6 PM EDT).

As for Dickinson and Moore, they will now have more than a month to focus on their AAU responsibilities and on getting Takeover its first Peach Jam title in eight years.

"I think it just speaks to how good DMV talent is that we can have two people from the same AAU team and same high school team both be USA finalists," Dickinson said.

Adam Zagoria is a basketball insider who runs ZAGSBLOG.com and contributes to The New York Times. Follow Adam on Twitter.