OGDEN — Six minutes of playing time during five games isn’t a lot, but for Juan Pablo Silveira that amount of time was enough to give him a taste of international basketball and solidify his intention to play professionally in either Europe or his native Uruguay.

    Especially since he was on the court during the entire five-minute overtime period in a game that provided Silveira’s home country with its first-ever basketball medal in the Pan American Games.

    The Weber State junior was one of only a few nonprofessional players on Uruguay’s national team that won the bronze medal during the Pan American Games in Rio De Janeiro during July.

    “It was a great experience, but it was a humbling experience because after winning the Big Sky championship I thought I was pretty good,” said Silveira, who was named to the All-Big Sky second team last season. “I went and played with professionals, with men, and I realized how hard it is to play international basketball and professional basketball.”

    Silveira and the rest of the defending Big Sky Conference champion Wildcats will be on display Wednesday night during the annual Purple and White game at 7 p.m. at the Dee Events Center. Silveira is one of three returning starters and will be looked at as a team leader along with the other returners.

    Because he was one of the youngest players on the team, Silveira didn’t get a lot of time on the floor with Uruguay. But thanks to three players fouling out in Uruguay’s rematch with Argentina in the bronze medal game, Silveira played the entire overtime period and helped Uruguay avenge a first-round loss and defeat Argentina 99-93.

    While his only points in the tournament came during overtime off a steal and a layup, just being there was a valuable experience.

    “JP got a chance to play a lot of basketball this summer and he got to play with a lot of good players in a world event,” said WSU coach Randy Rahe. “He didn’t get as much time as he had hoped, but eventually he will. I think he’ll be a very good player for their national team.”

    Having two reasons — the Big Sky championships and Bronze medal at the Pan Am Games — to celebrate in the past eight months, Silveira feels fortunate to have accomplished so much. But he said he can’t place the excitement of one above the other.

    “(The Big Sky title) felt good for me because it was one of my goals,” said Silveira, who led the ’Cats with 3.2 assists per game and was second in scoring with 11.1 points per game. “I never really had winning a Pan Am medal as a goal because I never knew if I was going to get to go play with the national team. I think winning that medal was important because it was something for my country and people were really happy back home that we got that.”

    Besides earning a medal, Silveira was also enlightened during the time with his national team.

    “It was really useful for me because I realized a lot of things I need to get better at, that I’ve got to keep working at to be able to play professional basketball,” Silveira said.

    The first thing that came to his mind was how he needs to get his shot off quicker. Silveira had been used to life in the Big Sky, where he could pretty much shoot when he wanted. However the open shots didn’t come as quickly during his time with his national team.

    He also mentioned defense, ball handling and rebounding as areas he needs to improve on.

    Silveira nearly got another chance during the offseason to spend time with his national team when there appeared to be an opening on the squad for the FIBA Americas Championships in August in Las Vegas.

    Unfortunately for Silveira, who was looking forward to the chance of playing in the same tournament as several NBA stars, the player who was injured a week before the tournament recovered and kept his spot.

    Instead Silveira, who will likely be called into national team duty for this summer’s South American Games, accompanied the ’Cats on the preseason trip to Canada for a tournament in Calgary.

    “If he would have been called that would have been a great experience and we would have understood,” Rahe said. “But selfishly we were glad we were able to take him to Canada and get him started in what we needed him to do.”