UConn men’s basketball commit Stephon Castle named to USA Basketball men’s U18 roster
UConn men’s basketball Class of 2023 commit Stephon Castle was named to the 2022 USA men’s U18 national team roster, USA Basketball announced on Friday.
Castle joins a prestigious group of 12 players who made the final roster from the initial 26 invited to training camp. The team consists of players from the high school graduating classes of 2022 and 2023. University of Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle is the U18 coach.
The players will compete at the 2022 FIBA U18 Americas Championship in Tijuana, Mexico, from June 6-12. Since the creation of the championship in 1990, the United States has won gold nine out of 11 times.
Castle is ranked No. 27 in the Class of 2023, according to 247sports.com. He committed to the Huskies back in November. The 6-foot-6 combo guard averaged 16.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists this past season for Newton High School in Covington, Georgia.
Andre Drummond was the last Husky to make a junior national team, playing for the U17 team in 2010, which went 8-0 and won the gold medal.
“It feels good to make it and knowing that I’m one of the only people that’s committed to UConn in a long time make it,” Castle told the Hartford Courant. “It means a lot to play for my country.”
According to Castle, the UConn coaching staff told him about the history of UConn commits playing for USA Basketball and told him to keep playing how he’s playing
Castle has relished the competition at practice and will play a bit of point guard, but mostly shooting guard or small forward, for the team.
“Everybody here is good, so it’s a good environment to play around,” he said.
Shreyas Laddha can be reached at sladdha@courant.com or @shre98 on Twitter.
