Huskies commits Castle, Brady make USA U18 rosters
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.
The final roster with Castle includes a pair of North Carolina commits in Gregory Jackson and Seth Trimble, Big East rival Villanova has the duo of Mark Armstrong and Cam Whitmore, Brandon Garrison and Anthony Black is another pair committed to Arkansas, Kanaan Carlyle (Stanford), Ty Rodgers (Illinois), Kel’el Ware (Oregon), Jared Mccain (Duke) and Eric Dailey Jr. is undecided.
University of Colorado men’s basketball coach Tad Boyle is the U18 coach. In the preliminary round, The United States is part of group B along with the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Ecuador. The United States will play the Dominican Republic on Monday, Ecuador on Tuesday and Puerto Rico on Wednesday. On June 10, the quarterfinals of the tournament will begin.
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.
Isuneh ‘Ice’ Brady makes women’s team
Incoming Uconn women’s basketball freshman Isuneh ‘Ice’ Brady was one of 12 players to make the USA Basketball U18 team, it was announced Friday night.
The prestigious honor means Brady’s arrival to join the Huskies for summer workouts in Storrs will be delayed further. She will stay in Colorado for a training camp from Saturday to 12 and then will represent the United States at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mexico from June 13-19.
Brady follows in the footsteps of many former and current Huskies to represent the United States. Of the 2022-23 roster, Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Amari Deberry all did so at the junior national level in recent years.
Once she finishes competition with USA Basketball, Brady will join the rest of her Uconn women’s basketball teammates in Storrs.