Jereme Richmond
Photo by Christopher Kays
Richmond was one of 12 players named to the USA Basketball Men's U18 National Team. The squad, which was selected from a three-day trial camp last week, will begin play Saturday, June 26, in the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship at St. Mary’s University’s Bill Greehey Arena in San Antonio, Texas.
"Just to wear this (USA) across my chest, it means more to me than any other jersey I could wear," Richmond said. "This is representing the whole USA, so for us to be a part of it is pretty special."
The U18 squad also includes Austin Rivers of Winter Park (Winter Park, Fla.), the son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers.
"I like the make-up of our team," said University of Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, head coach of Team USA. "We have really good talent. We have versatility. We have guys who can really defend. We have good athleticism, guys who can score."
That would certainly include Richmond, the Illinois Player of the Year and a 2010 McDonald's All-American selection. A 6-foot-8 forward, Richmond averaged a team-high 20.8 points and 11.4 rebounds for Waukegan, which finished 27-5.
In 2009, Richmond led Waukegan to a 26-5 record and runner-up finish in Class 4A, losing to Whitney Young and Marcus Jordan (son of Michael Jordan) by three points in the title game.
Richmond will wear the No. 9 jersey with the United States, the same number that Michael Jordan wore with the national team in the 1992 Olympics and Dwyane Wade wore in the 2008 Olympics.
"It is an honor for me," Richmond said.
Richmond is just one of several Illinois prep basketball stars who made the cut for national teams this summer. Among the others:
Chasson Randle, Rock Island (Rock Island, Ill.), U17 men’s national team: A 6-foot-2 guard who has drawn big interest from Stanford and Duke, Randle is a rising senior at Rock Island. "Oh, man, I was ecstatic," Randle said of his selection. "When they told me I made the team, a rush of relief came over me and also a sense of proudness." The U17 team will play in the FIBA U17 World Championships begin July 2 in Hamburg, Germany, preceded by friendlies in Lithuania against Russia’s U18 team on June 28 and Lithuania’s U17 team on June 29.
Morgan Tuck, Bolingbrook (Bolingbrook, Ill.), U17 women’s national team: A 6-2 power forward and rising junior, Tuck led the Raiders to a state title in March and is one of the most highly-recruited forwards in the nation. She averaged 18.1 points per game last season. The only reason she didn’t make the U16 national team in 2009 was because she tore an ACL in the trials camp last June, and still she managed to recover and play most of her high school season in a 29-win year for Bolingbrook. The U17 squad begins play in the FIBA U17 World Championships on July 16 in France.
Ariel Massengale, Bolingbrook (Bolingbrook, Ill.), U17 women’s national team: A member of the U16 national team which won the gold medal in the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championships for Women, Massengale, a point guard and rising senior, gives the Raiders a rare double for one school on a 12-player roster.
Jewell Loyd, Niles West (Skokie, Ill.), Lincolnwood, U17 women’s national team: Loyd, a rising junior, was the third Chicago-area athlete named to the U17 team when Alexyz Vaioletama of Mater Dei High School in Fountain Valley, Calif., withdrew due to a stress fracture in her shin. Lloyd, a guard, averaged 22.8 points per game in a 27-6 season for Niles West. "I was just really shocked," Loyd said of her late addition to the squad. "It is a great honor, and I was speechless. It’s been one of my dreams to wear USA and represent your country doing something that you really love to do."
Storylines around Chicagoland:
* Mark Szott, a 6-3, 225-pound tight end at Waubonsie Valley (Aurora, Ill.), verbally committed to Northwestern. Szott also had offers from Mid-American Conference schools Northern Illinois and Ball State.
* Ryan Sawvell, a 6-8 forward at Mundelein (Mundelein, Ill.), verbally committed to Evansville. MAC schools Western Michigan, Central Michigan and Toledo, in addition to Illinois State, also were interested in Sawvell. "(Evansville) Coach (Marty) Simmons actually reminds me of my dad in some ways,” Sawvell told the Chicago Sun-Times.
* Louisville basketball recruit Wayne Blackshear, a rising senior at Morgan Park (Chicago, Ill.), scored a camp-high 27 points in one game at the recent NBPA Top 100 Camp in Charlottesville, Va. He averaged 10.7 points per game.
* Former Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears linebacker Mickey Pruitt, a football, wrestling and lacrosse administrator for Chicago Public Schools, was one of 12 honored June 14 at the Illinois High School Association’s annual Distinguished Service Award ceremony. Pruitt attended and played sports at Robeson (Chicago, Ill.).
Paul Bowker, a sports journalist for 25 years who has worked at newspapers nationwide, covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at
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