STORRS, Conn. — UConn men's basketball recruit Stephon Castle has been named to the roster of the 2023 McDonald's All-American Game. He is just one of 24 players in the country to receive this honor.
Castle, a 6'6" point guard from Covington, Ga., and Newton High School, has consistently been rated among the top 25 recruits in the country. He averaged 16.6 points and 6.5 rebounds last year as he led Newton to the Final Four of the GHSA playoffs. He then helped USA Basketball win the gold medal in the 2022 FIBA U18 America Championships.
Castle is now the 12th McDonald’s All-American in UConn basketball history.
The McDonald’s All-American Game is on March 28 at the Toyota Center in Houston (9 p.m., ESPN).
“Congrats to Steph and the Castle family,” UConn Coach Dan Hurley said. “He’s had an incredible, highly-decorated high school career – USA Basketball and all the different achievements – and then to cap it off with McDonald’s ….”
Hurley found out Castle got selected while the Huskies were at practice on Tuesday and hadn’t yet had the chance to contact the Castle family.
“We’ll do that right after we’re finished here,” Hurley said at the post-practice press conference. “We’ll get him on a face time and celebrate. What an addition he’s going to be. I’m just excited to be able to coach a kid like that because you’re hired to do a job with Stacey and Quan’s son and they are going to let us do the job every day.”
Castle is now Hurley’s first McDonald’s All-American recruit.
“It’s a validation of where your program is,” Hurley said. “And why they made the decision (to pick UConn) and also what the decision is based on is something you’re proud of. It raises the bar and it’s important that a program continue to raise the bar.”
Castle joins an elite company in UConn history as only 11 other players have been picked as McDonald’s All-Americans. The complete list is below:
- 1978-Corny Thompson
- 1991-Donyell Marshall
- 1996-Richard Hamilton
- 1997-Khalid El-Amin
- 2000-Taliek Brown, Scott Hazelton
- 2003-Charlie Villanueva
- 2004-Rudy Gay
- 2008-Kemba Walker
- 2009-Alex Oriakhi
- 2016-Alterique Gilbert
- 2023-Stephon Castle
Daniel Dashefsky is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at ddashefsky@fox61.com.
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