Illinois class of 2022 signee, Ty Rodgers, was named to the 12-man roster for the USA U18 National Team on Friday afternoon.

Rodgers was one of 27 athletes that were invited to training camp in Houston in late May. The Thornton High School (Harvey, Ill.) graduate will make his USA Basketball debut on Monday against the Dominican Republic as part of the 2022 FIBA U18 Americas Championship in Tijuana, Mexico.

The U18 squad is made up of a variety of 2022 and 2023 commits to various institutions. Rodgers is the only player representing a Big Ten program.

Rodgers is a four-star recruit who committed to the Illini on Nov. 17. In his senior year, Rodgers scored 398 points, averaging 15.3 points per game, 13.9 rebounds per game and 7.3 assists per game over 26 games according to MaxPreps.

The U18 team will be coached by Colorado head coach Tad Boyle, with assistants Mike Boynton Jr. of Oklahoma State and Leon Rice of Boise State.

Recently, the Illini have been well represented on Team USA. In 2018, former Illini Ayo Dosunmu made the U18 Men’s National Team. His team went 6-0 and won the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship with Dosunmu averaging a team-high 4.5 apg. Just one year later, former Illini Adam Miller attended multiple 2019 USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team minicamps. He went on to win gold at the FIBA U19 World Cup in 2021 before transferring to LSU.

The FIBA Americas Championship will run from Monday to June 12, with three group play games followed by the tournament, which starts on Friday.

The USA team has won nine championships in 10 appearances since 1990. The USA U18 teams have won gold in the last five FIBA championships with the last one taking place in 2018 in a 113-74 win over Canada. Rodgers will be looking to help the national team gain gold No. 10 starting Monday.

@JonathanAlday7

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