The state’s No. 1 player takes on the nation’s No. 1 player in a rare high school basketball doubleheader Thursday night on ESPN. Get your DVRs ready.
Waukegan (5-2) and Illinois-bound Jereme Richmond (above) will play Ames, Iowa, led by North Carolina recruit Harrison Barnes at 8 p.m. Thursday. The game will be repeated at 11 p.m. on ESPNU. Barnes (below right), a 6-foot-6 forward, is considered the best-ever player from Iowa. He led the Cyclones to last year’s Class 4A state championship with a 26-0 record.
The Waukegan-Ames matchup is the second game of the doubleheader, preceded by Findlay (Henderson, Nev.) and Northland (Columbus, Ohio) at 6 p.m. Findlay is led by forward Tristan Thompson (Texas) and point guard Cory Joseph while Northland boasts Ohio State-bound seniors Jared Sullinger and J.D. Weatherspoon.
Joseph is undecided, but lists his finalists as UConn, Florida, Minnesota, Miss. State, Texas, UNLV and Villanova, according to scout.com.
