Jayson Tatum needs his jacket.
The local standout sophomore-to-be is spending his summer vacation competing for the United States U16 boys national basketball team at the 2013 FIBA Americas Championships in Uruguay. With a passport that’s been stamped time and again with trips to the Caribbean, Puerto Rico and the like, Tatum expected Uruguay to be warm with lots of sunshine.
So far that has not been the case.
“It’s cold, it’s freezing,” Tatum, 16, said. “It’s like 50 degrees and the sun is never out. It’s not as nice as I thought it would be.”
That’s OK, though. The 6-foot-7, 175-pound Tatum shouldn’t have much time for sightseeing anyway. He and Team USA are too busy reminding the world that, while basketball has gone global, no one does it better.
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Team USA was 3-0 in pool play and has been obliterating its opponents. The Americans opened the tournament with a 130-31 win over Mexico and followed that with a 96-72 win over Argentina. On Thursday, they blitzed the Bahamas 121-52 to win their pool and advance to the medal-round semifinals. Team USA draws Puerto Rico at 7 p.m. Friday. If they win, they’ll play for the gold medal at 9 p.m. Saturday. All games are streamed live on fibaamericas.com.
It was against the Bahamas that Tatum had his breakout game. He scored 17 points, handed out three assists and had four steals. For the tournament, he’s averaging 11 points and 3.7 rebounds and has nine assists. Not shabby numbers for a guy who’s playing with and against some of the top talent in the world.
Tatum has thought about where he is and what, exactly, he’s doing and it's still a little hard to believe.
“It’s a little weird,” he said. “Flying all over the place and two-a-day practices. It’s a lot of work.”
Work has never scared Tatum off. It was his relentless drive that pushed him into the starting lineup at Chaminade in the winter and allowed him to blossom into one of the premier freshmen in the nation. He counts college scholarship offers from Florida, Kentucky, Saint Louis, Mizzou and Marquette, and that’s just the beginning.
At the end of the winter, he was the first freshman ever to be named Metro Catholic Conference co-player of the year . He was the driving force behind Chaminade’s conference title and its playoff appearance.
Tatum solidified himself as an elite player around Christmas when then-Chaminade coach Kelvin Lee moved him to point guard. His vision and ball-handling skills were exactly what the Red Devils needed.
On Team USA, however, Tatum is used primarily as a wing. He’s comfortable at that spot, but it’s been a bit of an adjustment.
“I kind of like playing the wing. It’s not as much work as bringing the ball up all the time,” he said.
There have been other adjustments for Tatum in this new setting. He and the rest of Team USA have to get used to FIBA rules, which are different from the rules used at the high school level in America. The lane is wider, there is no goaltending and, most tricky, is the shot clock.
“Most of us aren’t used to playing with one,” he said. “Sometimes we lose track of the shot clock and have a violation.”
He’s also coming off the bench. There isn’t a high school guard in Missouri that could put Tatum on the pine, but with Team USA, he’s just one cog in the greater machine. He said he’s comfortable playing his role.
What hasn’t changed is the way Tatum goes about his business. Quiet and confident, he said he still gets a little jumpy before every game, even if he’s starting it on the bench.
“I always get nervous before every game I play, whether it’s high school or international ball,” he said. “I just go out there, get the butterflies out and play my game and go with the game plan.”
Once Tatum wraps up his international tour of duty, he’ll return to the St. Louis Eagles, where he will help them wrap up their summer in July at the Nike Elite Youth Invitational and the KC Prep Invitational in Kansas City.
As for the fall, Tatum offered no comment on his future. Tatum’s father, Justin, was named CBC’s basketball coach in April. Later that month, Chaminade removed Lee from his coaching job and promoted assistant coach Frank Bennett. There has been speculation that Jayson would transfer to play for his father. He can’t apply for a transfer until July 1 and, if he does, the state would automatically rule him ineligible because he played varsity the previous school year. He and his family could appeal the ruling and argue a hardship case. But that’s only if he applies to transfer in the first place.
Tatum, for his part, was solely focused on taking care of the business at hand.
“I need to come out here and play extremely hard on both ends of the court, hit my open shots and find my open teammates when I can,” he said. “We need to worry about our game plan and win the gold medal.”