By JEREMY WOO
Special to ZAGSBLOG
FORT WAYNE, IN — On a team as loaded as the Spiece Indy Heat, it can be easy to forget about Trevon Bluiett.
Amongst well-known teammates Trey Lyles, JaQuan Lyle and James Blackmon, the 6-foot-5 rising senior’s workmanlike game can get lost in the shuffle. Though he’s not the flashiest of the bunch, the deadeye shooter can score the ball as well as any of them. That fact was made clear at this weekend’s Bill Hensley Memorial Run N’ Slam.
“Trevon’s shooting the lights out,” said Lyles, and it was very hard to argue with him. But Bluiett, ever-humble, focused on the accolades of his team, even after a tough 83-80 loss to All-Ohio Red in the championship.
“This was the first weekend back for Trey,” said Bluiett, “so we were excited about that coming in. After our first game, we knew that we could take this talent to another level and that’s what we tried to do. We went 6-1 this week, so it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Bluiett’s knack for finding the basket keyed Spiece over the weekend, as Lyles and Blackmon each sat out games to rest and nurse injuries during a grueling schedule. His defensive ability also shone, sticking Milwaukee Rebels star Kevon Looney in a quarterfinal game. On the whole, it was a ridiculously efficient and productive weekend on the court for the small forward from Indianapolis.
Needless to say Bluiett holds a boatload of big-time offers, including Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisville, Michigan, Notre Dame, Purdue, UCLA and Xavier. The Wolverines, he said, have been hot on his trail of late along with Butler and DePaul.
Though he’s received much interest, Bluiett explained his recruitment is still very much open, “just now starting to talk about colleges.” Things are falling into place, and schools are still jumping in. That category includes the Northwestern Wildcats, who are making him a priority under new head coach Chris Collins.
“Northwestern is a good program,” Bluiett said. “They haven’t had too much success on the basketball part, but with Chris Collins coming in, things should start to turn around.”
He has his run of attractive options, to be certain—Bluiett’s former high school coach Ed Schilling recently joined Steve Alford’s new staff at UCLA. Yogi Ferrell, his former teammate at Park Tudor, currently runs point at Indiana. He hopes to narrow down his list soon and set up visits, but he’ll think long and hard first, taking the summer to evaluate his list.
“I’m looking at the player-coach relationships,” he said. “Also the player-player relationships, as well as academics.”
For now, Bluiett and his loaded Spiece team will focus on the EYBL, heading to Dallas and Minneapolis this month in hopes of reaching the Nike Peach Jam finals.
Although he might not be the first name you hear on that roster, Bluiett will be the one you remember. And at his best, you don’t even have to watch — the sound of his game does the talking.
It goes swish, swish, swish.
