By SEAN BOCK
MILWAUKEE – My first time watching Xavier’s Trevon Bluiett was back in 2011.
Bluiett and his Park Tudor (IN) team were competing in the 2A IHSAA Championship in Bankers Life Fieldhouse. A freshman at the time, Bluiett was teammates with Yogi Ferrell, who received most of the hype as he was signed to play at Indiana.
While most of the opponent’s emphasis was stopping the electrifying Ferrell, Bluiett was the best player on the floor that night, scoring 21 points including the game-winning go-ahead layup with 1:23 to give his team a one-point lead and his school their first state title in hoops.
Bluiett continued to add hardware to the trophy case, capturing two more state championships in 2012 and 2014.
In September of his junior year, Bluiett committed to UCLA and head coach Steve Alford. An Indiana kid and a Hoosier legend, sounds like the perfect marriage, right?
False. Less than a month after pledging to the Bruins, Bluiett decided it was time to reopen his recruitment and ultimately choose the Musketeers over the likes of Butler, Memphis, and Michigan State.
A consensus four-star prospect, Bluiett was one of the biggest recruits in the Chris Mack era at the time, and rightfully so.
“He’s what they need to become one of the [best] teams in the country,” Rey Bluiett, Trevon’s father, said Mack told his son when he signed.
Three years later, Bluiett has helped this program make it to the NCAA Tournaments three seasons in a row including a trip to the Elite Eight in 2017.
On Wednesday night, the 6-foot-5 senior showcased why he’s in the National Player of the Year conversation, helping his No. 6 Xavier squad survive a road test against a scrappy Marquette team, 91-87, in the Big East-opener for both teams. Bluiett finished the game with 23 points but shot 1-of-8 from behind the three-point line.
Though Bluiett struggled shooting the ball, he found ways to impact the game, which makes him such a special player. To go along with his scoring output, Bluiett dished out a game-high 8 assists, corralled 6 rebounds and was 10-of-11 from the free throw line, including clutch pressure freebies down the stretch to ice the game.
Last season, Bluiett averaged 18.5 points a night but found himself forcing things on the offensive end and not playing within himself as he shot a respectable 44 percent from the field and 37 percent from 3. Bluiett could’ve easily left for the NBA after his junior year, but he chose to stay for round four and try to achieve his ultimate goal: winning an NCAA title.
Now, with his junior season behind him, Bluiett has seen a sharp rise in his production.
Through the first 14 games, Bluiett is averaging 19.5 points a game, shooting 48 percent from the field, 45 percent from deep, and is almost a sure thing at the line at 87 percent compared to 75 percent his last year.
“Trevon, from the time he was a freshman to now, his growth has been incredible,” Mack said Oct. 18 at Big East Media Day. “He’s always been a prolific scorer even when he walked onto campus as a freshman, but I’ve found over the last 12 months his want of getting in the gym first, his staying after practice, his valuing of things that maybe he didn’t value as a freshman has really, really grown. It’s made him a better all-around player. He’s by far a much better player today than he was this time last year.”
Since suffering their first loss to now No. 3 Arizona State on Nov. 24, the Musketeers have knocked off No. 18 Baylor and No. 21 Cincinnati and find themselves at 13-1 overall and 1-0 in Big East play after the road victory at Marquette.
This team prides themselves on playing tough, hard-nosed basketball to go along with unselfish talent and balance which will win them a lot of ball games this year and arguably the team with the best shot in the Big East to dethrone Villanova.
“I just always want our team to foster the idea of making the right play,” Mack said on Wednesday. “You maybe get 4 shots one game then 14 the next. The guys in the locker room now are a fun group to coach. We have a really good offensive team and I really like this group.”
In the game of basketball, a team of unselfish players with less talent is going to find more ways to win than a selfish team with more talent. In Xavier’s case, they are a talented bunch who doesn’t care about the stat sheet, all they care about is the win column.
And that all starts with your leaders, which happens to be Trevon Bluiett.
In the era of the one-and-done, so rarely are there seniors who are on NBA teams watch lists. Though there’s speculation whether Bluiett could make it in the association, there are still teams who seem to be curious what this kid can bring to their franchise. Several NBA scouts were on on hand Wednesday.
According to Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report, Bluiett is projected to go 48th overall to the Los Angeles Lakers (via the Nuggets) in this year’s NBA Draft.
But before Bluiett hears his name called on draft night, he still has a lot of work to be done at the college level.
Photo: NCAA.com
