Recruiting Report: Tucker Blackwell (2016)

<p>It’s going to be a change for Tucker Blackwell. But don’t tell him that change is going to do anything to hinder his Bloomington South high school team.</p><p>The Panthers team lost eight seniors from their sectional winning team, and now Blackwell is prepping to go from a great player on the team to its leader and star. None of those have limited his expectations for the season.</p> <p>“People expect us to just come out and kind of be mediocre because we’re really small,” Blackwell said. “We lost eight seniors, so people think we’re having a rebuilding year, but I’m just really excited to get out there and show people what we got.”</p> <p>Mediocre isn’t in Blackwell’s genes and beliefs. The 6-foot-2 shooting guard is No. 32 in the Prep Hoops Indiana Top 180 and has shown a propensity to be one of the better shooters in the class.</p> <p>This has put him squarely in the sights of some Div. I coaches. He holds an offer from IUPUI and talked with Eastern Kentucky and Evansville during the summer. He also recently started talking with Vermont.</p> <p>He hasn’t scheduled any visits yet, but he wants to start taking them in October. He has already been to Evansville twice and plans to take a visit to Vermont and Eastern Kentucky.</p> <p>The coaches said his shooting is obviously the thing that caught their eyes but his ability to play in their systems also fits.</p> <p>“Their offenses are small college offense, so not really one-on-one type of schools, but structured offenses,” Blackwell said. “They like my shooting and ability to come off screens and play in those types of offense.”</p> <p>With visits coming up, Blackwell still hasn’t set an exact timetable to make a decision. He hasn’t ruled out potentially making a choice before his high school season begins, but says it is most likely coming during or just after the season.</p> <p>Blackwell is focused on improving his ability to finish at the rim and on pull-up jumpers for now with the college choice not in the imminent future. Most importantly, he’s focused on making everyone at Bloomington South better to prove everyone wrong.</p> <p>“It makes me want to work harder and stuff like that and get everybody in the gym and make sure they know we are a winning program and it needs to stay that way,” Blackwell said.</p>