Prospect Spotlight: Conner Groves (2019)
Last week, at the Council Bluffs Lincoln Team Camp, Conner Groves made it clear that he’s one of Iowa’s sharpshooters.
The 5-foot-11 Sergeant Bluff-Luton guard connected on seven triples in the game we saw, and finished with a game-high 25 points.
Later that daqy we caught up with Groves, who defined his exact set of skills to PHIA, and mentioned whet he’s been working most to improve.
“I’m getting to the point where, if I’m open, I’ll shoot it,” said Groves. “And I’m trying to develop a good mid-range jumper, so teams can’t just key on on me shooting 3s, and then taking the ball to the rim too.”
Last season as a sophomore, Groves started on a senior-laden squad which made it down to Wells Fargo Arena for the 3A state tournament. He averaged 10.9 points per game on that team, and made a team-best 70 3s at a 40 percent clip.
“Being with the group we had last year was incredible, and playing in the state tournament as sophomore is something a lot of people won’t get to experience,” said Groves, who mentioned how his role will change next season.
“(My coach) told me that I’m going to be getting most of (the team’s) shots up next year. And the biggest thing I need to do is help make my teammates look better, and make them better players.”
This summer he’ll again run with Southwest Iowa Select’s 16U squad. The goal is to simply keep getting better.
“The first session of AAU went really well, and I’m mostly doing it to help me prepare for my school team,” said Groves. “I’m looking forward to this last session of AAU, and looking to expand on my game and continue to make myself and my teammates better.”
In terms of recruitment, things have started to get going a bit for the sharpshooting rising-junior. But his focus is on improving, and not so much his recruitment, for now.
“I’ve gotten some camp invites and letters from multiple NAIA schools. And I went to the Future Stars Camp not too long ago, and that was one of big camps I went to,” said Groves.
“(Recruitment) hasn’t really crossed my mind too much yet. I’m going to give it some time and just keep working. This junior year is going to be really big for me, so we’ll just see how it goes. “