Bloomington Summer League provides basketball teams with proving ground, prime competition
Throughout the month of June, a flock of fans, coaches and players has flooded into Twin Lakes Recreation Center twice a week for some high-flying basketball action.
Each of the center’s five courts has been packed with action, courtesy of the Bloomington Summer League, featuring very strong competition for hours on end. Big schools like Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Edgewood and Martinsville mix it up with smaller schools like Eastern Greene, Loogootee, Bloomfield and Mitchell, and as a result, everyone gets better.
Young teams get opportunities for all-important reps
For the area’s younger teams — Eastern Greene and Mitchell particularly — the competition has been a boon. The Thunderbirds and Bluejackets each have a talented young nucleus, yet still have room to grow and need to be polished a bit. That makes the Bloomington Summer League a big part of their development.
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"We're still playing a lot of sophomores and juniors and we just need reps, reps, reps," Eastern Greene coach Jamie Hudson said. "This league has been good for us and it's just right up the road."
Mitchell took on Bloomfield early in the summer league run and leaped at it. The Cardinals exposed their weaknesses, helping to shape what the rest of the Bluejackets’ summer session would look like and giving the Mitchell coaching staff a good indication of where its team is at in its development.
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“It was good to get out here and kind of get our feet wet for the first time and see what we need to work on,” Mitchell coach Jackson Ryan said. “We had the opportunity to play Bloomfield and just jumped at it because they’re a solid program and a good measuring stick for us.”
Familiar faces push players to continue improving
Not only are the teams that compete quality, many of them know each other well. Because the Bloomington Summer League draws teams from around southern Indiana, a lot of the teams going head-to-head this summer will see each other again in the winter.
And even if the team you’re playing isn’t on the regular-season schedule, there’s a good chance that there’s a county or conference rival watching intently from the stands, trying to pick you apart.
Because of that, players want to step their game up when they walk into Twin Lakes.
“Being able to see these different teams play, it’s a great way to prepare ourselves,” Bloomington North senior JQ Roberts said. “We’re doing a little scouting, of course, going out early to look at different games that we might potentially play. It’s a good way to better prepare ourselves for the season.”
Bloomington Summer League showcases southern Indiana’s talent
With each team working toward a new season and hoping to outdo their rivals, there are plenty of different things going on that are easy to get caught up in when Bloomington Summer League play gets going. Because of that, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture.
Each Monday and Wednesday, a wealth of talent walks into Twin Lakes wearing a number of different colors. At any time, there could be several championship-caliber teams under the same roof and they’re all within reasonable driving distance of Bloomington.
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"I think it shows that Southern Indiana basketball is great," Hudson said. "A lot of times we get missed because we're not Indianapolis schools, but there are a lot of really good basketball players in this area and this league shows it."
Contact Times-Mail sports reporter Auston Matricardi via e-mail at amatricardi@tmnews.com or on Twitter at @amatricardiTM.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: Bloomington Summer League offers basketball teams a proving ground
