(2021) CG Jalen Blackmon

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Marion plays at Homestead Saturday evening; scheduled tipoff of 7:30.  Game stream reportedly available for anyone interested through: 

http://summitcitysports.com/lm-sport/boys-basketball/

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Lawrence North defeated Marion 83-63.  Blackmon with 26 pts., 5 reb; 4 asst.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Marion at Homestead (Luke Goode) tonight.   Another source to watch the game:

 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Chalk this one up to Homestead. I say they win by 13


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[Class of '66 Old Fart]

9 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Chalk this one up to Homestead. I say they win by 13

 

Hope you didn't have any $$ on the line.  Marion's defense kept Homestead on its heels and came away with a 62-47 win.  Unofficially, I had Blackmon with 31 pts. on 8-13 FG; 5-9 on 3s; 10-10 FT; 2 reb; 2 asst.  He is a scorer but he doesn't play any more defense than his brother did.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Hope you didn't have any $$ on the line.  Marion's defense kept Homestead on its heels and came away with a 62-47 win.  Unofficially, I had Blackmon with 31 pts. on 8-13 FG; 5-9 on 3s; 10-10 FT; 2 reb; 2 asst.  He is a scorer but he doesn't play any more defense than his brother did.

Tantalizing shooting splits though. Maybe if we whiff on Lander, Wesley, et al. [emoji6]


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[WayneFleekHoosier]

Hope you didn't have any $$ on the line.  Marion's defense kept Homestead on its heels and came away with a 62-47 win.  Unofficially, I had Blackmon with 31 pts. on 8-13 FG; 5-9 on 3s; 10-10 FT; 2 reb; 2 asst.  He is a scorer but he doesn't play any more defense than his brother did.

Lol, my novice gambling addiction has taught me to bet against my inclinations.


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[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Blackmon with 30 pts. in an 81-66 Marion win over Richmond.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Marion walloped Kokomo 95-69.  Blackmon a game high 30 pts.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

In a back and forth ballgame, Marion beaten in OT at home 85-80 by Indpls. Cathedral.    Blackmon finished with 36 pts.;  20 of which he scored in the 2nd Q.   With 6 min. left in the game, he went down with an apparent knee injury.  He returned around a minute later but left the game for good with 2:32 left in OT.  Hopefully it's nothing serious.  

[mamasa]

Hearing Blackmon out for the year with torn ACL

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

3 minutes ago, mamasa said:

Hearing Blackmon out for the year with torn ACL

After the knee problems JBJ had almost wonder if there's some kind of genetic issue that rears its ugly head.  Feel badly for the young man and hope he'll have a quick and full recovery.

[Alford Bailey]

Terrible news for Jalen if true. Also would mean a 1 horse race for the state scoring record.

[Demo]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

After the knee problems JBJ had almost wonder if there's some kind of genetic issue that rears its ugly head.  Feel badly for the young man and hope he'll have a quick and full recovery.

Interesting thing, at least to me, about JBJ’s original injury. I went to watch him play against Trey Lyles/Tech his soph yr in a holiday event at the old Marshall HS. There’s a turnover that leads to a breakaway for one of Tech’s guards. JBJ hustles back and blocks the kid’s dunk attempt off the board. They go down in a pile under the basket and Blackmon stars screaming in a way where you know the deal. But the thing about it was he had really competed on D for the entire game up to that point. I hadn’t seen him before, so I don’t know if that was the norm. He then made a really great hustle defensive play and his payoff was an ACL that cost him a year. Always wondered afterward if he just never quite got past that mentally and if it contributed to him never really selling out defensively.

Or maybe he was just a bad, disinterested defender. 

[GloryDays]

11 hours ago, Demo said:

Interesting thing, at least to me, about JBJ’s original injury. I went to watch him play against Trey Lyles/Tech his soph yr in a holiday event at the old Marshall HS. There’s a turnover that leads to a breakaway for one of Tech’s guards. JBJ hustles back and blocks the kid’s dunk attempt off the board. They go down in a pile under the basket and Blackmon stars screaming in a way where you know the deal. But the thing about it was he had really competed on D for the entire game up to that point. I hadn’t seen him before, so I don’t know if that was the norm. He then made a really great hustle defensive play and his payoff was an ACL that cost him a year. Always wondered afterward if he just never quite got past that mentally and if it contributed to him never really selling out defensively.

Or maybe he was just a bad, disinterested defender. 

I think the injuries played a major role in his defensive struggles.I often saw him trying to face guard and have players blow by him.He had very limited lateral mobility.

 He was a great rebounder out of the guard position,one of the best we've ever had.Good rebounders for the most part aren't lazy as half of it is desire.

 Never understood the **** people gave that kid.I wonder how many games those teams win without him.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Man, he could shoot the rock.

Fun fact. James and Bryson Scott were high school friends, competitors.

Bryson Scott went 6-0 vs James in college.

JBJ was super talented but we often weren’t a good team, so anger gets directed at players and coaches.




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[Hoosierfan2017]

5 hours ago, Woodson1980 said:

I think the injuries played a major role in his defensive struggles.I often saw him trying to face guard and have players blow by him.He had very limited lateral mobility.

 He was a great rebounder out of the guard position,one of the best we've ever had.Good rebounders for the most part aren't lazy as half of it is desire.

 Never understood the **** people gave that kid.I wonder how many games those teams win without him.

Well, we won the Big 10 and made it to the sweet 16 after he went down for the season in 2016.. I think that probably caused a lot of the crap he got from fans. 

We could certainly use his shooting on this team though. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Kyle Neddenriep - Indy Star

Jalen Blackmon on season-ending ACL injury: 'I'm thinking about the positives.'

 

“Ugh.”

I believe that was my first reaction when I saw Jalen Blackmon writhing in pain and holding his right knee under the basket on Saturday night at Bill Green Arena in Marion. It was 9:27 p.m. Blackmon had scored 30 points in the second and third quarters of Marion’s game against Cathedral. He had 36 on the night, potentially on his way to 45 or 50 with 6:13 left in the game.

Then … ugh.

“My worst nightmare,” Jalen said by phone on Thursday. “Right when it happened I felt a ‘pop’ and I knew it was something bad. I thought it might be a meniscus or something.”

Blackmon eventually got back up, got checked out on the sideline and hallway, and came back and tried to give it a go for a couple of possessions. But he clearly did not have any push off that right knee and came back out of the game, an eventual 85-80 loss.

Well, the news is not good. Blackmon has a torn anterior cruciate ligament and will miss the remainder of his junior season. It seems incredibly unfair considering both of his older brothers – James Blackmon Jr., and Vijay, also had ACL surgeries.

“Bad luck,” Jalen said. “I guess we put too much work in or something.”

Blackmon was averaging 29.8 points per game through eight games. With his injury, any chance at making a run at Damon Bailey’s all-time state scoring of 3,134 points goes by the boards. Blackmon currently has 1,565, which is fifth in Marion history (his father and coach, James Blackmon Sr., is first with 1,897).

The good news is that players now can come back faster – and stronger – than ever from ACL injuries. It is certainly possible that he could be back by the summer, though he said he is not necessarily counting on that.

Blackmon will have surgery next week, either Tuesday or Thursday. Already, he has been back in the weight room. But there is also the reality that he is going to miss out on a crucial time of his recruiting process. He has offers from Akron, Ball State, Houston and Miami of Ohio.

“It’s terrible timing,” he said. “But I’m going to do what I can do. Right now, I want to get my body in shape, so when I get back to playing, I’m stronger than ever. I’m thinking about the positives.”

It stinks, though. Blackmon is a rare talent. Some of the plays he made Saturday night were jaw-dropping. He is not just a scorer, but a playmaker. He was averaging 6.3 assists per game, shooting 37.3% from the 3-point line and 51% from the field.

Here is hoping we will see Blackmon back on the court sooner than later. But it won't be this high school season.

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Received an offer from Grand Canyon U. today.

[Rico]

I wonder if he has put on any weight?