(Photo: Scotty Bara/WCSN)
Over the summer of 2015, left-handed shooting guard from Arizona State by way of Southern California, took the world’s biggest professional-amatuer basketball circuit by storm. His play earned him plenty of exposure and experience against elite talent, and he got back to his roots in preparation for his 2015-16 campaign.
This player went on a three week stretch averaging 31 points and 7.6 rebounds per game, and his 38-point, eight-rebound performance earned him Drew League player of the week honors. He faced talented NBA players and still held his own.
But this player does not have a beard.
While James Harden was one of the many NBA players in the star-studded field of the Drew League, the player taking credit for what the aforementioned credentials is Gerry Blakes, the senior Sun Devil from Inglewood, California.
“I’m from L.A., so I’ve been playing in the Drew League for three years,” Blakes said. “I have been kind of acclimated to the Drew League for some time now.”
All ASU fans knew about Gerry Blakes going into his inaugural season as a Sun Devil was that he was one of the four junior college transfers being added to the roster. The other three being senior forward Willie Atwood, junior forward Savon Goodman, and would-be senior guard Roosevelt Scott, who did not return to the program this season.
Blakes is now seen as the key guy going into next season after being the second-leading scorer from a season ago behind Goodman, but unlike going into last season, Blakes has taken his preparation to another level.
“I was prepared (last season), but there’s learning curves once you get to this level,” Blakes said. “So being that I was here a year, and I know what to do, and I’m pretty excited for what’s next to come.”
A crucial part of that preparation was in fact participating in the Drew League pro-am run every summer, which is open to high school, college, and even NBA talent. Being connected with the L.A. basketball community, Blakes found his way into the league from an old friend.
“My sophomore and junior year in high school, my high school coach ended up having a team in that Drew League and invited me,” Blakes said. “I thought that was a great deal.”
A great deal is an understatement, because now due to Blakes’ improvement, he became a can’t-miss player in the most recent circuit.
The week nine Drew League Player of the Week found himself going up against players like Toronto Raptor Demar DeRozan and Los Angeles Laker Nick Young. Blakes said that his best game came against the Lakers’ swingman.
“The best game I had this summer I did okay even though we lost,” Blakes said. “And I got crossed over by Swaggy P (Young).”
Because the Drew League is a pro-am, Blakes had to be sure that his participation wouldn’t warrant an NCAA violation.
“I had to talk to coach Hurley. I had to talk to compliance. I had to make sure it was sanctioned and do all the right things so that I could still be eligible this year,” Blakes said.
If ASU wants to have success during the transitional period in Hurley’s first season, Hurley will have to depend on the players to make it happen, and Hurley thinks Blakes’ drive to get better this offseason is enough to prove his leadership ability.
“I’m always supportive of my guys having the best competition,” Hurley said. “Gerry has really attacked this offseason like he is on a mission. I think he wants to be recognized in the conference for what he is going to do individually and he’s very focused on us winning.
Blakes’ passion and effort towards improvement led him to nonstop basketball throughout the summer, as well as some traveling in between.
“I would literally be in Arizona for the week doing our workouts and working out on my own, and then I would go play (in the Drew League) on the weekends,” Blakes said. “I would prepare hard to have those performances and hopefully it carries over into the season.”
The individual preparation that goes into a physically and mentally taxing basketball season is no doubt a crucial part of becoming an elite player. Having gone through the off-season development as a JUCO transfer and now as a leader, Blakes has compiled the wisdom in his experience to teach the three new Sun Devils who followed in his JUCO footsteps how to find themselves in a situation similar to his.
“(I’m) just trying to help them in any way they need,” Blakes said. “If there’s some details they need or some help they need on defense, just anything that I can do to be a team player and be more unselfish I would love to do it.”
Not only will the whole ASU program and its supporters hope to see Blakes succeed in a Sun Devil uniform like he did for Team Problems in the Drew League, but Blakes hopes all of his hard work in the offseason will pay off in a big way in his senior year.
Being a former JUCO transfer who found his way to a Pac-12 program, Blakes knows what it takes to get people’s attention the way it did during his run in the Drew League, and he hopes to do the same when the NCAA season rolls around in just over a month.
“I would say the hunger to prove yourself, that’s what its mainly about in those kind of leagues,” Blakes said. “Just showing yourself, not hiding. Because in that league you can’t hide. If you don’t do anything, no one will know you. You didn’t do anything, you go home, that’s the end of it. You do good, you get recognized, and I think that’s what we all do it for.”
