McLimans, the basketball player, gets Michigan’s attention
Michael J. Petro
Last time most heard from Blake McLimans, the Hamburg High School standout athlete had just led the Bulldogs to a Section VI championship in baseball and was what some considered a shoe-in to be a Division I college player in that sport.
But a lot’s changed since McLimans, who also excelled at basketball and volleyball, graduated from Hamburg in June of 2008, shortly after finishing that memorable baseball season.
McLimans decided it was basketball, instead, that he wished to pursue at the Division I level. Considered by many as an athlete with the type of potential to play somewhere in-between the highest level of NCAA college basketball and one step down at Division I-AA or II, McLimans decided to attend one of the region’s finest prep schools in Worcester, Mass. He planned to build his confidence and game and hope that Division I recruiters and coaches were noticing.
They were.
McLimans grew a little, now at 6-foot-10, hit the weight room to bulk up a skinny frame and exhibited the type of inside-outside game at his height that has Division I prospectors drooling. Before Worcester even played a game, McLimans had scouts attending open gym sessions and scrimmages during the fall. McLimans showed off a silky smooth jump shot, while getting a little tougher under the basket.
Georgia Tech and Providence offered scholarships, while schools like Sienna, Hofstra, Rutgers, St. John’s and Penn State came to see. But it wasn’t until Michigan and its new and on-the-rise head coach, John Beilein, came along that McLimans had finally found a home. He signed with Michigan, a team he has watched and rooted for the past several years, and received the Wolverines’ final scholarship for the 2009-10 season.
“People see a 6-10 shooter and they get very interested,” McLimans said last week while home from school on spring break. “I’ve always enjoyed playing baseball since I was a little kid, but my dream has always been to play big-time basketball. What changed my mind was when I found out that it was possible.”
Last spring, McLimans was all set to accept a scholarship to play baseball at West Virginia, but was awe struck by the Niagara University basketball coaching staff telling him that he might have the opportunity to play highly-competitive Division I college basketball with a year at prep school under his belt. What many outside his inner circle did not realize is that a career in basketball was never too far from the mind of McLimans and this only fueled the Hamburg native’s fire to continue that pursuit.
Following that advice, McLimans worked hard and diligently before the start of the prep school season, then was able to improve his game even further playing alongside a handful of Division I signees and prospects at Worcester. Scout.com and rivals.com both rated McLimans as a “three star” power forward and wrote that he appears to be the ideal center for Beilein’s motion offense.
“Blake decided to go to prep school, get stronger and really work on his game,” said Beilein on the university’s Web site. Beilein is the only active collegiate coach to have achieved 20-win seasons at four different levels — junior college, NAIA and NCAA Division I and II — and has been recognized as coach of the year numerous times, including in 1981 at Erie Community College, and in 1994, at Canisius College.
“Blake has already benefited from that decision with his improvement at Worcester and the amount of serious attention he received late in the recruiting process,” he added. “He is a big time jump shooter at 6-10 and continues to improve his back to the basket post skills, which will give him versatility. He has a tremendous upside and we look forward to getting him on campus.”
McLimans averaged 16.3 points, 9 rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 3 assists per game as a three-year starter at Hamburg. As a senior, he was named the 2007 ECIC Division II Player of the Year and helped Hamburg to a 16-4 record and its first conference title in 15 years.
However, he was just as good, if not a better baseball player, which is why McLimans’ decision was a bit of a surprise around Western New York. McLimans threw up to 90 miles per hour and was a towering and intimidating force on the mound. But there was just something always drawing him to basketball and when Michigan was interested, that clinched his decision.
“I visited three schools before Michigan, but once I went there, saw a football game, visited the campus and talked to the coach, I was so excited to be able to go there,” McLimans said. “There’s just something about the atmosphere of being around a big-time basketball program. It was overwhelming but now I’m just concentrating on getting ready to play at that level.”
As part of his scholarship to attend Worcester, McLimans was slated to play baseball but decided to skip the spring season to work on his basketball game. McLimans will hit the campus at Michigan in the summer to take classes and begin to train with his new team.
“The recruiting process was great,” McLimans said. “Lots of people can only dream of this happening to them so it was an amazing feeling.”
With Michigan playing in the NCAA Tournament, which starts today (March 19), McLimans can sit back and watch on TV what his future might look like in the coming years.
“It’s real exciting that Michigan has a young team, and I picked them because they had the most upside,” McLimans said. “The program is skyrocketing. It seems like wherever coach Beilein goes, he’ll turn around the program.”
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