James Blackmon Jr.: IU has 'huge chance to do something great'

BLOOMINGTON -- James Blackmon Jr. will return for his sophomore year, bolstering Indiana's already burgeoning hope for a significant 2015-16 season.

Blackmon, a two-time Big Ten Freshman of the Week who finished eighth in the conference in scoring (15.7 ppg), announced his intention to return in a news conference Thursday.

"I love it at Indiana," Blackmon said. "This is a place I can get better every day, and I'll be better for it in the long run."

One of three Hoosiers with a professional future to consider this spring, Blackmon is the second to commit to another season in Bloomington. Troy Williams, who will be a junior next year, announced his intention to return earlier this month.

Junior guard Yogi Ferrell, Indiana's leading scorer a season ago, will announce his final stay-or-go pro decision Saturday night, at an Indianapolis steakhouse.

IU coach Tom Crean, seated next to Blackmon on Thursday, said Blackmon had "an opportunity" to go pro after this season. A Big Ten All-Freshman team selection last season, Blackmon is rated the ninth-best shooting guard in Chad Ford's top 100 on ESPN.

Crean admitted "feedback was mixed" on where Blackmon might land if he did leave for the NBA this spring. But he said the Marion grad absorbed all of it intently.

"This team said this and this team said that," Crean said. "The first place he went when he heard that was back to the gym."

Asked what specifically he was told he needed to improve, Blackmon centered first on defense.

"(NBA teams) know I can score the ball," he said. "They really just want to see me defend the point guard and shooting guard positions, at a high level."

At 6-4 and given his scoring ability — Crean said one team described Blackmon by using the word "sniper" — he could eventually be a promising professional prospect, perhaps even as soon as next season.

Some of Blackmon's keys for this offseason, primarily among them getting stronger, will be factors professional scouts watch intently, according to one league source. "He's highly thought of. He definitely needs another year or two. He's got good size, he can shoot the ball, makes his free throws, good decision making. But he's just got to back that up in the Big Ten, be dominant in the Big Ten, be dominant for IU."

Some of that might come with a full offseason of conditioning and weight room work. And, with Williams returning and McDonald's All American forward Thomas Bryant heading to IU, Blackmon said he believes he'll have the opportunity to improve another area of his game — point guard skills.

Crean said Blackmon needs to learn to be an "initiator" as much as a pure point guard, and Blackmon said NBA executives see him as a combo guard at the next level.

Blackmon has spoken regularly with IU's purest point guard, Ferrell, about their respective decisions, though he said neither player pressured the other.

Should Ferrell elect to return as well, Indiana could be an early favorite to win the Big Ten. Like Blackmon and Williams, his draft stock would almost certainly rise with a deep NCAA tournament run next March.

Ferrell's decision remains a mystery. But for Blackmon, that opportunity proved impossible to pass up.

"Coming back this year, I'm gonna be playing with a great team," Blackmon said. "We have a huge chance to do something great."

Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.