After Wayne County was eliminated in the 12th Region Tournament semifinals, junior Macey Blevins was looking forward to having a chance this summer to prove to even more Division I coaches how she could play.
She already had several scholarship offers but believed a big summer with Kentucky Premier could open eyes of even more coaches about her basketball skills. Instead, COVID-19 wiped out all but about two weeks of summer play.
Rather than see what might happen with the 2020-21 season, Blevins went ahead Saturday and made her college choice. She’ll play at Western Kentucky University and has no second thoughts about the lost summer or what might have been if she waited longer to pick a school.
“I definitely feel my class got left out of a lot of things because of COVID-19 but I know everything happens for reason. God has a plan. I had two good tournaments (this summer) and loved my Kentucky Premier team,” Blevins said. “I am just thankful we got to play a couple of tournaments.
“I am so happy with where I am going. Western is my place and where my heart said I should be.”
Western Kentucky coach Greg Collins is adding one of the state’s top players in the 2021 recruiting class. The 5-10 guard averages 21 points and 7.9 rebounds per game last year while shooting 45 percent from the field overall and 31 percent from 3-point range. She hit 70 percent at the foul line — a mark she hopes to improve this season because she gets to the line a lot.
Blevins has been Wayne County’s leading scorer and rebounder for the past three seasons and has accumulated 2,215 points, 807 rebounds, 436 assists and 202 steals in 150 varsity games since her seventh grade season.
Her other offers included Samford, Northern Kentucky, Indiana State, Eastern Kentucky, Marshall, Dayton, Austin Peay and Tennessee-Chattanooga.
Her mother, Angie Cox Blevins, was a standout player at Eastern Kentucky following her prep career at Pulaski County. Blevins said her mother had no issue with her picking the Hilltoppers.
“All my family was happy for me, including my mom,” Blevins laughed and said. “My mom and dad were always involved with my recruiting but they did not push me one way or the other. They supported me and that was really nice. They always just wanted me to do what I wanted. They never told me go here or there.”
She will have a familiar face on the team when she gets to Western. South Laurel standout Ally Collett will be a freshman at Western this year and is a former AAU teammate on Kentucky Premier.
“Ally is one of my best friends. I met her either my fifth or sixth grade year playing AAU and we stayed close,” Blevins said. “She was one of my trainer’s players, too. We had workouts together. She actually didn’t know where I was going. I had not told her, either. She was surprised but happy.”
Blevins said recruiting was not “stressful” for her but she thought with summer basketball over, it was time to make a decision before her senior year started.
“Western felt like home and just felt like the place I wanted to be,” Blevins said. “I just loved every single person I met there … the administrators, staff, all the players. On my visit, it really just felt like home.
“I had been waiting to see what options there might be but Western is where my heart was so I just decided it was time to commit. Knowing I am going to Western, I can plan for the future and just focus on high school basketball my senior year and not recruiting. Hopefully we get to have a season.”
