Catching up with IU commitment Will Sheehey
Playing on ESPNU is already out of his mind. Will Sheehey’s focus is squarely set on Friday.
Sheehey’s Sagemont School met Monteverde Academy Feb. 5 in an ESPNU-televised match-up that featured fellow top recruits Rod Days and Fabricio Melo, Sheehey’s Syracuse-bound teammate. Sagemont came up just short, losing 57-52, but Sheehey’s focus is already focused on this Friday, when district playoffs begin.
“It’s going great,” Sheehey said of his season thus far in an interview with Inside the Hall. “Our team has been playing really well.”
Sagemont finished its regular season 20-7, and should it make district finals, the Weston, Fla., school will book its place in the state tournament. Sheehey missed the early part of this season with an ankle injury, but he said when he returned, “everybody started to gel,” giving the 6-foot-5 guard confidence that Sagemont’s state tournament run could be a prolonged one.
“I think that we’re playing our best basketball right now,” he told Inside The Hall.
Since signing his letter of intent to play at IU in November, Sheehey says he’s stayed in regular contact with the coaching staff in Bloomington, Tim Buckley and Tom Crean in particular. He said he tries to meet up whenever recruiting brings Crean or another of the Hoosiers’ coaches to the Sunshine State.
Sheehey said the Indiana staff has followed his season closely and offered advice on areas where Sheehey can improve, including putting on weight and improving his ball-handling.
That street runs both ways, of course. Sheehey has been keeping close tabs on the Hoosiers as well, watching as many of their games this season as he can. He said he’s encouraged by what he’s seen, and expects the Hoosiers’ second season of struggles to make them stronger in the end. “All these tight games that they’re playing, that just helps experience,” Sheehey said, adding that he chose IU for the chance to play with the Hoosiers’ corps of young talent.
As for whether he might make the trip north for any all-star games or showcases closer to Hoosier country so fans could get a closer look at him, Sheehey said he wasn’t sure. Other than the Team Florida vs. Team USA showdown in Orlando, (in which Sheehey is taking part because his high school coach is leading Team Florida) Sheehey said he hasn’t given such post-season plans serious thought yet.
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Here’s a video interview with Sheehey from last month’s Tournament of Champions in Springfield, MO:
Filed to: Will Sheehey