Cain continues to climb in basketball career
By Steve Williams
When Blue Cain left Knoxville Catholic after his junior season to play at the IMG Academy in 2022-23, his dream was to play D1 college basketball and it didn’t matter what conference.
He landed in the SEC at Georgia and now is a sophomore starter for the Bulldogs. It didn’t take him long either to find out the difference between D1 college ball and playing on the high school level.
“The main difference in D1 and high school is just the physicality,” he said recently. “We’re playing against grown men so it’s a lot different than high school.”
With that said, Cain offered some advice to current high school student-athletes. “Just keep working and try to max out every day. And don’t compare yourself to others. Just try to get as good as you can.”
The growth of a player as a freshman on the college level also is important Cain pointed out. “I think my effort overall has gotten much better. I think I play much harder than my freshman year and I’m just trying to get better at that.”
The 6-5, 195-pound Cain, who wears uniform No. 0, recently had a treat with a game in his hometown against Tennessee. He had about 20 family members and friends clapping and cheering him on against the Vols on Jan. 15, including his parents Chris and Myriah and sister Sophie.
“Blue’s family is full of Division 1 athletes,” noted Mike Mobley, Assistant Athletic Director at Georgia. “His dad, Chris, played golf at Duke from 1988-91 (and that’s where his son’s nickname came from, the Blue Devils); his mom, Myriah (Lonergan), played basketball at George Washington from 1992-96 and is in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame; and his sister, Sophie, played setter on the volleyball team at Appalachian State, finishing her career in 2023.”
Even though UT won 74-56, Blue said: “It was definitely a lot of fun. I just enjoyed going back home and playing in front of my family and friends. I enjoyed it a lot.”
He scored five points and had two rebounds, one assist and one steal in 30 minutes of action against the Vols.
Cain’s high school coach, Mike Hutchens, didn’t get to attend the game due to now being an assistant coach of the Knoxville Catholic girls team, but he got to see about half of it on TV, and said he especially noticed, “Blue can use his athleticism to do more than just score and is an excellent on-ball defender.”
As a freshman in high school, Cain helped Catholic capture the TSSAA Division II-AA state championship in 2019-20, and in his junior year the Fighting Irish were state runners-up. He twice earned All-State honors.
“Blue was an outstanding student as well as a tremendous player at Catholic,” recalled Hutchens. “He was very coachable and unselfish with superior athletic ability. He was enjoyable to coach!”
At IMG, Blue was a consensus 4-star recruit.
Cain started nine of 10 games at Georgia his freshman year, scored 19 points versus Missouri in the SEC tournament and almost half of his 103 made field goals were 3-pointers.
Blue has become a full-time starter this season and in the first 20 games has averaged 25.3 minutes of playing time. He averages 8.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game plus 1.4 assists and 1.3 steals.
“My goal in basketball is to play in the NBA and my major is sports marketing,” he said. “I just need to keep working every day and concentrate on getting better every day. Whatever happens happens.”
