Bedford North Lawrence's Spreen keen on putting in summer work on basketball fundamentals

BEDFORD — Bedford North Lawrence junior swing player Chloe Spreen didn't reach her lofty national status among girls basketball players by sitting idly while resting on her laurels.

The 5-10 guard/forward achieved her Top 25 ranking on ESPNW and First Team Large School All-State by the IBCA by working her tail off on varied facets of the game to become a great player while never accepting that it's enough.

Spreen labors to perfect her play. It may be a labor of love, but it's still intense labor, and that's why she enjoys the summer workouts like the one she and the Lady Stars got Thursday evening during a 60-42 victory over Center Grove at BNL Fieldhouse in the final summer game of that short season.

Spreen poured in a game-high 24 points, while swishing a trio of 3-pointers, to pace BNL's output. One of the main focal points of Spreen's offseason work has been her perimeter shooting after she shot 22 percent from 3-point range last season (the only possible chink as she still led the Lady Stars in scoring at 16.2 ppg and rebounding at 6.2).

"I've worked my butt off on my outside shot this summer," Spreen said. "I've really been focusing on a lot of different things during individual workouts to try keep perfecting my game. It's the only way to continue getting better. You have to be willing to work hard at it."

She has worked so hard on that shot that she even, somehow, banked in a 3-pointer from the corner. She didn't call bank, but she did call it something else.

"Let's just pretend like that one went straight in," Spreen said with a big laugh. "I yelled "off" because I thought it was so bad, but it clipped the board and went in somehow. Hey, it went in."

The other two she sank were straight and pure.

Spreen gets help from Spreen

Chloe has been playing plenty of AAU basketball with her Spiece Nike Gym Rats out of Indianapolis, but she also carved a lot of space for individual workouts with her cousin, Chase Spreen, who is one of BNL's assistant coaches.

That Spreen team has honed in on the areas they feel will be best benefit her moving forward, and not all of those have come on the basketball court. Stamina, strength and explosiveness have also been emphasized in a major way. 

"Chase has really been helping me with my shot," Chloe said of the guy who was a star at BNL in his own right and made ESPN when he swished an 80-foot shot at the buzzer to win a game while playing at Lindsey Wilson College. "I couldn't begin to tell you how many shots I've taken, almost every day, but it's hundreds just trying to get more reps and make it more routine from out there. I know I need to improve my shot.

"So we've been working on that, and my ballhandling and trying to get better on defense. But we've also put in a lot of work on strength and conditioning. He's been getting me in the weight room to try to put on more muscle and get my first step improved and more explosive.

"And we've done a lot of things to help me jump higher, and I honestly feel like all that conditioning and strength work has helped my game a huge amount."

Preparing for physicality

Spreen has certainly learned during her two years of high school ball that she has to get prepared for physical contact. She attracts defenders the way a magnet pulls metal, and they aren't coming to give glad tidings.

The Trojans shaded two or three players her way on each tough, and did a fair amount of bumping. Spreen is still thin and fast, but does appear a bit taller and the legs thickened by muscle. What she now knows is that she and the team's other superstar, senior Karsyn Norman, have viable options if teams try to double- or triple-team them during the 2022-23 season

Senior guard Emma Brown, who missed last year because of a knee injury, buried a 3-pointer shortly after the tipoff and added another later. Junior guard Madisyn Bailey, who is earning some high attention of her own, drilled three treys.

"Yeah, it's always there," she said of the contact. "They've heard my name, so they really come after me. It's part of it, I guess, but that's why I'm trying to get stronger. I don't think it's going to let up.

"But I feel like with Emma back now and shooting the ball great, and Madisyn out there drilling them, along with Mallory (Pride) we can go to other players if Karsyn and I get double-teamed or triple-teamed.

"If teams are going to try that we have a lot of girls we trust to get the ball to and know they can score."

Weighing options, preparing for July

The other aspect of Spreen's hectic summer of 2022 has been a huge run of college visits as virtually all of major power schools have come calling for her services. She has a big, tough decision one day, but that's still a bit off in the future. Spreen received her first scholarship offer from Indiana University going into her 8th-grade year, and this offseason she has visited North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ohio State, Florida State and she just returned from the University of Florida. That's only a partial list.

"I've been taking a lot of visits this spring and summer, trying to figure out where I want to go on and play," she said. "Those were a lot of fun and it's going to be a big decision someday.

"But right now our BNL summer stuff is over, so I've been preparing for July. My AAU team has some big tournaments we'll be playing in, so there's still some basketball to play."

Spreen, Lady Stars primed for 2022-23

Spreen and the other players will have a short break when July comes to a close, but school starts in August and the Lady Stars will be zeroing in on the ultimate target, the IHSAA Class 4A state championship.

"I think we're going to be really good, and that's what we're going for, we want to win it all," she said. "I feel like we have everything in place to get it done, and getting beaten at regional two years in a row has really motivated us for this season.

"We're going to play as hard as we can to try and get it done."

Contact Times-Mail Sports Writer Jeff Bartlett at jeffb@tmnews.com, or on Twitter @jeffbtmnews.