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Is former Park Tudor star Trevon Bluiett athletic enough for the NBA?

Xavier's Trevon Bluiett shoots during a workout for the Indiana Pacers at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Monday, May 22, 2017.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two days before he must decide whether to keep his name in the NBA draft or return for his senior season at Xavier, Trevon Bluiett returned to the site of some of his favorite high school memories.

Bluiett, who helped Park Tudor to three state championships at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, worked out on the same court Monday for the Indiana Pacers. The 6-6 Bluiett will have one more workout – on Wednesday for the New York Knicks – before making his decision.

“I’m just taking these next couple days to make sure I’m making the right decision,” he said. “And then when the day comes, letting everybody know.”

Bluiett worked out with five other prospects on Monday, including UCLA guard Bryce Alford. Bryce, the son of UCLA coach and former Indiana star Steve Alford, encouraged Bluiett once he started lighting it up from the 3-point line in shooting drills.

It’s not Bluiett’s shooting that scouts will question. In three seasons at Xavier, he has scored 1,585 points and shot 37 percent from the 3-point line. He torched Cincinnati for 40 points in a late January game, hitting 9-for-11 from the 3-point line, and stayed hot into March as Xavier made a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament before falling to Gonzaga.

Bluiett can score. He’s No. 6 on the all-time state scoring list (2,568 points) for a reason. The doubts about his NBA future revolve around his athleticism. Those are questions he’s been hearing since he was in high school.

“I think the biggest thing (during the workouts with NBA teams) is to show the change in my body,” he said. “I know last time I did this last year, my body was a big issue just as far as being in shape and looking the part. That was something I didn’t do necessarily well.”

Bluiett tested the waters last year before deciding to return to Xavier for his junior season. It appeared to be the right decision as he was named to the All-Big East Conference team for the second consecutive year, ranking second in the league in scoring (18.5 ppg).

“My athleticism is going to be a problem (to scouts),” he said. “Defense. Those are kind of constant things that they are going to say, but it’s all about just working on them and playing hard all the time.”

Park Tudor's Trevon Bluiett, 22, cuts down a piece of the net after the Park Tudor Panthers defeated the Forest Park Rangers 57-45 in the 2A Semi-State game at Seymour, Saturday March 19, 2011.  Joe Vitti / The Star < b > 03/24/2011 - N01 - NORTHINDY - 1ST - THE INDIANAPOLIS STAR < /b > < br / > Freshman Trevon Bluiett has been a key newcomer for Park Tudor this year. A graduate of coach Ed Schilling's Champions Academy, Bluiett averages 13.7 points a game.

Bluiett said he’s kept in touch with former high school teammate Yogi Ferrell (Dallas) and former rivals like Gary Harris (Denver) and Trey Lyles (Utah). None of those players had the chance enter the draft with the possibility of returning to school, which became allowed two years ago as long as the player did not sign with an agent.

“I’ve talked to Yogi a few times and Gary about how the (NBA) experience is and if they were in this type of situation,” he said. “Back in their day they didn’t have this rule where you could test the waters. … Each of them are in different stages of their careers so it gives me an idea of how to feel going into this thing.”

Just because he’s going through the process a second time doesn’t necessarily mean Bluiett is going to forgo his senior season at Xavier. But he feels like he has a better handle on where he stands than he did a year ago.

“Going into the draft I don’t think you want to have any kind of low confidence,” he said. “Any decision you make, you want to make sure you have high confidence in it. If I do decide to stay in the draft, I feel like I’d have a confident chance of going in the second round.”

Notes

>>Bluiett was asked of his favorite memory of the Indiana Pacers. His pick?

“My favorite Pacer memory is the brawl,” he said of the infamous Pacers-Pistons brawl in 2004. “I’m a toughness kind of guy. So when I saw everybody going into the stands, Stephen Jackson and Ron Artest and everybody, that kind of lit me up.”

>>Former Ben Davis forward Trevor Thompson was another of the six players to work out with the Pacers on Monday. The 7-foot Thompson, who played at Ohio State the past two seasons, has signed with an agent and will not return to school.

Thompson, who averaged 10.6 points and 9.2 rebounds as a junior at Ohio State, has been training in Santa Monica, Calif., with Georges Niang of the Pacers, NBA veteran Bismack Biyombo and former Gonzaga stars Nigel Williams-Goss and Przemek Karnowski.

“They are helping me a lot,” Thompson said. “I definitely have an opportunity to go against already-established NBA talent and guys entering in the draft. It’s been a process. They’ve helped me grow a lot and pushed me every single day.”

The latest mock draft by DraftExpress.com does not have Bluiett or Thompson going in the first or second round. If Thompson does not get drafted, he said the process will not change for him.

“I’m going to continue to work,” he said. “Obviously the goal is to be drafted but at the end of the day I’m just going to continue to work hard and keep getting better. I’m going to control everything I can control.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.