In the most recent installment of our feature, the Alumni Profile, we talk with Stockton men’s basketball player Josh Blamon.
Blamon finished his stellar career at Stockton with 1,397 points scored in 88 games played.
He was named the ECAC Men’s Basketball Co-Player of the Year and Stockton University’s Male Athlete of the Year this past month. He was also named to the ECAC First Team.
We had a chance to talk to Josh recently about his time at Cinnaminson, his career at Stockton, his plans to continue his playing career and much more.
Blamon majored in Business Management while at Stockton. His favorite class was music and chorus.
On the reason why he chose Stockton, Blamon said, “It was close to home, but not close to home. It was the right distance as far as I wanted to get away from home, but my family can easily come to games. The fact that they are used to winning also played a major role in my decision. I felt that after hearing a couple of people who went to Stockton talk about how the school was both academic and athletically, I felt it was the right fit.”
Blamon discussed the difficulty to transition from the high school game to the college game.
“The only thing that was hard at first was the different atmosphere crowd wise. It really wasn’t that hard to adjust for me because I pride myself in preparing for any type of environment that will come my way. I am constantly working on making my game better.”
In what goes hand-in-hand with his previous comment, Blamon talked about how much it meant to him to be named the ECAC Co-Player of the Year.
“It definitely means a lot because I did put in the work and the effort. So it does mean a great deal. Probably one of biggest awards I’ve ever received. I’m grateful for it.”
Now that his college career is complete, Blamon will look to the possibility of a pro career.
“I would like to look into playing pro basketball and see what happens after that. If not, I will further my education and fulfill what I want to do with my degree.”
Now that he could look back on all four years at Stockton, Blamon talked about what part of his game improved the most.
“The biggest improvement was creating my shot. Going into my senior year, my coach pulled me aside and said if you want to stay successful, you have to get a step back game or learn to either pull up to create your shot. The whole summer after junior year, that’s what I was doing, learning to create off the dribble.”
Blamon also talked about being a leader at the college level.
“It wasn’t too tough to do because everybody here wanted to get a championship. Whether is was our number-one goal of an NCAA title or an NJAC title, everyone wanted a championship. It was a lot easier to deal with everybody when it comes to leading them because everybody was working hard to get that goal.”
Asked if he would ever be interested in coaching basketball down the road, Blamon said, “If that opens up I would definitely step into that roll. Whenever I saw one of my teammates struggling, I would reach out and say let’s work on this. I’m a student of the game and am constantly learning to better myself. I feel like coaching shouldn’t be that hard.”
Image courtesy of Josh Blamon
