INDIANAPOLIS — Mason Gillis wanted badly to make the most of this spring, then then the summer that follows.
He won't get to, at least not the first part.
The New Castle star and Purdue 2019 recruiting target is due to undergo surgery to repair a knee injury sustained in his first game of the spring grassroots season.
"I've been working for this summer, knowing the past two years I've been working on everything and am a completely different player from what I used to be," Gillis said this past weekend at the adidas Gauntlet event in Indianapolis, prior to it being certain he'd need surgery. "I was excited to be able to show everybody what I can do. Now I just have to sit back, cheer on my team, and whenever I can play, play the best I can."
Gillis may be back for July, but will miss the rest of this spring and could miss June's Indiana All-Star events, for which he was named a core member of the junior all-star squad.
The injury occurred when Gillis pulled up in the lane for a runner in his new Indiana Elite team's first game of the spring, at the IndyBall event at North Central High School.
"I played the rest of the weekend on it and probably shouldn't have," Gillis said. "Oh well."
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Gillis will be idle for some time, but recruiting won't stand still.
He'll make an unofficial visit to West Lafayette next week.
"Just to get more of a feel for the campus and the facilities and everything," he said.
The visit will come shortly after Matt Painter made an in-home visit with the versatile forward last week.
"It was really good. He just talked about what he sees in me, his plans for me, how interested they are and everything," Gillis said.
"He just explained what he's started to see in what I can do and we talked about different players, everything about the program and how I'd fit in it. My versatility has gotten a lot better and he loves that about me, that I can play the 2-3-4."
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