It's scholarship-hunting season, and many college-ready basketball players will be at WIBCA's 'Northwest Recruiting Showcase'

Few things feel more comfortable in Tumwater basketball guard Luke Brewer's hands that his compound bow for fall elk-hunting season.

"I do 'Running Start' at (South Puget Sound Community College) and school doesn't start until late," Brewer said. "So it's the perfect time to hunt, because I don't have school or basketball."

Brewer can big-game hunt in a different way this weekend at WIBCA's "Northwest Recruiting Showcase" at Bellevue College.

He will be one of 128 invited-only high school players from up and down the West Coast to play live games in front of an expected 40-plus NCAA Division I coaches and assistants.

The 16-team tournament will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday - finishing up with a championship game Sunday afternoon.

Brewer, the reigning 2A Evergreen Conference player of the year who averaged 17.9 points per game as a junior, has attracted college interest at all levels, ranging from lower-level D1 to NAIA.

But the 6-foot-2 combo guard said he wants to go to the highest level possible.

"My main goal is to go Division I," Brewer said. "I won't be satisfied until I get my game to that level."

Brewer participated in the last WIBCA showcase event in May, and said it took a little bit of an adjustment in his style of play to get going.

"It's just difficult to mesh with other players who really don't have chemistry with," Brewer said. "I am always overthinking when I should get mine on offense or not because I love team basketball."

Cade Orness, the upcoming junior-to-be at North Kitsap High School, is also playing in Bellevue this weekend, and knows he has to look for opportunities to flash his offensive skills.

"At the last couple of showcases I've been at, it you get the ball, you shoot it," Orness said. "So I think you have to think of yourself a little more."

Brewer knows college coaches will be paying attention to other attributes as well.

"I will be showcasing my ability to be a talker, a leader and a really good defender," Brewer said. "But I will try and get mine on offense as well."