BUFFALO — Before Blue Cain and his Georgia basketball teammates began putting in the work in earnest to get back here to March Madness, he was driving a golf ball instead of driving through the lane.
On an August family trip to Scotland, Blue and his father, Chris, played five days of golf.
Rounds at places like St. Andrews, Kingsbarns and North Berwick.
“It was awesome, it was great,” Cain said Wednesday afternoon in a locker room in KeyBank Center before the Bulldogs hit the floor. “The wind was tough out there. I played great the first day. The second day we played, the wind was crazy, so didn’t play great that day, but the third, fourth and fifth day the wind was decent, so I played better.”
Father and son walking golf courses overseas together is on the opposite end of the sports spectrum from the win-or-go-home pressure Cain and the Bulldogs will experience Thursday night, March 19 in an NCAA Tournament first-round game against Saint Louis.
“I’ll definitely be more competitive for the game,” Cain said. “Me and Dad just go out there and try to have fun. I’m just thankful for the time with him.”
Cain, the junior guard who is second on the team with 13.3 points and 5.1 rebounds per game, will play in his 103rd game with the Bulldogs. He’s started 74 of those, including every game the last two seasons.
“He’s one of the pillars of how this program has come back to the light,” leading scorer Jeremiah Wilkinson said.
Blue Cain’s basketball roots started in Knoxville
It seems like poetry that Cain’s parents met playing pick-up basketball in law school at Tennessee.
Myriah Lonergan went from All-American in high school in Shelbyville in Middle Tennessee to become a standout basketball player at George Washington from 1992-06. Now, Myriah Lonergan Cain is in the school’s Hall of Fame.
Chris Cain grew up in Knoxville and played on the Duke golf team from 1987-91.
That’s where Blue’s name came from.
Christopher Blue Lonergan Cain. As in Duke Blue Devils.
“He’s always been Blue,” Chris Cain said. “When we named him, we knew we were going to call him Blue.”
She said they talked about the name Duke Washington Cain, but her high school and college colors were blue and gold, so Blue it was.
Chris Cain finished tied for 22nd in the 1990 ACC golf championship. He said he could have had better showings at Duke but started to enjoy college life a little too much after his freshman year.
He went on to get his law degree and now practices as a litigation attorney.
Myriah Lonergan Cain went to law school for just a year before deciding to get a master’s in teaching because that profession would allow her more time to raise a family in Knoxville.
Fundo and following mother’s path to college basketball
Chris and Myriah both had a hand in Blue learning to play basketball, but he also participated in baseball, football, soccer, track, golf and karate until he turned his focus on just basketball.
Myriah, who played in three NCAA Tournaments at George Washington, passed along Blue her basketball knowledge.
Things like share the ball, take what the game gives you and build your bag.
Blue said he’s always looked up to his mom on the court and off.
“My mom always talks about letting the game come to me,” Cain said. “She’s always instilled that in me, just playing the game the right way.”
Said Myriah, a fifth-grade teacher at Rocky Hill Elementary. “You don’t know what the other team is going to take away from you. The only thing you can control is whether you have something else in your bag, so build your bag.”
She even was head coach of Blue’s Knox Youth Sports first- and second-grade teams but then tried to avoid being the overbearing parent.
“At one point I think in middle school, I was actually keeping my own stat book just to keep myself quiet in the stands,” she said.
Both of the Cain kids became college athletes. Blue’s older sister, Sophie, played volleyball at Appalachian State and now is studying to be a physician’s assistant.
“I always have said to my kids, there’s a lot of genetic gifts there, what you choose to do with it is your choice,” said Myriah, whose mother played high school basketball and whose father was a three-sport high school athlete.
Blue started to beat his mother in basketball in middle school in the home backyard. Then they played “Around the World,” and he would win that, too.
So, she created the game Fundo, which also included shooting 10 free throws.
“I was a very good free-throw shooter,” she said. “That’s muscle memory. I would end up beating him. … It would infuriate him.”
No more, Cain said.
“She used to beat me all the time as a kid,” he said. “I’m on like, probably a 200-game win streak. I haven’t lost since I was 14.”
Cain said he used to miss “a ton of free throws as a kid,” so Fundo helped him with fundamentals.
Blue said his mother gets some of the credit for him now being Georgia’s all-time free-throw percentage leader at 84.4%.
How Blue Cain became ‘glue guy’ for Georgia
There’s a “Glory Days Wall,” as they call it, in the workout room in the Cain basement at home that has photos from family members’ athletic exploits.
Blue Cain spent three years at Knoxville Catholic — part of a state title team as a freshman and runners-up as a junior — before transferring to IMG Academy in Florida to challenge himself by being immersed in basketball and playing and practicing against high-level talent.
Cain was coached hard at IMG, so much so he told his parents they needed to stay away and let him handle it on his own.
“We were a distraction, and this was hard,” his father said. “He needed to get through it.”
Cain committed to Georgia in May of 2023. He was released from a letter of intent at Georgia Tech after it made a coaching change.
Coach Mike White had seen him playing with IMG against top target Asa Newell and Montverde during trips to Florida.
“That was like a five-week recruitment,” White said on his radio show last week. “I remember flying down to IMG every week. Letting Blue know how important he was to the future of this program.”
Cain’s parents haven’t missed many Georgia games in the three seasons, even though the drive takes upwards of four and a half hours each way.
She’s missed one game, and he’s been unable to get to four.
“We put a lot of miles on the car and stayed up awfully late to get home, but it’s been worth it,” Chris Cain said.
They are now driving a 2013 Honda CRV, replacing a 2012 Honda Crosstour.
The 6-foot-5 Cain has become a rare three-year player for Georgia with a chance to become an even rarer four-year player in this age of the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness.
Cain’s ponytail stood out before he cut it after his freshman season. Students began bringing blue canes in tribute to him in his sophomore season that his mother loved.
“It makes you so proud to see them be a fan of him,” she said.
His scoring average, rebounds and minutes have gone up each season while his 3-point percentage has dipped this season to 30.8 after a rough start to SEC play.
Blue’s parents have a rule that when they talk to him right after games, they will offer one positive comment and one negative.
“It’s sometimes very hard to keep that, honestly,” she said.
Cain is the only Georgia player to have started every game the last two seasons for a program making a return trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001-02.
Did his father see all this coming?
“I would say no, I didn’t,” he said. “When he was young in high school, I thought he could play in high school. I didn’t know what level. I didn’t think he would play in the SEC. I think he believed all along he would. … Everything exceeded my expectations in a lot of ways. I don’t think they’ve exceeded his. I’m very proud and grateful for the path he’s gone and where he’s headed. It’s cool.”
Said Cain, “I’ve always believed in myself. I feel like you honestly have to, or else you can’t do it.”
Georgia hasn’t had a player who arrived on scholarship complete four seasons with the Bulldogs since Jordan Harris and Tyree Crump in 2020.
Cain could do that in 2027, but everything is in flux in an age when rosters regularly flip.
“I could see him playing four years at Georgia, but we haven’t had those discussions,” his father said.
Cain is represented by Excel Management, but what he is paid is “far down the list” of things important to him, his father said.
“I want to come back,” Cain said. “Yeah, I want to come back, but I’m focused on the game,”
Cain has 1,017 points in three seasons. Myriah had 1,029 in four at GW.
“With these 20-year-olds these days, no one wants to be called a glue guy, but he’s a guy that does a lot well,” White said. “He came here as a catch-and-shoot guy who’s turned into, on certain nights, a really good defender, and those nights are becoming more frequent. He’s become very competitive. …He’s turned into a good high major basketball player. He’s very important to everything we do.”
