Hinsdale Central senior Vincas Buzelis is the Suburban Life boys basketball Player of the Year

It takes a village, it turns out, to build a basketball player as good as Vincas Buzelis.

The Hinsdale Central senior has a basketball resource in his own family that few do. His older brother, Matas, is a rookie with the Chicago Bulls. But the sibling support system goes beyond basketball.

“He helps me a ton, but we don’t even talk about basketball. We are there more as brothers,” Buzelis said. “We all have our guys. We don’t need to talk to each other about basketball. We are there to support each other.”

The younger Buzelis indeed has his own team to hone him as a player, and athlete.

Out of school, he trains with his personal trainer. He goes to Full Package Athletics and works with its founder, Steve Pratt, watching Buzelis' film, slowing down to watch every possession for details such as how best to attack gaps that open up lanes for cutters. Buzelis works with another personal trainer, Ian Mack, to get his body ready.

“All my training and hard work late nights and early mornings helped me prepare for big moments,” Buzelis said.

Buzelis met the moment this season.

The 6-foot-4 guard and University of South Dakota recruit led Hinsdale Central to a 29-4 record, and share of the West Suburban Silver title.

The Red Devils won 25 consecutive games. They went over three months without a loss from early December to the last week of the regular season.

Buzelis led Hinsdale Central in points (18.8 per game), rebounds (8.5) and assists. He was also the Red Devils' best defender.

Buzelis is the Suburban Life Player of the Year.

“It’s rare to have such a combination of a guy who can score from a lot of different areas, can pass the ball well, run the point, we used him in the post when we had matchup advantages,” Hinsdale Central coach Nick Latorre said, “and we started our defensive assignments with who is the best player and nine of 10 times Vincas was going to guard him. He has a combination of skills you don’t see often in high school basketball.”

Hinsdale Central’s season ended a bit more prematurely than Buzelis would have liked. The Red Devils lost a regional final to Curie on Curie’s home floor. But Buzelis kept things in perspective.

“Definitely special,” he said. “We cemented ourselves in history with 25 wins in a row. That was definitely special, the previous record was 23. Being around my teammates, they’re not even teammates – they’re brothers. Love them to death."

Buzelis took a bit of a circuitous path to the record season.

He played his freshman year at Hinsdale Central, but went to Sunrise Christian prep school in Kansas as a sophomore to play a year with Matas. The family, though, always stayed in Hinsdale, and Vincas returned for his junior year.

“That was a blessing that he came back,” Latorre said. “He started making huge strides middle of junior year and things blossomed from there. He works exceptionally hard at his game. When your best player works hard every day it makes it that much easier to coach.”

Buzelis missed being a part of the Ben Oosterbaan-led Hinsdale Central sectional finalist in 2023, but didn’t miss a beat when he returned.

“He had been here and knew the culture,” Latorre said. “He earned respect with how hard he plays.”

Buzelis' development continued into last fall. Latorre didn’t hesitate when asked of the biggest skill bump.

“Shooting – his ability to knock down the 3-point shot changed everything for him," Latorre said. “I thought teams his junior year really laid back and made it difficult for him. That ability to knock down the open 3, or not open, that spring-boarded his ability to score against pretty much anybody.”

“After my junior year that was my No. 1 priority,” Buzelis said. “It’s what we worked on a lot. Shooting off the dribble, off screens, catch and shoot, we put a lot of time into that. It obviously helped.”

Buzelis on multiple occasions showed a cool demeanor through adversity and performed best when it mattered most.

Against previously unbeaten and eventual Class 3A runner-up Brother Rice, Buzelis overcame foul trouble – and physical defense – to score nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter of a win in the Hinsdale Central Holiday Classic championship. Two nights earlier he scored a tournament-record 40 points to beat Niles North in overtime.

He scored 13 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to help avenge an early-season loss at Glenbard West.

“During the Glenbard game, I wasn’t scoring, I had like six points at halftime and we came out of the locker room and coach pulled me aside and said ‘I’m going to need you to step up a little bit,‘” Buzelis said. “He put that confidence in me.”

Latorre has confidence that Buzelis' best basketball could be ahead of him.

Buzelis in September of 2024 committed to South Dakota, members of the Summit League, in what some have called a recruiting steal.

“I have no real basis other than what I watch on TV,” Latorre said. “When I look at some of the local guys, that have played, RayJ Dennis last year at Baylor, I see Sam Hoiberg who played for me is at Nebraska. Based on that and based on the trajectory of Vince’s skill set. We’ll see. I think he is a very high-level college player.”