Bazz...Taking The Good With The Bad

[Brad Palmer]

How can a guy score 27 points, including a virtual one-man comeback, and make the fanbase so angry????? Shabazz does have huge cajones, but man does he make the fanbase's hair get gray quickly.

For all of his basketball savvy in certain parts of the game, it's really amazing how many "basketball things" he does fundamentally wrong. Maybe he's just a 21st-century point guard and we have to take the good with the bad.

The concept of actually bending his knees on defense seems foreign to him. Just watch him for an entire sequence on defense...then tell your son/daughter to do the opposite. When he feels like playing defense, he's more than adequate. Sad that so many posters here give him a pass by saying that he has to play 40 minutes and run the point. His defense has been the same with or without Boatright being eligible to play.

I'm sure JC will point this out to him during film review. As for the constant overdribbling on offense, that's something JC has to decide is a problem or not.

 

[Burnsbros23]

Agree with everything. He kills ball movement on offense, over dribbles constantly but a lot of Calhoun PG's do that. But then he flashes the ability to lead a one man come back. I just think in the long run he is going to have to learn that he doesnt need the ball in his hands all the time and that getting others involved is more important than dribbling and shooting.

 

[Rico444]

He's a sophomore PG. The last sophomore who ran the show as well as him had incredible offensive weapons all around him (Rudy, CV, Rashad and Denham as juniors).

He has some serious talent, but keep in mind he's young. At this point in his career, Kemba showed flashes but had a lot of bad games, too.

Like the topic says...take the good with the bad. I can't think of many underclassman PGs who are better right now.

 

[Kitaman]

Has he changed his jump shot? He seems to be fading and somewhat off balance on his shots with his foot extended (maybe to draw a foul?).

 

[champs99and04]

My goodness...of all the days to rip Shabazz, this is not one of them. Sure he turned it over five times, dribbles a little too much, and maybe his defense could use some work, but last night the team scored 67 points, Oriakhi and Drummond gave us absolutely nothing (btw, Drummond said on twitter he was sick maybe that had something to do with it), and Lamb struggled for most of the game. Quite simply, Shabazz WAS our offense last night. He scored 27 points on 10/19 shooting, dished out seven assists, had two steals, and grabbed seven boards. On a night where everybody else had that deer in the headlights look, Shabazz single-handedly kept us in the game, and accounted for 41 of the 67 points.

Not sure I can really give you a guy I'd rather have running the team.

 

[tykurez]

Has he changed his jump shot? He seems to be fading and somewhat off balance on his shots with his foot extended (maybe to draw a foul?).

He's always done that ... although he doesn't ALWAYS do it. Bazz is at his best when he takes a shot in rhythm and follows through. There are times he throws up a rushed shot that's off balance and doesn't follow through at all. He did this a lot more last year so it seems to be something he's been working on.

 

[Burnsbros23]

Guess we are just on different pages. I dont like the way Shabazz runs the team a lot of the time. When we had Kemba it kept Shabazz more reigned in and he knew the ball went through Kemba. Now we need the ball run through the post and Jeremy and that just isn't happening.

I dont think Shabazz is a top 5 PG in america but thats just me.

 

[ctchamps]

My goodness...of all the days to rip Shabazz, this is not one of them. Sure he turned it over five times, dribbles a little too much, and maybe his defense could use some work, but last night the team scored 67 points, Oriakhi and Drummond gave us absolutely nothing (btw, Drummond said on twitter he was sick maybe that had something to do with it), and Lamb struggled for most of the game. Quite simply, Shabazz WAS our offense last night. He scored 27 points on 10/19 shooting, dished out seven assists, had two steals, and grabbed seven boards. On a night where everybody else had that deer in the headlights look, Shabazz single-handedly kept us in the game, and accounted for 41 of the 67 points.

Not sure I can really give you a guy I'd rather have running the team.

+1

 

[uconngb]

Guess we are just on different pages. I dont like the way Shabazz runs the team a lot of the time. When we had Kemba it kept Shabazz more reigned in and he knew the ball went through Kemba. Now we need the ball run through the post and Jeremy and that just isn't happening.

I dont think Shabazz is a top 5 PG in america but thats just me.

i agree with you. yes he had 27 points and 7 assists last night, but he also had 5 turnovers and left his man wide open for two killer 3-pointers. i don't blame him for losing the game by any stretch, i just think for this team to be good, REALLY good, they need a more mature point guard who can get people involved on offense and play enough defense so as not to be noticed

 

[kobebeanbryant]

we lived and died by the bazz last night. which is why you can easily make an argument that he should be blamed/praised.

 

[ctchamps]

Outside of his higher than normal turnovers, I thought Shabazz had a very good game. The 7 assists should have been 10 -12 if Jeremy wasn't as cold as the Arctic Circle and the front court understood that the ball goes between a round open cylinder. The two open shots out of twenty minutes of defense in which Shabazz is disrupting the defense and trying to avoid foul trouble are looking at the cup as empty. But Shabazz is this years whipping boy. So everything he does negatively will be highlighted and factored with greater emphasis than otherwise.

I was impressed that Shabazz has performed as well as he has given there is no back up.

 

[imno1]

Agree with everything. He kills ball movement on offense, over dribbles constantly but a lot of Calhoun PG's do that. But then he flashes the ability to lead a one man come back. I just think in the long run he is going to have to learn that he doesnt need the ball in his hands all the time and that getting others involved is more important than dribbling and shooting.

Especially with RB out who else can handle the ball? We now have two guys SN and JL on the whole team who can dribble.

 

[aboogieee]

Outside of his higher than normal turnovers, I thought Shabazz had a very good game. The 7 assists should have been 10 -12 if Jeremy wasn't as cold as the Arctic Circle and the front court understood that the ball goes between a round open cylinder. The two open shots out of twenty minutes of defense in which Shabazz is disrupting the defense and trying to avoid foul trouble are looking at the cup as empty. But Shabazz is this years whipping boy. So everything he does negatively will be highlighted and factored with greater emphasis than otherwise.

I was impressed that Shabazz has performed as well as he has given there is no back up.

+1

Yes,
Napier played a very good 2nd half, 1st half was so-so where he turned the ball over 4 out of 5 times but was scoring the ball. To blame him is completely unfair IMO ' He did a great job of leading the charge in the comeback with the back-to-back assists to Olander and Giffey and then one later to Smith for the lead ' then another one to Giffey (for another lead) and when you think about he should've had 2 more to Drummond but AD couldn't convert. I only wish he had passed to open Giffey when down 66-63 instead of drawing the foul but all in all there are a lot of other things you can nitpick about concerning this game and for it to be mostly about Napier is tough ......

 

[ctchamps]

+1

Yes,
Napier played a very good 2nd half, 1st half was so-so where he turned the ball over 4 out of 5 times but was scoring the ball. To blame him is completely unfair IMO ' He did a great job of leading the charge in the comeback with the back-to-back assists to Olander and Giffey and then one later to Smith for the lead ' then another one to Giffey (for another lead) and when you think about he should've had 2 more to Drummond but AD couldn't convert. I only wish he had passed to open Giffey when down 66-63 instead of drawing the foul but all in all there are a lot of other things you can nitpick about concerning this game and for it to be mostly about Napier is tough ......

And those sloppy turnovers in the first half were more likely the result of Shabazz trying to pace himself and slow down the game in order to not get fatigued. And the European step turnover was just the inability of his leg to slide on the floor.