The fact that we have seen two point guards show a big jump in their Junior years does not mean that every Sophomore PG will do so. Kemba showed great improvement from a foundation of having enough humility to see the need to improve and make it a reality. He was said to have worked with Blaney to restructure his jump shot. That was a huge undertaking. He learned to play a little slower, how to create space, how to be a positive team leader, how to never give in, how to not get tired, how to get to most of the critical rebounds and loose balls, how to keep his head up and smile (even through the rough times), and how to make the critical stops.
Shabazz started his Junior admitting to making mistakes in the way he tried to become a leader of the team, about how he needed to learn to be more positive with teammates. He handled his Coach retiring after he stayed out of loyalty to him and joined in to support Ollie. He handled the talk of Boat being given the PG role (even though it never made sense to me, btw). He played with pain and had surgery without really enough time to get fully in shape before the season started, but played kemba-like minutes all season and came to become the team leader through his hard-earned maturity and making the most of the opportunities to make the big play. He finally was put back into the PG role when it was obvious to everyone that he was light years ahead of Boat as the quarterback of the team. He went on to have one of the best seasons for a PG in the Calhoun era (extended).
Ryan Boatright could become pretty good, maybe even better than that, if he can find the humility to recognize how far he has to go and how much he has to learn. This is what I think he lacks right now, but I hope that either I am wrong or that he can find the guts to get help and to learn how to really improve. It looks like he thinks he is much better than he really is and this could be the thing that prevents him from getting much better at all. I think that he will improve, but man, he really has to learn a lot. He has to learn how to create space to get his shot off. He needs to learn to play with his head up and look to pass first. He needs to really become committed to learn how to play defense because he is a poor fundamental defender. He needs to be as happy (or happier) with an assist as making a basket and this did not seem to be the case this year. He also needs to shoot a lot better by taking better shots and not playing 1 against 5.
I think that Shabazz had an advantage over Boat in that he had Kemba as a Junior to model himself on as a freshman. Shabazz was not the player or leader as a sophomore that he was this year. I think that Boat saw himself as a peer to (or even a better talent than) Shabazz, so that he did not have the role model to learn from. I hope Ryan remembers all those times late in the year when he got frustrated and hung his head as a message that he has to earn greatness and that he has a long way to go to find it.