Shabazz deserves his own thread

[HuskyBballFan]

I can't see where people saw the "wildly inconsistent" Shabazz the first 2 years so I guess maybe that's why I'm a little less surprised than some of you. The kid has been clutch and ballsy since day 1 and while at times he got wild he improved game-to-game in most cases. Admittedly he's even better than expected from me but I thought he would be The Man for this team and has certainly proved to be all of that!

Check out the game log of his sophomore year. He had 12 games of 7 points or less and 11 games of 20 points or more. He took over certain games - West Virginia in the BET, the Cincy game where he single handedly brought us back, and others. Then there were the two games I attended in person (@ Seton Hall and home vs. Syracuse) where he was arguably the worst player on the floor. He also had a 4 game stretch in the middle of the season where he went 0-7, 0-9, 1-6, and 3-11 from the field. He was all over the place.

 

[mauconnfan]

Check out the game log of his sophomore year. He had 12 games of 7 points or less and 11 games of 20 points or more. He took over certain games - West Virginia in the BET, the Cincy game where he single handedly brought us back, and others. Then there were the two games I attended in person (@ Seton Hall and home vs. Syracuse) where he was arguably the worst player on the floor. He also had a 4 game stretch in the middle of the season where he went 0-7, 0-9, 1-6, and 3-11 from the field. He was all over the place.

Again he could have shot it crappy but he played well. Guess he went through a stretch but for the most part was unduly subjected to criticism despite having to play basically most of every game as they had NO back up.......and he played hurt for most of the season on a team with little or no chemistry. He was arguably the 3rd maybe 4th most important player on the NC team as a frosh also.......don't see it but respect your thoughts!

 

[aceboon]

I don't think there's any doubt that his foot injury was a pretty big cause for his inconsistency. He's obviously improved and followed a natural soph to junior progression but there were games last season where it looked like he could do nothing but dribble from side to side. The attacking Shabazz from early in the season was gone and his performances were dictated by whether or not he could get a shot from outside to fall. He went from shredding one of the better defenses in the country in FSU to not being able to do much during the regular season.

 

[upstater]

The team could surely use one of these top point guards that's still available, since it doesn't look like they will get significant hep with the bigs next year. Deandre will still be option #1 at PF and UConn will still be playing a 3 guard lineup. Need one more guard to give Shabazz a rest for 6 or so minutes.

 

[Buffett10]

damn just last year the boneyard was KILLING this kid. I remember a bunch of us saying I hope all you guys eat your words. Im not calling anyone out. But last year a couple of us on here stood up for him and you guys were killing us for standing up for him. Now all of a sudden "hes greatness". The kid has always been good he just changed his attitdude. Goes to show you cant bash someone cuz in the end you might end up loving them. With that said lets go beat the Orange out of Cuse.

 

[Gurleyman]

The team could surely use one of these top point guards that's still available, since it doesn't look like they will get significant hep with the bigs next year. Deandre will still be option #1 at PF and UConn will still be playing a 3 guard lineup. Need one more guard to give Shabazz a rest for 6 or so minutes.

There's reason to hope that Samuel can be a good "hold the fort" guy off the bench. Give him 10 minutes (7 first half, 3 second half), tell him don't make mistakes, and maybe spot up for the occasional open jumper. We'll have to see - maybe he'll turn out to be more than just a fort-holder and can make some things happen (or maybe he'll be less and won't get PT as a freshman).

 

[OkaForPrez]

I can't see where people saw the "wildly inconsistent" Shabazz the first 2 years so I guess maybe that's why I'm a little less surprised than some of you. The kid has been clutch and ballsy since day 1 and while at times he got wild he improved game-to-game in most cases. Admittedly he's even better than expected from me but I thought he would be The Man for this team and has certainly proved to be all of that!

Agreed. Freshman and Sophomore guards who are asked to run an offense are going to struggle with mistakes, very few are above it. All you need to do is look at MCW this year for Cuse. Spectacular talent, cartoonish height and athleticism for a ball handler. He's a great player who will be great at the next level in my opinion. But he's still had a few games this year where he's been extremely careless with the basketball.

That is what is so frustrating about this year. Our most successful teams in the Calhoun era had two ball handlers and 1 upperclassmen point to be a coach on the floor. Ricky, Kahlid. Taliek, Ben. Kemba, Bazz. For all intents and purposes this team has been exceptional at taking care of the basketball which I think was a great barometer of success for our best teams. With AO, Roscoe, and Drummond I believe this is a championship caliber team. Rebounding and defense were somewhat given. The scoring and ball control that came with our seasoned backcourts lead to championships. We have the seasoning, were just missing the meat. And that's why its the season of sugar and hot sauce.