Whats Not To Love About Shabazz Napier Game? | The Boneyard

Whats Not To Love About Shabazz Napier Game?

Status
Not open for further replies.

hungry husky

Currently Hungry
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Messages
754
Reaction Score
440
I think he has the potential to be a good leader if he cuts down on his occasional over-aggressiveness and poor shot selection.
 
Joined
Sep 18, 2012
Messages
9
Reaction Score
4
Yes! @ThRogers i couldn't believe it when i watched the video myslf HaHa

@Hungry Husky i couldn't agree more. Think last season he was looking to much into actually filling Kemba's shoes
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Messages
16,519
Reaction Score
32,023
He looks great in these homemade videos but wait until he plays against BE competition and better college players. Time well tell if Bazz can play that well against the best college talent.

Oh wait, Bazz did! In fact he won a Championship (from the floor not the bench) and outplayed them all. Kid does have moves and some.

Seriously though it must have been hard for him to watch a 'smaller' kid dunk all the time and everyday. Good to see him dunk at least once in my lifetime.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
33,619
Reaction Score
97,014
Amazing what this kid has accomplished in 2 years, a kid who they asked to skip prep school to fill a void as a back up PG for Kemba...........and yet people complain about him. No doubt he takes some bad shots but he also makes some big one's, has the balls of a bull and can play for me any time!!!
 

Dogbreath2U

RIP, DB2U
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
3,495
Reaction Score
6,708
I for one will not be surprised if he does not end up being our primary point guard and Boat plays more off the ball. Whoever is the primary, it's great to have 2 point guards, as we have seen in the past. My primary hope is that his foot is really healthy and stays that way through the season.
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2011
Messages
2,957
Reaction Score
5,401
Shabazz's sophomore season was one of the more interesting ones I can remember from a Jekyll and Hyde perspective. Check out his game-by-game stats from last year http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...2/misc_non_event/shabazznapiercompletebio.pdf

He averaged 13 PPG on the season, but he almost never had an "average" game where he would score around 13 with a few assists. You can describe almost all of his games as either really good (11 games with over 20 points) or really bad (12 games with fewer than 7 points). When he was really good, there were plenty of games when he was unquestionably the best player on the floor. Then I think of his bad games, like the two games I saw in person last year (@Seton Hall and home vs. Syracuse) where there was no doubt that Napier was the worst player on the floor.

The next step for Shabazz is for his "bad" games to be 8 points, 6 assists, and still run the team effectively. We know he's good for a 27 point explosion where he carries the team on his back once every 3-4 games or so. But we can't afford to have Shabazz be a guy who hurts us on his off nights.
 

nomar

#1 Casual Fan™
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
15,662
Reaction Score
42,713
I think he's going to have a good season if he avoids making mistakes, makes more shots, and plays better.
 

CL82

NCAA Men’s Basketball National Champions - Again!
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
57,044
Reaction Score
209,328
I for one will not be surprised if he does not end up being our primary point guard and Boat plays more off the ball. Whoever is the primary, it's great to have 2 point guards, as we have seen in the past. My primary hope is that his foot is really healthy and stays that way through the season.

I doubt it. We're a better team when Ryan is distributing. Bazz's job this year will be to score. I think he's comfortable with that.
 

Mr. Wonderful

Whistleblower
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
2,745
Reaction Score
8,316
Jim Calhoun mentioned in late spring that Napier's role will be "off the ball" this season. There is a better than 50% chance UConn will start Napier and Boatright together. It's easy to say that this would be by necessity do to the sparsity of frontcourt talent, but my intuition is that Calhoun was going in this direction anyway.

Starting both Boat and Napier should open up UConn's offense considerably. As good as Lamb was at shooting the ball, he was very limited when it came to putting the ball on the floor and creating a shot. He turned the ball over at an alarming rate trying to penetrate off of curls. I can see Napier turning this former offensive weakness into a strength.

Napier's game better translates as a combo/sg rather than a pg anyway. He's a shooter who can sometimes pass rather than a true facilitator. He will thrive.
 
Joined
Aug 29, 2011
Messages
12,424
Reaction Score
19,890
I like Nappier's guts. He was the guy who looked to take the shots late, looked for the ball when better players seemed to shrug off into the shadows. But he absolutely need to show much better consistency going forward. Whoever posted the information on his play, 13ppg average but almost no games in the 12-14 point range had it I think. If he can regularly get 8-10 with a few of those 20-25 point nights rather than last year's all or nothing games that would be what I'd like to see. though i don't want him to lose the late game guts.
 

Dogbreath2U

RIP, DB2U
Joined
Aug 24, 2011
Messages
3,495
Reaction Score
6,708
Watch some of the games played against zone defenses last year and see who was able to make the pass into the zone (Bazz) and who was rarely able to do so (Boat). I want them both to be great, but I could see the argument made for Boat to be a scorer and Bazz to play as primary point. It would be nice if both are very effective doing both.
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
5,897
Reaction Score
10,482
Agreed when healthy he is a pest on defense kind of like Chris Paul. Needs to work on overall instincts of the pg position though, makes some horrendous decisions at times.
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2011
Messages
16,519
Reaction Score
32,023
I think he's going to have a good season if he avoids making mistakes, makes more shots, and plays better.

Who you talking about; Tyler, DeAndre, Giffey, Boat, Wolf............ ??? ;)
 

nomar

#1 Casual Fan™
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
15,662
Reaction Score
42,713
Who you talking about; Tyler, DeAndre, Giffey, Boat, Wolf............ ??? ;)

All of them. My BOLD prediction is that if they all improve in shooting, rebounding, defense and ballhandling, they will have better seasons. BOOK IT. You heard it HERE FIRST.
 

8893

Curiouser
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
29,851
Reaction Score
96,512
All of them. My BOLD prediction is that if they all improve in shooting, rebounding, defense and ballhandling, they will have better seasons. BOOK IT. You heard it HERE FIRST.
Similarly, I predict that if our team can consistently score more points than our opponents, we are going to have a good season.
 

nomar

#1 Casual Fan™
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
15,662
Reaction Score
42,713
Similarly, I predict that if our team can consistently score more points than our opponents, we are going to have a good season.

Impressive stuff 8893 -- whence do you get your inside info?
 
Joined
Aug 26, 2011
Messages
1,604
Reaction Score
4,437
Bazz just needs to fine that middle ground of when to score and when to distribute. Also needs to learn that the its ok to just swing the ball. I felt like last year the ball would just stick in his hands every time he touched it. He has proven he has talent he was basically the starting PG of a national championship team.
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
3,007
Reaction Score
3,946
Shabazz's sophomore season was one of the more interesting ones I can remember from a Jekyll and Hyde perspective. Check out his game-by-game stats from last year http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...2/misc_non_event/shabazznapiercompletebio.pdf

He averaged 13 PPG on the season, but he almost never had an "average" game where he would score around 13 with a few assists. You can describe almost all of his games as either really good (11 games with over 20 points) or really bad (12 games with fewer than 7 points). When he was really good, there were plenty of games when he was unquestionably the best player on the floor. Then I think of his bad games, like the two games I saw in person last year (@Seton Hall and home vs. Syracuse) where there was no doubt that Napier was the worst player on the floor.

The next step for Shabazz is for his "bad" games to be 8 points, 6 assists, and still run the team effectively. We know he's good for a 27 point explosion where he carries the team on his back once every 3-4 games or so. But we can't afford to have Shabazz be a guy who hurts us on his off nights.

It's called maturity, and every player progresses differently. The kid's got talent, work ethic, heart, and leadership qualities. You can see why Calhoun loved(s) him. Oh yeah, he didn't transfer. He stuck with the program. I guess you can say he's loyal, too.

Hopefully, the progression for him is consistency, and we will certainly be in better shape!
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Messages
3,007
Reaction Score
3,946
Similarly, I predict that if our team can consistently score more points than our opponents, we are going to have a good season.

Or, if our defense can keep our opponents scoring less than us;):D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Online statistics

Members online
61
Guests online
3,850
Total visitors
3,911

Forum statistics

Threads
157,111
Messages
4,083,758
Members
9,979
Latest member
Texasfan01


Top Bottom