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C2C Columnist AK Murthy
BruinsBall.com was in Las Vegas, Nevada watching 2012 phenom Shabazz Muhammad at Bishop Gorman High School. He conducted a private workout along with teammates Demetris Morant (2012), Rashad Muhammad (2013), and Stephen Zimmerman, the top ranked player in 2015.
C2C Hoops profiled Zimmerman earlier in the week after attending his individual workout. We caught up with Muhammad, who offered some thoughts on the freshman.
"He's a really good player, he's 6'11 and just in the 8th grade," Muhammad said. "He's a great player, and as he keeps working out here in the long term it's going to work out well for him."
Muhammad and his teammates focused mostly on ball handling and offensive drills in their session. As usual, Muhammad looked comfortable shooting the ball and showed his athleticism on drills that required him to go at the rim. With his shooting stroke and ability to put the ball on the floor, there is little doubt that Muhammad will be a very capable scorer in the college game and beyond.
Originally scheduled to visit the University of Arizona last week, Muhammad postponed the visit until this weekend due to scheduling issues.
"I'm really looking forward to it," Muhammad said of the visit, "I really like the way they play and the style of coach (Sean) Miller so I'm looking forward to going down there and having a good time. They're one of the schools I'm really considering."
Though many thought he would be visiting the UA campus for multiple days, Muhammad told Bruins Ball that he would fly in early Sunday and spend the day there.
"I'm going to spend the day with the players and coaches, that kind of stuff," Muhammad said.
"They want me to run the wing and look for the ball in transition, things like that," Muhammad said of how the Arizona coaches want to use him. "I like the way coach Miller makes them run and I like that style of play when they're running."
Bruins Ball was also in Lawrence, Kansas last weekend watching Muhammad play in the Jayhawk Invitational for Dream Vision, his AAU team. Muhammad had a spectacular performance in the event, but nothing eclipsed the duel between him and Chris Thomas of the Colorado Hawks in the event's title game. Thomas is currently the top rated guard in the class of 2013.
"He's a great player," Muhammad said of Thomas. "I was talking to him and he said he was really high on Arizona. He's a very dynamic player, he can play the 1/2 and I can play the 2/3 so we could fit together."
Both Muhammad and Thomas scored 30+ in their head to head matchup, but Muhammad and Dream Vision took home the title.
"It was really nice to win that event," he told Bruins Ball, "last year we didn't win it, we suffered a bad loss so we had to redeem ourselves this year."
"I was just trying to get the win," Muhammad said when asked about his individual performace. "I had to get points, rebounds, and get in transition so I did that. I think I played well and we got the win so that's all that matters."
With his junior year of high school coming to a close, Muhammad is looking forward to spending extra time working on his game.
"Ball handling off the pick and roll, a lot of jump shooting, a lot of three point shooting, I'm doing a lot of that stuff to get my skill set right," Muhammad said. "I love working out with Pops (Muhammad's trainer), I work out with him almost everyday so I'm doing that and the stuff in the weight room helps, so I'm working out around two times a day which is helping me get bigger and stronger."
Though Muhammad is mainly focused on improving his game, that hasn't stopped the nation's elite basketball programs from trying to get in his ear.
"Other than Arizona, recently I've been in touch with Duke, Kentucky, and UCLA," Muhammad told Bruins Ball.
"The UCLA staff said they could use me a lot in the half court game they play," he said. "Coach Howland is a mastermind in the half court, and they said they're going to try to get to running a lot this year."
"It's the same thing with the other programs like UK and Duke, I've been watching them a lot and all the other programs trying to make sure I make the right decision at the end of the day."
