Shabazz Napier Has Evolved Into UConn's Team Leader
NEWARK N J, Feb 12, 2013 (Menafn - The Hartford Courant - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --. -- Shabazz Napier has been tested quite a bit at UConn. Last week, coach Kevin Ollie delivered another test.
A bit tardy for a pregame team meal, Napier had to sit the first five minutes of a game against St. John's at Madison Square Garden.
Napier didn't sulk. He was vocally involved in the game on the bench as he served his punishment for breaking a team rule. He popped off the bench and was first to get to the center of a huddle during a timeout, and when the five minutes of bench time were up he played well, helping UConn make a second-half comeback that fell short.
"I felt like I let my team down," Napier said. "I told Coach I was sorry about that, it was bad communication on my part, and I wouldn't let it happen again."
Napier bounced back with a better game Sunday, scoring 22 as the Huskies beat Seton Hall 78-67 in Newark. It was a signature game, in some ways. Napier had nine assists and six steals. Early in the game, he found teammates like Omar Calhoun for threes or easy layups. He took only three shots in the half, making two, both to stem Seton Hall's momentum late in the half.
Napier took on the scoring load in the second half.
"In the first half, I was a distributor," he said. "I saw that was working, I didn't want to mess up the chemistry of the team. In the second half, I wanted to be more aggressive. It was a one-point game, and this was the only [time] we had left for the rest of this game."
Napier is nearing the end of his third year at UConn, as the Huskies (16-6, 6-4 Big East) play their 23rd game Wednesday against Syracuse at the XL Center. It's not clear if he is coming back for his senior season, though he sometimes refers to how good the Huskies can be next year. He is not projected as a first-round NBA pick, though there are scouts at every game.
If he stays, Napier, who scored his 1,000th point on Jan. 8, could end up with one of the more memorable careers in a program that has had many of them.
"Great point guards have a lot of responsibility," said Ollie, UConn's point guard from 1991-95. "It's tough sometimes, but if you want to be great, you've got to take that responsibility. It means being up all the time, even if you don't feel like being up because everybody feeds off you. That's what the great ones do. And I think Shabazz has the ability to be great. Now, is he going to continue to push and push and push to be consistent? He has been doing that the whole year."
Napier has been the Big East player of the week twice this season. In numerous games, he has been the key performer down the stretch and in overtime. He is fifth in the league in scoring (18.2), ninth in assists (4.7), seventh in free throw percentage (81.4), third in steals (2.1), third in made three-pointers (2.3 a game), fourth in assists-to-turnover ratio (2.4) and, despite foot and shoulder injuries, third in minutes (36.5).
And, more important, the Huskies have looked like a team in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as opposed to last season, when it seemed the opposite. Last season, Napier was often at odds with teammates, trying to find his voice as point guard and leader after Kemba Walker. When he called out teammates for lacking heart after a loss to Marquette, it made a bad situation worse.
"I talk less," Napier said. "Sometimes, I would talk too much and that would get me into trouble, lead my teammates in the wrong direction."
This season, teammates have been saying Napier is a much different person.
"I try to [lead] by my actions," Napier said. "As long as they see the effort and energy I bring, I feel as though they understand. I'm not perfect. I just try to do the best I can for the team and for myself. I try all the time."
The manner in which Napier handled his five-minute benching brought out more praise from his coach, who said he "took it like a man."
"I'm so proud of him," Ollie said. "Because he is making the choice to change, even if it's just little things. He's evolving as a person. He's learned he has to talk to his teammates. He is leading this team, and without him I don't know where we'd be, without him playing the type of basketball he has been playing."
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