Cincinnati Basketball: Why buying stock in star freshman Shon Abaev is the right move

As the 2025-2026 college basketball season gets closer to tipping off, we're hearing more buzz about the same top 5-10 or so teams and the same top 5-10 or so players.

Everyone is talking about Houston, Purdue, Duke, Florida, St. John's, Kentucky and UCLA. And for players, everyone's talking about the Boozer twins at Duke, Braden Smith at Purdue, Darryn Peterson (Kansas), AJ Dybantsa (BYU), Joseph Tugler and Chris Cenac Jr (Houston) and the talented freshmen from Arizona - Koa Peat, Brayden Burries and Dwayne Aristode.

One player I think could surprise people this season is Cincinnati's Shon Abaev. Especially with Jizzle James being dismissed from the Bearcats', there's a void to fill on that team - someone will need to score the basketball. Abaev has the talent and now with James gone he'll have the opportunity.

In a WSVN article, Abaev's Head Coach at Calvary Christian Cilk McSweeney said, “He’s a sleeper right now. And soon the nation is going to learn who he is.”

So who is Shon Abaev? He was born in Israel, then moved to south Florida when he was four.

Abaev is a 4-star recruit. He's about 6-foot-9 which is excellent size for a guard / wing. It's pretty rare for a player of that size coming out of high school to move like a guard and have guard skills. In particular, his shot-making ability (ability to not only shoot, but shoot it from deep range, hit tough shots, off the dribble, with defenders right on him, etc.) for a player coming out of high school at his size is something we really haven't seen in recent memory.

Abaev can also handle the ball, drive to the basket. He's a good passer and a respectable defender as well. Guys who are 6-foot-9 and can do all of that coming in as freshman - it's not common. It's guys like Brandon Miller, Jayson Tatum, Paul George, and Brandon Ingram. These types of players are highly coveted by NBA teams.

Let's take a look at the shot-making on film. In this first clip, Abaev has the ball in the corner. The defender is playing up on him pretty tight. And the baseline is like an extra defender so he doesn't have many options here. Seems like he wants to shoot it and tries a couple of jab steps to create enough space to get the defender to back off just enough so he can get the shot off. That's what he does - Abaev rises up, shoots over the defender. His it over a fight contest which shows good touch and also impressive confidence to try this tough of a shot.

That shot came last season when Abaev's Calvary Christian team battled AJ Dybantsa's Utah Prep squad. In that game, Abaev put up 32 points (on 12/24 from the field, 3/7 from 3-point range) to go with 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks and 1 assist. Abaev put up better, more efficient numbers than Dybantsa (although Dybantsa did appear to suffer an ankle injury midway through the contest). Most importantly, Abaev's team got the win.

Whether he's shooting off the catch or off the dribble, it's smooth and effortless for Abaev. He's got soft touch, clean mechanics, and has good shot versatility - rather than just being limited to hitting open catch and shoot looks.

I know that from some of these clips it might seem like Abaev looks for his own shot all of the time. That's just because he's a talented scorer and has been on teams where he's had to carry the offense. But upon closer inspection, he's also a very capable passer.

Let's look at some of Abaev's passing chops. One thing we'll notice is that sometimes he'll make a good pass - or even a dribble hand off (DHO) but his teammate misses the shot, gets fouled or doesn't shoot it. This tells me he's a better passer than his assist numbers indicate.

While Abaev is a good passer, his upside as a 3-level scorer is what really makes him a special prospect. Here's some more clips of his scoring ability.

Clearly, Abaev is a bucket. He can score the basketball in a variety of ways.

He's also clutch. Here, his team is down by two with 30 seconds left in the 4th quarter. He slices through the defense and makes the layup, tying the game up. On the next play, it's a tie game with about 10 seconds left. He shakes and bakes, creates space - then hits the step back 3-pointer about three seconds left. Even Shaq was impressed! :)

Abaev is more of an offensive minded player. Most of the appeal with him as a college player and as an NBA prospect is the ball handling, the three level scoring and the passing. But he's no slouch on defense either. For the most part he's in the right spots on defense, he has high IQ on that end, puts forth the effort and is able to make enough plays to contribute to winning on that end.

Again, Abaev can score the basketball in a variety of ways - and he makes it look easy.

One trend I've noticed from following college basketball and the NBA is that players who rebound well for their position often do a better job of translating to the NBA level.

At this point you're probably thinking, "Wow, this guy is a stud! Why isn't he higher on draft boards?"

That's a good question, to be honest. He's severely underrated, in my opinion. At the moment, he's the 8th ranked prospect on my 2026 NBA Draft big board.

One reason why I think some folks are lower on him as a prospect is that he's kind of old, relative to many other freshmen. This means he had more of an advantage in high school (since he was older) and he's further along in his development as a player than freshmen (like the Boozer twins, Cenac and Jaden Toombs) who are younger freshmen. While that certainly is a factor, I don't weigh it too heavily.

While there's some players on that list (Josh Jackson, Labissiere, Washington) there's plenty of success cases on there (like Holmgren, McCain, the Thompson twins, Brandon Miller, Lu Dort, etc.) for me to not worry too much about Abaev's age.

As for Abaev's game, there really are not many weaknesses. I think perhaps some folks see him (in addition to being an old freshman) as a guy who can shoot but can't do anything else. And maybe they think his shooting is streaky. But as I have discussed and covered here with video footage, I think he's a better passer, a better rebounder, a better driver and a better finisher at the rim and a better defender than he's given credit for.

Abaev is not the most athletic player in the world which might somewhat limit his ceiling. But I think his athleticism is decent. I don't think he's that far off athletically than someone like Brandon Miller. I'm not a big fan of player comps because they often oversimplify the scouting and player evaluation process but Miller might be the best comp for Abaev. They're both "old freshmen", both about 6'9", both wings who can really shoot the ball and are somewhat limited in terms of athleticism and defense.

Another thing Abaev may have to work on is speeding up the release on his jumper by just a touch. Sometimes it seems like it take a little bit too long for him to load up, rise up and fire the ball away when shooting. It worked for him in high school but as he moves up in competition level (to NCAA and then to the pros) speeding it up a bit could help to make sure the shot translates well.

Lastly, another thing Abaev will want to work on is getting stronger and bulking up. As of now, he's a tall but skinny/lanky wing. As he moves up in competition level, the players are going to be stronger and the game will be more physical. Continuing to hit the weight room should be a priority for Abaev. Luckily, strength is one of the easier, more common things that we see young players improve at the college/pro level so I'm not too worried about it.

All in all, I do think Abaev is a very good prospect. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he's averaging 15 or maybe even 20 points per game in the NBA eventually. And doing it on good defficiency, with solid defense, rebounding and passing. In my book, that's worthy of consideration with a top 10 pick. At least for now - there's a long way to go until the 2026 draft. We still have an entire season that ahs yet to tip off.

One thing's for sure. Cincinnati has a good one in Abaev. Enjoy him while you've got him, Bearcats fans. It might only be for one year. Abaev mentioned this in a WSVN article:

"“I just felt like it was the best fit for me to achieve my goal, which is to go to the NBA after one year and to win a national championship,” he said. “They have everything in their power to get me better on weaknesses I have and also to help me improve myself and show myself to the next level."

Shon Abaev

One other quote from that article that I like which illustrates Abaev's competitiveness and determination, when speaking about last season's Calvary Christian team:

"“You know it’s just a different mindset,” said Abaev. “We came in this year, we wanted to win everything. That’s what we’re doing. We only lost one game this season. We’re trying to win it all this year and proving a point. I work hard every day. I just stay close to my family, my inner circle and I just keep believing in myself. And the people that believe in me, I just keep pushing, and I keep going for them.”"

Shon Abaev

Cincinnati tips off their season on November 3 vs Western Carolina. Abaev is a player to watch in that game and throughout the season for the Bearcats as they compete in the tough Big 12 Conference.

Abaev your stock now!