The transfer portal for NCAA basketball opened last Tuesday, and it took nearly a week for Florida State to secure its first acquisition. It was a slow start for Luke Loucks after he posted he was ready to get to work in the portal after attending the Final Four. However, the first addition should have fans excited for the future.
Cincinnati’s Shon Abaev is a talented player who fits Luke Louck’s system and has three years of eligibility remaining. The latter doesn’t mean FSU will keep him for three years, but it provides the opportunity for continuity if things go well after this upcoming season, avoiding having to completely rebuild the roster like this year with everyone exhausting eligibility.
Also, Abaev has excellent athleticism and length. He showed he can score in limited action, and I think we could see a sizeable jump in production from his freshman to his sophomore season, similar to recent player Lajae Jones.
Abaev is a nice addition with incredible upside if he can learn to take better shots and improve his free throw shooting.
The latter averaged 3.6 ppg and 1.4 rebounds as a freshman at Tarleton State before going the JUCO route and then signing with St. Bonaventure. Jones averaged 10.8 ppg and 5.8 rebounds as a junior before transferring to Florida State for his senior season.
The biggest thing for Abaev is not to force shots and to become more efficient on the floor. That’s something that Luke Loucks and staff can help with, and we saw it with players on the team this past year. It wouldn’t shock me to see Abaev average 10 points and five rebounds a game next year, and that’s on the conservative side. The fact that he is the first player signed tells me he was one of their top targets. We saw less heralded players put up solid numbers at Florida State last year. He wasn’t a McDonald’s All-American for nothing and should flourish in Florida State’s up-tempo offense.
Hopefully, this first acquisition is the first of several guys who can come in and make a difference right away. They are hosting a big man from Colorado starting Monday night who was productive last year.