With 1:52 seconds left on the clock in the first half, Jalil Abdul-Bassit came off a screen and caught a pass from Joseph Young. Without even thinking and without his feet being set, Abdul-Bassit rose off the ground and fired a contested three-pointer.
If this same situation last year would’ve happened, Abdul-Bassit would’ve been immediately pulled by head coach Dana Altman and taken a seat on the bench.
This isn’t last year.
Abdul-Bassit banked home the three-pointer for his for his 14th point of the half and as he trotted back on defense, the Oregon play-by-play announcer couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing as he gave a noticeable chuckle over the loud speaker when announcing Abdul-Bassit’s made shot.
“I thought he did a lot of good things — that was big, we needed the offensive boost in the first half.”” Altman said of Abdul-Bassit. “He really gave us a great first half — not only just scoring but in all phases of the game.”
With Young struggling to make shots for half of this season, the player who rarely got mentioned as returning this year for Oregon has picked up the slack and made opposing defenses pay.
“That was tremendous, Jalil played fantastic tonight,” starting guard Casey Benson said. “To have him come in tonight and shoot the ball like he did and make big plays like he did, it’s big — to have come off the bench and do what he did was tremendous and uplifting.”
Abdul-Bassit appeared in just 17 games last year and averaged 6.2 minutes per game and just 1.9 points but, according to Altman, a lot of those subpar stats were in large part due to him entering the season injured and having to play catch up the rest of the year.
This year, while still dealing with some injuries still, Abdul-Bassit is helping take the pressure off of Young by adding a much-needed scoring threat from the backcourt while coming off the bench.
“He’s missed a lot of practices with some knicks and stuff,” Altman said of Abdul-Bassit. “He got some shots down early and really felt good.”
Abdul-Bassit finished tonight’s game with 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including a 5-for-8 mark from downtown. On the season, Abdul-Bassit is averaging 9.7 points per game in 19 minutes while shooting 50-percent from the floor (21-for-42) and 48-percent from downtown (12-for-25).
He has already surpassed the amount of minutes he played last year and the amount of shots he took all season. Part of getting that well-deserved playing time has been his shot selection.
“His shot selection was really good,” Atlman said. “He’s a good shooter when he’s taking shots, even though he banked that one in.”
Not only has Abdul-Bassit made his presence felt on the offensive end, the real reason he’s been getting the minutes has been his work doing the little things that add up to make a big difference.
“I thought he played really well,” Altman said. “He’s giving us great energy on the defensive end — he had some great block-outs, allowed us to go and get some loose balls.”
As long as Adbul-Bassit can continuously give the Ducks solid offensive minutes off the bench while still doing the small things, look for the Ducks to take the next step forward in improving their game.
Follow Ryank Kostecka on Twitter @Ryan_Kostecka