Shon Abaev Breaks Down Elite Work Ethic, Game Evolution Ahead of Freshman Season at Cincinnati

 Wes Miller has an almost entirely new team to sharpen ahead of the 2025 season, and that includes highly-touted five-star forward Shon Abaev.

The headlining recruit in the 2025 class is starting up his college journey with fellow 2025 classmate Keyshuan Tillery, and the two sat down with UC radio voice Dan Hoard recently for a wide-ranging chat. 

Abaev described the evolution of his game before getting to UC, from a playmaker to a versatile weapon with a major scoring ceiling.

"A lot of people see me as a scorer, putting the ball in the hole, but at a young age, my first ever AAU coach, my first ever basketball trainer he taught me to be unselfish," Abaev said on the Let's Reign Podcast. "Find the open pass, make the right play, always. And I feel like that's my real gift, you know, finding my teammates, making the right play, getting my teammates involved.

"And then when I got older, I started to become a better scorer. And I feel like that put my passing ability in a shadow. I feel like, so just trying to tell people that I'm not just a one-sided player, like I'm not just a scorer. I get my teammates involved, and I'll make the right play."

Abaev enters his freshman season as a top-30 prospect nationally and Cincinnati's second-highest rated recruit of the 247Sports era, behind only eventual NBA veteran Lance Stephenson.

He is also the eighth Cincinnati recruit to ever play in the McDonald's All-American Game (eight points, one rebound, and two steals in 13 minutes).

A mastery work ethic has put him in position to be a star this fall and beyond.

"At a young age, my mom and dad always pushed me to work hard every day, working out three to four times a day, even when I didn't feel like it; I didn't have a choice," Abaev said about the work ethic instilled at a young age. "They always would make me go to the gym. But then, when I got older, it just became a habit. So now it's like when I tell people I work out three to four times a day, not including like team practice with the team, they look at me crazy, but now it's normal."

Abaev noted he's put on about 10 pounds of muscle since entering the program at 6-8, 195 pounds.

He and the Bearcats are roughly seven weeks away from tipping off the season.