Wes Miller Highlights Shon Abaev's Potential Impact For Cincinnati At Big 12 Media Days

 Wes Miller and a few of his players took the stage at Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday. One of those players on stage wasn't Shon Abaev, but the freshman phenom still got plenty of attention.

The 6-9 bucket maestro tied for the team lead in scoring during UC's 100-98 exhibition win over Michigan last Friday. He showed off a few impressive scoring factors, going 4-8 from the floor and 3-6 from downtown.

"I think we have a ton of confidence in Shon's ability to have a great freshman year," Miller said on stage. "We've seen it in our summer, in our preseason, you know. And so is he going to have a night where he shoots the ball successfully every single time that he steps on the floor? No, that's not going to happen, but it was good to see that he was able to do it in his first exhibition. 

"I think what these guys would say, and what we'd say as a staff, we expect Shon to have nights he shoots the ball well and make shots and scores. That's what he does naturally. What we've been most impressed with, though, is his work ethic. He's come in with a very humble, work-minded approach that has earned the respect of his teammates on this stage, and because of that, he's going to continue to have a lot of positive nights for us as we get into real games."

Abaev is the second-highest-ranked Bearcats recruit of the 247Sports era behind Lance Stephenson, a guy he'd surely love to emulate NBA career-wise.

Stephenson is the only UC player to suit up for five or more NBA campaigns in the past decade. There's a long way to go for Abaev to get there as the Bearcats' first draft pick since Jacob Evans in 2018. 

All focus is on the next exhibition game against Arkansas on Friday, another opportunity to improve and grow as a team.

"I think you said it first, which is why we wanted to play exhibition games, so that you guys could overreact if we played poorly," Miller joked with the interviewer. "For me, I appreciate it. If we played poorly or had a poor outcome, it's a great opportunity for us to deal with that and how we're going to handle those types of things over the course of the season. If we had a positive outcome, it would be a great opportunity to deal with people overreacting. So I think the exhibition games have been great for college basketball because it allows you to get to some of the real things that you deal with day to day in college basketball earlier in the year and prepare for the season."

Cincinnati takes on the Razorbacks at 8 p.m. ET on Friday on SEC Network+.