In praise of Abdul-Hamid

by KSBruin on Jan 22, 2010 7:47 AM PST

I'm not going to say he's the answer to all of our worries, but it was clear last night that Abdul-Hamid deserves to be in our regular guard rotation, and before JA. Heroics aside, he wasn't a star, but his play was solid. Yes, he gave up the shot with about 4 seconds left, but we all know that if we actually sat players for blown defensive assignments we'd have at best 1 1/2 players on the court.

I had to laugh when FSN showed the graphic highlighting the academic achievements from both schools. For UCLA, Abdul-Hamid, with a 3.83 GPA in a dual major (communication studies and global studies, per the official web site), honor roll in all 10 of his quarters at UCLA. For UW, whichever player it was, with..."The highest GPA on the team." Woo-hoo!

I nominate Abdul-Hamid to be the subject of the next 'UCLA: Student Athletes/Winners' commercial.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of BruinsNation's (BN) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of BN's editors.

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Haha

I didn’t notice that. Reminds me of the time we were playing Cal in football and they cut to a graphic of a Cal player (I believe it was Marshawn Lynch) and it said that his favorite book was The Cat In The Hat

by LVBruin on Jan 22, 2010 7:53 AM PST reply actions

Abdul-Hamid's academics

He’s no dummy for sure—he was an excellent student at Country Day in St. Louis (one of the top prep schools in the area academic-wise) and turned down a scholie to Harvard to walk on at UCLA.

by stevenucla on Jan 22, 2010 8:40 AM PST reply actions

Re his defense on the last play.

I assume he was told not to foul, and hoped (perhaps foolishly) that he would get some help. And give the Washington guy credit – he made a great play.

Anyway, I agree with the sentiment about Abdul-Hamid. He is producing, and should get a chance. Who knows – maybe we’ll have a highlight film of him saying “Let’s GO!” We didn’t expect what we got out of Westbrook before he started getting minutes, and maybe it will be the same with Abdul-Hamid.

by Fox 71 on Jan 22, 2010 9:30 AM PST reply actions

We didn’t expect what we got out of Westbrook before he started getting minutes, and maybe it will be the same with Abdul-Hamid.

Seems unlikely. MA-H looks like he is playing to the very best of his ability – he doesn’t have the physical skills to be an elite player, but is doing his best, listening to his coaches and making sensible decisions. RW clearly had athletic potential from his first days as a freshman, he just looked out of control; once his skills caught up to his athleticism he was awesome.

by britishbruin on Jan 22, 2010 11:51 AM PST up reply actions

You're probably right

but … (isn’t there always a but?)

There was a guy a few years ago who was slow and couldn’t jump, and basically had no athletic ability to speak of named Larry Bird who did pretty well. Abdul-Hamid is good enough to play for the Bruins, which means he’s a good player. Maybe he can find something to trade for some magic beans and get that extra whatever it is to turn him into another Afflalo (unlikely, I suppose) or a Mata-Real (probably more realistic.)

by Fox 71 on Jan 22, 2010 1:25 PM PST up reply actions

Congratulation to MAH

His shot made #1 of espn’s top 10 plays of the day yesterday. I was stoked to see it late last night. Unfortunately, I cant find it on espn web site to link.

by 808 Bruin on Jan 22, 2010 10:35 AM PST reply actions