JUCO sharpshooter Abdul Bashir talks Nebraska offer, fit in Hoiberg offense

Fred Hoiberg and his Nebraska staff have completely flipped their roster for the 2024-25 season, adding six transfers, two high school recruits and one walk-on from a junior college.

But work for the 2025-26 season is ongoing as well.

On Thursday, one of the best 3-point shooters in the junior college ranks, 2025 guard Abdul Bashir of Casper (Wyo.) College, unofficially visited Lincoln and left with an offer.

The Huskers now join the mix for the 6-foot-7 shooter and Omaha native who has recently been offered by Arizona State, Texas A&M, Kansas State and UCF among others.

Bashir, who spent his freshman and sophomore years of high school at Omaha Bryan High School before spending his junior season at Minnesota Prep and senior season at Colorado Prep, played in 33 games with 32 starts as a true freshman at Casper in 2023-24.

Bashir averaged 19.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists while shooting 45% from 3-point range (124-of-274) and 78.5% from the free-throw line (84-of-107). Bashir is a knock-down shooter and filled it up from behind the arc — he averaged 8.3 3-point attempts per game and his 124 made 3s led the NJCAA.

Bashir made at least four 3s in 17 games last season and at least six treys in seven contests. He made nine 3s in one game on two occasions — a 9-of-11 performance Dec. 6 against Dawson Community College and a 9-of-18 outing Feb.10 against Western Wyoming Community College.

"I had a big season. It was really nice, because my coach (Tom Parks), he really lets me play free and shoot the ball at a high volume because he knows I can shoot," Bashir told Inside Nebraska on Thursday. "I put in a lot of work, though. There was a lot of work put in behind the scenes."

Bashir will spend the the 2024-25 season at Casper as he works to get his associate degree before he can attend a four-year school. He expects to take more visits in the fall.

Nebraska assistant Ernie Zeigler was the first Husker staff member to reach out to Bashir last month. Zeigler first connected with Bashir at Colorado Prep when the coach was there to see Bashir's teammate, Baye Ndongo, who went on to play his freshman season at Georgia Tech.

"Coach Zeigler and coach Hoiberg came to a practice, saw me play a little bit, and then coach Zeigler came to some more games that season. So he already knew of me," Bashir said.

The Nebraska visit went well for Bashir. Hoiberg's basketball philosophy was what stood out most. Hoiberg showed Bashir film cutups of former Husker shooters Keisei Tominaga and CJ Wilcher.

"The way he thinks about offense, I think I really fit in his system," Bashir said. "The way he broke down the film to me, we were watching clips and stuff, he showed me I can be a primary ball-handler, I can play off the ball, fill the lanes. He plays a very fast-paced game, a lot of screens for guards, a lot of open threes."

While Bashir has always been a shooter, he hasn't always enjoyed the 6-7 height he's currently at. When he was entering his freshman year at Bryan he was around 5-11. By the time he was a sophomore, he had grown to 6-3. The past two years, Bashir said he's grown 2 inches.

With several power conference programs extending offers to him this offseason, it's made Bashir even more determined to develop other parts of his game so he's not just a 3-point specialist.

After playing his Casper season at 160 pounds, becoming stronger is one of the top priorities.

"I showed I can hold my own, but I want to continue to grow with my weight," Bashir said. "I want to gain weight, gain muscle. I feel like I have to key-in on those parts. I need to work on my skills obviously, but I feel like the skill set is there in order to play in any conference, to be honest. But gaining that weight, gaining that physical strength so I can be physical on-ball when I'm guarding guys or getting in the lane and creating. Just need to get stronger."

Bashir's family hails from Somalia. He was born in Minnesota and moved to Omaha when he was around 2 years old. He attended Norris Middle School before Bryan. Bashir still has family in Omaha — his mother owns Wamo Food Market.

Abdul has a twin brother, Abdi, a 6-7, 160-pound guard at Monmouth who played in 33 games as a freshman in 2023-24.

Going through this recruiting process has energized Bashir and made him as determined as ever to continue developing his game so he can play power conference basketball, wherever that may be.

"I've been getting recruited by high-level programs. A lot of JUCO guys don't really get recruited after their freshman season," Bashir said. "So the fact I'm getting power five offers before any camps or anything like that, it really goes to show all these coaches believe in me. It's good reassurance having all these power five programs recruit me."

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