Bishop Gorman’s Muhammad embraces spotlight

It’s still early in the first half of Bishop Gorman’s opening-round Beach Ball Classic game Tuesday night, and ballyhooed senior Shabazz Muhammad has already assumed his role as showman for the evening with two high-flying dunks.

A couple possessions after throwing down a crowd-pleasing one-handed slam, Muhammad converts yet again with a more subdued two-handed finish to extend his team’s early lead even further en route to what will be a lopsided 81-33 win over Rye (N.Y.). But this one won’t make any highlight reels, and one fan makes it clear he expects more flare from the No. 1-rated high school basketball prospect in the country.

“Windmill!” the man yells out from his seat.

Muhammad, a 6-foot-6 forward, is used to such attention by now. And with the likes of Duke, Kentucky and Kansas among the bevy of Division I heavyweights jostling for his services, he doesn’t have much choice.

The spotlight is always on Shabazz these days.

“It’s a great thing,” Muhammad says after the opening night win inside the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.

“It’s a little pressure. You’ve just got to know you’ve got to go out and perform, and people are watching you – watching you at all times – so make sure you have a good attitude out there and perform and just have fun.”

Check, check and check.

Ranked as the top recruit in the class of 2012 by Rivals.com and ESPNU, Muhammad sounds sincere as he talks about staying humble and being blessed by his soaring stature. He’s friendly, well-spoken and genuinely seems to appreciate his burgeoning stardom.

And after watching from the sideline with a hip injury two years ago when Las Vegas-based Bishop Gorman last played in the Beach Ball Classic, winning the event, Muhammad says he’s eager for the opportunity this week to participate in “one of the best tournaments in the country.”

As for the part about performing for the crowd, well, that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

“He’s like a man amongst boys out there,” Rye coach Chris DiCintio would say after watching Muhammad tally a game-high 24 points and eight rebounds while playing just 16 minutes. “To be honest with you, I thought he came out and he was just kind of toying with us a little bit in the beginning to get the feel for what we were going to do. I do think that giving a little effort on our end made him up his game a little bit, and he’s just so talented.”

Hence the unyielding attention on his pending decision as to which of college basketball’s premier programs he’ll sign with this spring. He chose not to make a decision during the early fall signing period and has narrowed his list down to Kentucky, UNLV, UCLA, Duke, Arizona and Kansas. He still has a few visits to make, but he’s trying not to spend too much time thinking about the decision until Bishop Gorman’s season is over.

“Right now, I’m just trying to focus on the high school season, make sure we finish off really strong and then go from there,” Muhammad says. “We’re expected to win all these tournaments, and last tournament we kind of underachieved, but this tournament we’re strong and ready to win it.”

Of course, that doesn’t stop people from asking him constantly about his college choice – even during games sometimes.

He’ll say Tuesday night that he heard a couple people sitting behind the Bishop Gorman bench making their case for him to choose Duke.

“But it’s a great experience, so I just appreciate being recruited like this,” he adds.

The spotlight has been on Muhammad since his freshman year, he and coach Grant Rice say, so they’re used to it – as are his teammates. Bishop Gorman is deep on talent. Demetris Morant, a 6-foot-9 UNLV signee, is another aerial artist and puts on an impressive display Tuesday night with 11 points and seven blocks, and Rosco Allen – a 6-foot-9 Stanford signee – contributes 12 points, five rebounds and four assists in a well-rounded effort.

Muhammad is the headliner, though, and his Bishop Gorman teammates have enjoyed the Shabazz Show, senior guard Gio Guzman says.

“There’s a lot more media around and cameras and stuff [this season],” Guzman says. “We’ve got a camera crew following us around all the time, and all these people, autographs and stuff. At school, there will be camera crews walking around with us. It’s cool for us to experience too. It’s exciting.”

Muhammad, meanwhile, has continued to mature as a player in his senior season despite being double-teamed and even triple-teamed at times, Rice says, all the while doing his best to keep his focus on the court.

“He’s never let it get him distracted,” Rice says of the attention. “He’s pretty much all business out there.”

With Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski sitting courtside Thursday night, Muhammad would follow up with a game-high 22 points while going 8 of 13 from the field in a 76-38 win over Ohio-based Lakota East to send Bishop Gorman to the tournament semifinals.

As for the win Tuesday night, Muhammad scores 10 points in the second half against overmatched and undersized Rye despite not playing the final 10 minutes with the game already well in hand. Before departing, though, he delivers on the fan’s request for a windmill dunk, adding yet another highlight to his collection for the evening.

“Yes! That’s the windmill,” the fan shouts.

Later, during a break in the action, the man yells out again to Muhammad.

“Shabazz, 360!” he says.

Muhammad glances over briefly, but he doesn’t react. And soon enough, his night his done.

Standing outside the team’s locker room later, he acknowledges that he did indeed hear the calls from the crowd, and he did his best to give them what they wanted, to live up to the expectations that come along with being the top-rated player in the country.

“I heard him, I heard him,” Muhammad says. “And I was trying to get the 360 one, but I didn’t get to get it, so hopefully I’ll get it next game.”