{"id":132075,"date":"2025-03-31T21:06:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T01:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=132075"},"modified":"2026-02-28T15:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T20:08:23","slug":"sacramento-state-mike-bibby-shaqir-oneal-commit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/31\/sacramento-state-mike-bibby-shaqir-oneal-commit\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento State&#8217;s First Mike Bibby Commit Has HOF Pedigree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento State&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/24\/mike-bibby-becomes-college-basketball-head-coach-for-first-time\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Mike Bibby Era<\/a> has officially kicked off, with the former NBA standout securing a commitment from Shaqir O&#8217;Neal, the junior forward announced (h\/t FOX 40 reporter Sean Cunningham).<\/p>\n<h2>Shaquille O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s Son Becomes Mike Bibby&#8217;s First Sacramento State Commit<\/h2>\n<p>Hall of Fame center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/onealsh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shaquille O&#8217;Neal<\/a>&#8216;s youngest son, the Union Grove product was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-sports\/basketball\/recruiting\/player\/_\/id\/243137\/shaqir-oneal\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a three-star recruit<\/a> in the Class of 2021. In 2021, he committed to Texas State, but he would ultimately transfer to Florida A&amp;M in 2024.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Mike Bibby lands his first recruit for Sacramento State in Shaqir O\u2019Neal, the son of Shaquille O\u2019Neal. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yJmjh5l6bF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/yJmjh5l6bF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SeanCunningham\/status\/1906819580686959022?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 31, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In 2024-25, O&#8217;Neal averaged 6.7 points and 3.4 assists per game while shooting 37.5 percent from 3.<\/p>\n<h2>Hall Of Fame Pedigree?<\/h2>\n<p>While it&#8217;s a nice story, having an older commit could help Bibby even more than having one with a Hall of Fame pedigree. The apple doesn&#8217;t usually fall far from the tree, unless it&#8217;s in that regard.<\/p>\n<p>Even if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesbr02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bronny James<\/a> had a strong showing at USC, he never looked like he&#8217;d be as dominant as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jordami01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Michael Jordan<\/a>&#8216;s sons weren&#8217;t able to make it to the NBA. O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s older brother &#8212;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/onealsh02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shareef O&#8217;Neal<\/a> &#8211;had a quiet college career; he&#8217;s yet to play a minute in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, the Hornets had eight players on their roster that were either freshman or sophomores last season. Three of the their top-five minutes leaders were either freshman or sophomores: Bailey Nunn, Lachlan Brewer, and Emil Skytta. Each of those aforementioned players ranked in the team&#8217;s bottom-five in defensive box plus-minus. Nunn, who started in 30 games, shot just 27.3 percent from the field.<\/p>\n<p>Among their five players that were either juniors or seniors, Jacob Holt (16.3) and Julian Vaughns (10.9) ranked first and second in points per game, respectively. Holt, the team&#8217;s best player, shot 50.4 percent from the field and 34.8 percent from 3. So, it&#8217;s no wonder that he had the team&#8217;s best offensive rating (114.4), a night and day difference from either Nunn (88.0) and Skytta (87.4). He even led the team in rebounds (6.9 per game).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Some home highlights of senior Jacob Holt<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 2nd team all-Big Sky<br \/>\n\u2022 Started all 32 games<br \/>\n\u2022 Led team in points (16.3 ppg) and rebounds (6.9 rpg)<br \/>\n\u2022 24 games in double figures<br \/>\n\u2022 11 games with 20+ pts; 2 games with 30+ pts<br \/>\n\u2022 2nd in Big Sky in FTM (135) &amp; FTA (188)<a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/StingersUp?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#StingersUp<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/JZB7DPZ4oz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/JZB7DPZ4oz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sacramento State Men&#8217;s Basketball (@SacHornetsMBB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SacHornetsMBB\/status\/1904286088002408883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately for Bibby, Holt doesn&#8217;t have much eligibility left. That isn&#8217;t to say that O&#8217;Neal will be the one to replace him. Nonetheless, Bibby might find it easier to put his trust in O&#8217;Neal because he&#8217;s a more seasoned player.<\/p>\n<h3>Money Conversation<\/h3>\n<p>O&#8217;Neal having a dad who&#8217;s an NBA legend could help draw more eyes to the program.<\/p>\n<p>While he&#8217;ll only be there for a short time, it&#8217;s just the type of move that generates intrigue. Furthermore, depending on how deep O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s connection with Bibby is or how well his son is treated at Sacramento State, it could help their program in peripheral ways. Perhaps O&#8217;Neal would be willing to add to the team&#8217;s NIL budget. Maybe he&#8217;ll even give a donation to help them improve their training facilities.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, many basketball players dream of making it to the NBA. Thus, it&#8217;s a good idea to establish an image of an NBA factory. In fact, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mens-college-basketball\/story\/_\/id\/43693446\/byu-basketball-aj-dybantsa-kevin-young-boosters-nil\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">one of the reasons<\/a> top high school recruit AJ Dybantsa chose to commit to BYU was their coaching staff&#8217;s experience with the NBA, he revealed to ESPN. Even BYU head coach Kevin Young can&#8217;t profess to have been an NBA standout though, as Bibby can.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Michael Chow\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sacramento State&#8217;s Mike Bibby Era has officially kicked off, with the former NBA standout securing a commitment from Shaqir O&#8217;Neal, the junior forward announced (h\/t FOX 40 reporter Sean Cunningham). Shaquille O&#8217;Neal&#8217;s Son Becomes Mike Bibby&#8217;s First Sacramento State Commit Hall of Fame center Shaquille O&#8217;Neal&#8216;s youngest son, the Union Grove product was a three-star [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":132093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[773],"tags":[2240,50027,3287,50051,261],"class_list":["post-132075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","tag-mike-bibby","tag-ncaa-transfer-portal","tag-sacramento-state-hornets","tag-shaqir-oneal","tag-shaquille-oneal"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132075"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132094,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132075\/revisions\/132094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}