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----1990 TM, You will always have a special place in our hearts Goalie-----------abedzadeh----------
Defense----hassanzadeh-----zarincheh-------moharami----
midfield---namjoo motlagh---shahrokh bayani---cyrus ghayeghran---eftekhari---Abtahi
forward-----pius-----marfavi-----
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"Iranians are fiercely nationalistic", Michael Rubin, an Iran expert at the American Enterprise Institute
. Sports doesn't build character. It reveals it - Legendary UCLA coach, John R Wooden
After a solid freshman season in 2009-2010, Rice's Arsalan Kazemi had an outstanding year as a sophomore, averaging 15.2 points and 11 rebounds in 29.8 minutes per game. He now enters his junior season as one of the preseason favorites for Conference USA Player of the Year, and is a player that NBA scouts will likely be paying attention to, as they'll need to assess how his somewhat unorthodox game might translate to the NBA level.
As we mentioned before, Kazemi has an intriguing physical profile for an NBA prospect, standing at 6'8” with solid length and athleticism, and he enhances those physical tools with an excellent motor, seeming to have an extra gear than most anybody else on the court. His incredible effort level and aggressiveness enabled him to be one of the most productive players in all of college basketball last season (his 31.1 PER ranked 6th of all players in our database), despite his skill level and feel for the game still being a work in a progress.
Kazemi again played as a power forward as a sophomore and saw an increase in his role offensively, which he made the most of, increasing his scoring output while still shooting a solid 53% from the floor. About 32% of his touches came in the post, where he was very efficient and showed quite a bit more polish with his footwork and skill level than he did as a freshman. He fights hard for position, has a nice touch, and the ability to finish with both hands. His lack of size hinders his ability to finish at times, however, and will make it difficult to translate this part of his game to the NBA level.
He also showed the ability to catch the ball at the elbow and put the ball on the floor for a few dribbles to get to the rim, where he's able to utilize his quickness advantage against most college big men. He is relentless attacking the basket, as evidenced by him leading all players in our database in free throw attempts per possession last season.
His ball-handling, though improved, is still not refined enough for him to be an effective weapon on the wing, and although his energy and aggressiveness are usually his greatest assets, he has trouble harnessing them at times and can be a bit out of control and turnover-prone going to the basket, occasionally having tunnel vision and not seeing the floor.
We mentioned last season that Kazemi has the body and mobility that could allow him to make the transition to more of a full time small forward, but that remains somewhat of a stretch at this stage given his skill set. He hardly attempted a jumper all of his sophomore season, and although he improved his free throw percentage from 61% to 72%, he'll need to start showing the ability to knock down some perimeter jump shots.
Defensively, Kazemi primarily defends big men at Rice, and as we mentioned before, his lack of size can be a liability against the stronger, bulkier players he faces in the post in the post. He does look to have the lateral quickness to make the switch to defending more on the perimeter, but it might take some time to adjust.
Overall, Kazemi is an interesting prospect that scouts could have a wide range of opinions on, in terms of how well his game might translate to the next level. It's extremely hard to find anybody who plays as hard as he does, and his production at the college level can't be ignored. He still seems to be a bit stuck between positions, but if he can start to display more of a perimeter game this season, he could emerge as an intriguing combo forward prospect.
He was great from the field 6-6, but once again chocked on the FT's when it mattered 3-8.
They lost the game because Arsalan was unclutch with the game tied 61 all with 11 seconds remaining and Kazemi missing both FT's. Then Marshall scored on a layup with 3 seconds remaining and Rice suffered a bitter defeat in their first C-USA game.
Thumbs up to Arsalan for playing with all he can though being injured before the game.
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