Player Review: Dahmir Bishop wasn’t ready to play right away

Xavier basketball was rolling to a nerve-wracking end to the season, then a global pandemic hit the brakes so hard I went right into the windshield. We’ve shaken ourselves off a bit here and will continue, somewhat belatedly, with our breakdown of one of the weirdest Xavier seasons on record.

“Bishop is, at least at first glance, cut from the same mold as Harden.” When I wrote that in October before Xavier’s season started, I didn’t realize how prescient it would turn out to be. Dah Bishop came to X with a reputation as a guy who could fill it up and play some defense. Like Harden, he left with a feeling that his potential hadn’t fully been tapped at Xavier.

Bishop was recruited heavily by high majors before he landed at Xavier. He wasn’t a guy that Coach Steele took a flyer on, he was a legitimate four star recruit. That showed in the first two games of the season when he played a total of 44 minutes and went for 8/14/4. Bishop shot 3-10 from the floor in those games, but it seemed a solid start. In the nine games that comprised the rest of Bishop’s Xavier career he played 76 minutes and put up 8/11/5. After a three minute trillion against Western Carolina, Bishop was gone.

Bishop came to X as a shooter, but he never really got his shot going. Dah was 2-17 behind the arc, 3-11 inside it. His defensive effort was excellent even if his technique wasn’t perfect. His 20.1% defensive rebounding rate would have been second on the team if he had qualified to be considered. Despite the good he did, he didn’t stick.

Ultimately, Bishop chose to leave rather than stick it out and try to get it going. Harden’s departure for greener pastures saw him finish the season with a 17.2% usage rate, but an offensive rating of only 86.5. Bishop wasn’t just searching for time, though, he was missing home. Sometimes all the hype and pomp surrounding college basketball make us forget that these are 18 year old guys just leaving home for the first time. Bishop found that being far from the comforts of home was more than he could handle. There shouldn’t be any shame in that. Dah didn’t work out at Xavier, hopefully he will for St. Joe’s.