Transfer Portal Deep Dive: Winthrop Kareem Rozier
My thoughts on Winthrop transfer guard Kareem Rozier
As the Transfer Portal, SearchSZN, and all of the other offseason festivities comes to an end. It’s time to start looking forward, WHILE also looking back as we dive into some of the new players for ALL 9 Big South teams.
For analysis: I will pick 3 games, 1 game that stood out as a GOOD game, 1 game that stood out as a BAD game, and 1 games that was average.
(If I can’t find 3 games, I will then go to portal film/shot charts and analytics)
Kareem Rozier Background:
Rozier began his career at Duquesne, and what seems to be a rarity in today’s game, spent every year at Duquense until now transferring to Winthrop. Another rarity that Kareem has, is that he has seen pretty big action all of his career, playing in 30+ games with 15 MPG or more in all 3 seasons.
His freshman season, Kareem played in 32 games playing mostly as the backup point guard averaging over 15 MPG, and during those 15 mins he averaged almost 4 PPG, 2 APG and a little over 1 RPG, this included two double digit outings vs St Bonventure and Indiana State.
In his sophomore season, Kareem saw a lot more action playing in 37 games and starting 21 of those. During that season, Kareem averaged 5.2 PPG, 2.5 APG and a little under 2 RPG across 24.5 MPG, Duquense made the NCAA Tournament that season even beating BYU but Kareem’s best game came against Charleston where he had his first career 20 point game.
In his most recent season, his junior season, Kareem averaged 6.7 PPG, 3.3 APG and 1.9 RPG across 32 games and nearly 27 MPG despite coming off the bench most of the season only having 10 starts. Kareem had one of his best seasons to date having 6 double digit scoring games including 2 14 point performances.
Kareem Rozier Game Notes/Review:
Kareem Rozier “Good” Game: 1/26/25 at Fordham
Stats: 11 points (5-10 from the field, 1-2 from 3), 1 rebound, 2 assists
Notes:
Unreal quickness, just seems like he’s on 1.25x and everyone is on 1x.
Very good passer off the P&R, even when defender is taller and in better position.
Really solid main ball handler but not in the way Kasen was, better playmaker slightly worse scorer.
Pretty good defender for his 5’9” frame, also seems eager to play help defense.
Unreal energy, almost Energizer Bunny-esque.
Kareem Rozier “Average” Game: 12/11/24 vs Maine
Stats: 9 points (3-8 from 3), 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals
Notes:
Keeps the ball out of harms way, doesn’t give teams a chance to get to it too often.
Just seems to always find the open man, doesn’t matter where, he finds them.
Not scared to shoot the ball, when he’s open, he lets it fly.
Does get blocked, like any other shorter guard would.
Truly makes passes that very few guards have the awareness or skill to make.
Really fast shooter, really important for how short he is.
Kareem Rozier “Bad” Game: 11/24/24 vs South Dakota State
Stats: 6 points (2-10 from the field), 2 assists, 2 rebounds
Notes:
Really poor P&R defender goes under on shooters and even tries to go through the screener.
Very good at, at least getting a hand up to contest, even when decently out of the play.
Really good AND smart hustle, will go after the ball when lose, but only when he feels he can actually get the ball, not just any time it’s free.
When in the half court, almost a 100% chance the ball with be in Rozier’s hands either at the start or at least sometime during the possesion.
Kareem Rozier Analytics and Shot Chart:
Good Playmaking Analytics:
Assist Percentage: 22.5% (85th percentile)
Assist Ratio: 27.7% (93rd percentile)
Assist/TOV: 3.0x (98th percentile)
Assist/Usage: 1.4x (93rd percentile)
Good ALL Consuming Metrics:
RAPM: 1.8 (78th percentile)
DRAPM: 1.2 (79th percentile)
Bad Shooting Analytics:
True Shooting Percentage: 45.5% (14th percentile)
2PT FG Percentage: 34.8% (8th percentile)
Bad Playmaking Analytics:
Offensive Rebound Percentage: 1% (8th percentile)
Bad Defensive Analytics:
Block Percentage: 0.1% (16th percentile)
Shot Charts (Compared to Paul Jones):
Notes:
If you ignore Rozier’s mid range game and compare him to last year’s freshman star Paul Jones, they have very similar shot splits with just over 30% of their shots coming from three.
Rozier will have the shots avaliable to keep his diet as is, but I really would hope he does not continue with the full diet, he was not efficient at Duquense, and at Winthrop that will NEED to change for him to be successful especially with the PG’s behind him.
On/Off Analytics:
Notes:
One massive notes from the On/Off’s is Defensive FG%, when I was watching film I noted that he had the stuff be a good defender and that shows up here, when he was on the court, teams shot 48.5%, when he was off 53.3%.
Another big stat. offensive free throw attempt rate, when Kareem was on the court, Duquense took almost 10% more possesions ending with free throws than with him off the court.
Kareem Rozier Final Thoughts:
Kareem Rozier is interesting, the box score and analytics leave a lot to be desired as an scorer, but once you look at how Kareem plays when he has the ball and with the Big South’s history with small guards, I see the vision of Coach Prosser and his staff, Kareem is a very low risk, high reward guard for the Big South level.
I don’t think Kareem has an All Conference level season but I see him as a clear reason Winthrop will be one of the favorites in the Big South, if he gets 10 PPG and close to 3-4 APG, that’s exactly what Winthrop needs, no blow the doors off stats but just a solid piece on a winning team.