‘21 NY PG Zakai Zeigler (Tennessee Signee)

#126
#126
BruisedOrange said:
In a situation like this, it is so nice when your team has a coaching staff that causes you to stroke your chin and ponder, "Hmmmm, I wonder what their thinking is on this?"

...instead of "What the [blank] are they thinking?!!!"
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Basilio brought this up yesterday. He said Barnes obviously likes Zakai but he thinks Barnes is bringing him in early to have the added benefit of pushing Chandler in practice. Not necessarily for playing time but just for added day to day motivation for both players.

TB also mentioned Zakai is a strong academic so they think he can handle the workload.
 
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#127
#127
bleedingTNorange said:
I don’t think he’ll ever be a great finisher around the rim probably, but I also don’t think he has to be either to be effective…if he’s a 40%+ perimeter shooter and 80%+ ft shooter and can break guys down and find the open man he can still be a really nice player.
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Erving Walker made an All-SEC career our of doing just that, at Florida. He was shorter than ZZ, and also a PG from the Bronx. Sign me up, right now, if we get that kind of production from Ziegler.
 
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#128
#128
CRB can’t draw only 5*’s to UT. He’s been bringing on plenty of lower ranked guys since he’s been here. Some have become SEC POY and are kicking around the NBA. Others sat the bench for a year or 2 and left. Who can predict ZZZ’s ceiling? CRB saw something to give him a chance. Hopefully he’s one who outshines his rankings
 
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#129
#129
walkenvol said:
CRB can’t draw only 5*’s to UT. He’s been bringing on plenty of lower ranked guys since he’s been here. Some have become SEC POY and are kicking around the NBA. Others sat the bench for a year or 2 and left. Who can predict ZZZ’s ceiling? CRB saw something to give him a chance. Hopefully he’s one who outshines his rankings
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We need to have guys that are not 5 stars to be here for 3 to 4 years for the continuity of the culture and the program.
 
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#131
#131
bleedingTNorange said:
Yea…I think my ideal setup is with 13 scholarships to have say 4-5 “one and dones/5 stars” and 8-9 program guys.
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A question on that:
Doesn't it take at least a full season for guys to learn how to play good, Barnes defense? Maybe even two seasons, looking back on his history at Tennessee?

In addition to cultural and work ethic continuity, I wonder if we don't need at least 3 starters bringing "defensive continuity" in order to maintain the kind of defensive domination needed for tournament success.

I guess this season will be the experiment on that, replacing two one-and-dones with possibly more of the same. Let's see how the defense performs in November, and then how it progresses up the learning curve into March.

In that aspect, Fulky's value to the team may be exceeded off the court over on the court.
 
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#132
#132
bleedingTNorange said:
I don’t think he’ll ever be a great finisher around the rim probably, but I also don’t think he has to be either to be effective…if he’s a 40%+ perimeter shooter and 80%+ ft shooter and can break guys down and find the open man he can still be a really nice player.
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I 100% agree and would love that type of production from him.

On a slightly different but related topic; what is the break even point for a player like that? Let's say he redshirts this year, and Year1/2 he's not productive yet. Let's assume he reaches close to that production by Year 3 and solidly by Year 4. Does that make the 5 year scholarship window worth it for 2 years of average to above average production? I'm not saying this specifically about ZZ either, just mean that prototype of player in general. Maybe I should pose this in the regular discussion thread but it's on my mind as I respond.
 
#133
#133
BruisedOrange said:
A question on that:
Doesn't it take at least a full season for guys to learn how to play good, Barnes defense? Maybe even two seasons, looking back on his history at Tennessee?

In addition to cultural and work ethic continuity, I wonder if we don't need at least 3 starters bringing "defensive continuity" in order to maintain the kind of defensive domination needed for tournament success.

I guess this season will be the experiment on that, replacing two one-and-dones with possibly more of the same. Let's see how the defense performs in November, and then how it progresses up the learning curve into March.

In that aspect, Fulky's value to the team may be exceeded off the court over on the court.
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That’s why the program guys and keeping some and not heavy attrition is important in my example…

you’ve got Fulky with 5 years, James with 3 years, Bailey with 2 years, Vescovi with 2 years, ORN with 3 years, Plav with 3 years, reliance on true freshman is possibly a bit high with BHH & Chandler needing to be key pieces, but you’ve got a good amount of experience on the roster that you hope helps get the freshman acclimated on what to expect and into the groove of things.
 
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#134
#134
bleedingTNorange said:
Yea…I think my ideal setup is with 13 scholarships to have say 4-5 “one and dones/5 stars” and 8-9 program guys.
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The ratio sounds great, although it is tricky since you'd have to recruit all 4-5 “one and dones/5 stars” essentially every year to maintain this since most will only be here for a year.
 
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#135
#135
JelloPuddinPup said:
I 100% agree and would love that type of production from him.

On a slightly different but related topic; what is the break even point for a player like that? Let's say he redshirts this year, and Year1/2 he's not productive yet. Let's assume he reaches close to that production by Year 3 and solidly by Year 4. Does that make the 5 year scholarship window worth it for 2 years of average to above average production? I'm not saying this specifically about ZZ either, just mean that prototype of player in general. Maybe I should pose this in the regular discussion thread but it's on my mind as I respond.
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I think your program guys you’re looking for this st the least…

Freshman: end of rotation, appearing in most games or redshirt
Sophomore/RS Freshman: appearing in most all games, maybe 8-9 man
Junior/RS Soph: rotational player in all games
Senior/RS Junior: starter or key rotational player
RS Senior: Starter or key rotational player

Pons & Alexander are good examples of this with no redshirt.
 
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#136
#136
Volprofch05 said:
The ratio sounds great, although it is tricky since you'd have to recruit all 4-5 “one and dones/5 stars” essentially every year to maintain this since most will only be here for a year.
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Our history of recruiting 5 stars says about 50% of them are one and dones…so landing 2 and the occasional 3 of those guys a year probably does it.
 
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#138
#138
JelloPuddinPup said:
I hope his shot and floater are really good because after seeing that last video I struggle to see him finishing around the basket at the SEC level. Really hope I'm wrong because I love cheering for the little guys.

Also I think 5'10" is generous for his height.
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Don't count out vertically challenged guys now, what we lack in height we make up for by being fierce!
 
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#141
#141
bleedingTNorange said:
Yea…I think my ideal setup is with 13 scholarships to have say 4-5 “one and dones/5 stars” and 8-9 program guys.
Click to expand...
Volprofch05 said:
The ratio sounds great, although it is tricky since you'd have to recruit all 4-5 “one and dones/5 stars” essentially every year to maintain this since most will only be here for a year.
Click to expand...
bleedingTNorange said:
Our history of recruiting 5 stars says about 50% of them are one and dones…so landing 2 and the occasional 3 of those guys a year probably does it.
Click to expand...

I'm admitting up front that arithmetic is not my strong suite, but...

How do you have 4-5 one-and-done players on your roster without them being starters, or playing starter minutes? And if half our one-and-done players are still playing college ball two years later, on what basis would we keep signing one-and-done players with that kind of success rate?

I mean, we know not every kid who thinks he's a one-and-done player actually will achieve that level of play in his first collegiate year... but the high school kids won't. They'll just look to play for whichever coach/program has a history of delivering on that.
 
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#142
#142
BruisedOrange said:
How do you have 4-5 one-and-done players on your roster without them being starters, or playing starter minutes? And if half our one-and-done players are still playing college ball two years later, on what basis would we keep signing one-and-done players with that kind of success rate?
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I didn’t say only one and dones, I said “one and dones/5 star”…look at this years roster, we have 4 5 stars on it, no? Aidoo isn’t starting and there’s quite a bit of talk that he may even by 9th man or lower? Josiah James is in his 3rd year at Tennessee and was a 5 star? BHH is likely to start, not guaranteed, but he’s not looking today like a lock for one and done?

So we have 4, say you lose Chandler that’s 3 next year…I’m guessing we probably land at least one of the 5 stars we are after in this class.
 
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#145
#145
I've had two different people tell me he is already enrolled here.

I have also done zero research to corroborate said claim.

Edit with screen shot of directory look up.
 

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