Appreciation for Zoubek

[Starter]

I apologize if this is something that fits into one of the other threads -- I don't start many threads because I'm never quite sure of the protocol. If this is extraneous, please lock it or move it. But I thought that Brian Zoubek deserved his own, separate props for the brilliant career he's put together.

Have we seen a player in recent memory that improved as much in his senior year as Zoubek? I've been following Duke closely since I was admitted in 1996, and I would suggest that we haven't. Chris Carrawell went from a solid player to an excellent player. DeMarcus Nelson improved from a decent player to a very good player. Casey Sanders went from a below-average player to a viable player -- Nick Collison notwithstanding.

But for Zoubek, who was plagued with foul trouble, injuries and subsequent lack of conditioning, this is an incredible turnaround for a player that even as recently as January was not even close to a factor. Then he went for 16 and 17 against Maryland, looking like a transformed player in the process. He kept it up for the following few games, while I think we all waited for the other shoe to drop. But it didn't, and this iteration of Zoubek constitutes the best Duke big man since Shelden Williams, easily.

As great as Singler, Smith and Scheyer are, and as brilliantly as they feed off each other, Zoubek is truly at the heart of the team's endeavors. (I wrote a post recently about this topic if anyone's interested) He perfectly fits into what this team does -- using surprising athleticism to harass both on the post and in the perimeter. He has a nice soft touch around the basket and uses the glass well. And after his offensive rebounds, he's incredibly adept at seeing the entire floor and finding the open man for a three-pointer, quite different from earlier in his career, when he would go up with it and often get stripped or blocked.

To me, Zoubek typifies the way this team has developed this year and over the past several years into the efficient model of consistency we see now. He would have fit in better in other systems, but he fell in love with Duke -- the way we all did -- and it's finally clicking for him. And when I think about this team down the road, win or lose, I think Zoubek will be the guy I'm the most proud of.

[OldSchool]

Good post, and let's not forget Lance as well.

During their careers both Brian and Lance were subjected to criticisms in the harshest terms on this very board, which I at the time believed were both unfair on the substance and unduly pejorative.

I have seen recently a few posters here and there offer mea culpas, however.

This year has been the sweetest vindication for both of them. It is not often that such backbiting critics are so completely exposed as fools.

[strawbs]

i hate to say i absolutely hated big z for his first 3 years on campus. This was probably unfair, because a lot of injuries really derailed his development. At the same time though, he had no offensive game, was weak with the ball getting blocked or stripped on nearly every shot attempt, and he was a turnover machine because he would travel 90% of the time.
Something clicked for him this year and he has been a pleasure to watch. He has played his role perfectly, becoming an excellent rebounder and above average passer. He is finishing around the basket much more often and nearly always makes the correct play. He has even shown that he has a nice hook shot on a couple of occasions. He has also developed into a positive emotional leader on this team. I never thought that i would say this, but it is going to be sad to see the brian zoubek era come to an end monday night. It was great to see him finally develop into a solid basketball player. I hope he can make it onto an NBA roster (if he wants to continue to pursue basketball as a career). Thanks for the 4 years BIG Z!!!!

[LSanders]

IMO ... An appropriate thread.

I had some similar thoughts in that I hope the League will take a look at Z, because I was just imagining what a beast he would be if he'd had 4 healthy years of the type of development we've seen since G'town. He deserves all the props flowing his way.

The only thing I disagree with is Z as the one you're proudest of -- ONLY because there are so many kids to be proud of on this team. Jon transforming himself into one of the most effective PGs in the country ... Nolan waking up to realize his potential is off the charts ... Kyle being an absolute warrior who can score in every way imaginable ... LT being a beast on defense ... The Plums and Dre ... All amazing!!

So, no disagreement about the worth of Z, but this team is the epitome of the sum being much greater than the parts.

[Starter]

Agree with all replies thus far, so many great stories on this team. And for my own part, I can't say that I personally wasn't frustrated at various points with both Zoubek and Lance, viewing there to be so much untapped potential.

With Lance, I first watched him play as a sophomore for Danny Hurley at St. Benedict's, and loved his game. I'm glad to see him finally blending in perfectly, playing a pivotal role for a team doing great things.

[Zeb]

I watched Zoubek play in pickup games before the start of his freshman year. I thought he was going to be a strong player for us. He looked agile, confident, and seemed to possess a great feel for low post scoring. He did quite well in his first Blue and White game, and I thought we had found our next great big man.

Obviously, it took a lot longer than he or the team or us fans wanted. But in the last third of his senior year, he has become a great big man. I've never seen a player make such a huge difference on the offensive end with so little scoring. His picks and rebounds have been absolutely essential. He has totally disrupted his opponents' gameplans throughout this tourney.

The Maryland game is still a surreal transformation for me. It was like a switch was flipped, and Z suddenly started making plays he never even attempted one week earlier. And he hasn't stopped. It is just so remarkable. If he did not go through that metamorphasis, I guarantee you we would not be playing on Monday. We would probably not have won the 2010 ACC tourney. Obviously the Big 3 deserve a ton of credit and they are the foundation for this team. But Zoubek has taken this team's ceiling to an entirely different level.

Bless you Brian Zoubek.

[tastytaste]

best rebounder in college hoops

[LSanders]

best rebounder in college hoops

According to Pomeroy: (Offensive Rebounding % - OR/(OR+DR))

Note: Minimum 40% minutes played to qualify.

1 Brian Zoubek, Duke21.2 7-1 260 Sr
2 DeMarcus Cousins, Kentucky 19.6 6-11 260 Fr
3 Justin Rutty, Quinnipiac 17.5 6-7 240 Jr
4 Anthony Johnson, Fairfield 16.9 6-8 245 Sr
5 Kevin Thompson, Morgan St. 16.6 6-8 240 So
6 Dexter Pittman, Texas 16.4 6-10 290 Sr
7 Alex Stepheson, Southern California 16.2 6-9 235 Jr
8 Kenneth Faried, Morehead St. 16.2 6-8 225 Jr
9 Alejo Rodriguez, Iona 15.7 6-8 235 Jr
10 Isaac Butts, Appalachian St. 15.6 6-10 285 Jr

[northernduke]

I say this not looking ahead of tomorrow's gam but to keep my mind occupied. I am scared of losing Zoubek. His motor is incredible and he makes us such a better scoring team - law of averages when you get more attempts...

He and LT are just so incredibly tough an CONSISTENT definsively and on the boards that I am very nervous about a dropoff in our interior performance next year. But hey, it gives other guys a chance to step up and prove me wrong that same way these two have. The nerves are not a knock on the Plumlees or any of our recruits, but instead speak to how integral Z and LT have been to this team. I'll miss these guys but they know their work's not done yet! Have fun out their fellas and kick some tail! Let us see you smile one last game!

[greybeard]

I watched Zoubek play in pickup games before the start of his freshman year. I thought he was going to be a strong player for us. He looked agile, confident, and seemed to possess a great feel for low post scoring..

This was what I saw in Brian from the very beginning of his first year. I think the team failed him that year, not the other way around. Said so then and repeatedly since. I'll repeat it again, not for the reasons one might think; the reaon will become apparent, and it is a tribute not just to Brian, but to everyone in te program, K especially but his teammates no less.

When Brian arrived, he had the gift of a grifter, think the shell game with the pea here, when it came to setting his man up my nuanced moves that required the defender to guard Z's path to the basket, only to step free to the middle. Had this team's style been to look for that moment as it emerged and get it to him, he would have scored the ball big time. It wasn't, they didn't, they waited, insisting that he establish position, he'd catch and get pushed from below, and the results was disasterous. This continued into his second season.

His 3d, he began learning from McClure and how to play the incredible screen-and-screen-again-and-again-and-again game with his new found body that emerged BIG Time this season which was accompanied by an a ability to see paths to the offensive board. He learned to do this all with the passion, single-minded focus of his mentor, Mr. McClure. With his enormously strong body, which in itself is a credit to Brian, Duke presented with a force as a pivot player, a pivotal player on its offense, the likes of which no one has ever seen in the game. EVER. This was and remains true especially because of what has become Brian's and Lance's signature kill move. A KILL move unlike any Center (my presference is for pivot player but that rarely applies in this day and age), or power forward ever in college basketball and only presented in the game in the form of one person that I am aware of, and that would be Dennis Rodman. Brian and Lance work the offensive board like Rodman and like him, after their defenders are forced, because this is THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF BASKETBALL, to fight to be in position to defend the rim, each man finds the 3-shooter who has the best chance of catching and stepping into the shot.

That boys and girls would have been enough, like my people say at this time of year, Dyanu. But for Brian and its coaches it was not enough, in the words of Bob Dylan, "He not busy born, is busy dying." So, in the midst of this explosion of potency by Brian, he began emerging as Zouperman the vocal team leader. No longer the guy whose spirits needed to be carried, he emerged as a leader who added a special quality. Sometimes it just looked like Brian was being extra vocal, but all of a sudden I began to see something else. Brian's call was a call to arms. He was reminding his teammates that they had a monster on their side, a physically imposing force, and that he expected them to play with a slightly different carriage--"you want to play rough, well met my little friend." Duke has emerged as a team that you do not want to f#$@ with. You start you are not coming out on top, just ask W Va, and I do not refer to Butler, to whom my heart goes out.

Now, that woud have been enough, Dyanu, even for me who always saw Brian as a potentially superior pivot player/scorer, I thought we were done. But, then, hey I'd see every so often a catch on the right low post, a fake to the middle and a poised bounce and step to the baseline with a soft sky hook.

During the tournament, I have seen in the last two games especially, two different shifts in the offense which brings me back to the very beginnings.
Agains Baylor, I saw K deploy K deploy Brian in the catch and distribute role, the mover to space in the high middle and the guy who would be the pivot for distributing in a manner that changed the point of attack. The pivot of the offense. How much growth can a team have, can a player have. Dyanu.

Nope. This last game we saw yet another huge step. Two pick and rolls with Brian making well coordinated over the shoulder catches after setting a screebm catcges that were made to look easy but are the stuff of wide receivers that lead to easy again well coordinated easy finishes at the rim that bespoke a man who for all the world made simple the athletic play most thought him incapable of. Dyanu, right?

Well, Brian had more for the team that had stomped on him and his boyz two years ago, the stuff that had me nearly in tears. Yeap, the dude almost made a big boy cry. There was a catch off a brilliant feed from Lance. What made the feed brilliant was that it presupposed that Brian is the athlete he is, that he could react to the ball that was amazingly well placed for a finish but only if the receiver saw it and rose and caught in a crowd the way Jerry Rice would and emerge after the catch and take it to pay dirt. Brian had that catch in him and finished in beautiful fashion. Brian mae a couple of other catches down low that lead to attacks at that rim that bespoke the skills that he displayed as a freshman. His teammates now were ready and willing; they were in sync with him, saw his lead and followed. Dyanu.

None of this happens without K. When K says that this is not about a run for a fourth, that it is not about him, that he and the coaches are being lead into the moment by this team, I for one believe him. That is not to say that he is not growing with them, helping them get to where the moment is leading them. He is. Which brings me to this team.

You will have to forgive this, it is not a Bluish thought or observation. There is a thing about Duke, the institution, that is ego centric. Ego centism is a good thing I suppose. It leads to great individual accomplishment. To fierce competitiors and fierce competition. Hey, it built America.

But, it is not always good for basketball teams. Ego centrism was too at the core of the past Duke teams that Brian played on. It is not on this one. This one has, in my mind, a number of NBAers. Many more than I thought going into this season. On one level, of course, they play like it or I wouldn't be saying it. On another level they don't. The other level is not just manifest in a generosity of spirit that allows fellow teammates to grow, it also allows for a curious mind that allows for the individual to learn to improve, to discover what parts of HOW one does all sorts of things that could be done more efficiently, more easily, more athletically or not at all.

We have all seen the power of it. If this things plays out the way it seems, Duke's march to the Championship this year was as dominent display as any we have seen. It has gotten stronger each game because in the midst of this march, "the kids," as K would reference them, have all improved individually and were ready for new wrinkles, new modes of playing at both ends, and presented as a wave.

There are some who will answer that Duke's path to the final four was the easiest of all the 1 seeds. Maybe it was. At this point, you want to tag on games against Kansas and Kentucky. I say bring em on. Zoubek will stand up Anderson and Cousins, stand them up, and he and his teammates will keep on grwoing and winning. Dyanu! That would have been enough.

Congratulations to Brian. As a fan of his for four years, I cannot you enough. This is when you guys say, "You think!"

[Dukefan4Life]

Let me first say i was rough on z throughout his playing for duke. I am glad i am eating my words now! big z is a monster inside and right now is a huge factor in our teams success. one more game big Z one more game! LETS GO DUKE!!!!!!!

[Eckster]

Agree with all replies thus far, so many great stories on this team. And for my own part, I can't say that I personally wasn't frustrated at various points with both Zoubek and Lance, viewing there to be so much untapped potential.

With Lance, I first watched him play as a sophomore for Danny Hurley at St. Benedict's, and loved his game. I'm glad to see him finally blending in perfectly, playing a pivotal role for a team doing great things.

Hubert Davis made a great point last night that although Duke's "big three" get all the credit, it's the bigs, particularly Z and LT who make it all possible by excellent screening to open those guys up and rebounding/kicking out: Knowing their roles and executing to perfection. Love it.

[mapei]

Simply put, this is a very good team but not an outstanding contender without BZ's basketball maturation. He is the once-missing ingredient, now supplied. Wonderful to watch.

[Houston]

Let me be among the first to congratulate Brian and thank him for his contributions. I have not always been the biggest BZ fan, but it only reinforced my lack of basketball knowledge. The team shifted into another gear when Big Z became a starter.

Brian has also taught everyone a wonderful lesson about hard work and perseverance. Thank you for your contributions! Thank you for the wonderful lesson you have taught my children!

[DukeDevilDeb]

Zoubs has been magnificent, but so has his frontline partner, Lance. Between the two of these guys, we have seen better bigs play than in a long, long time.

Lance's put back and one against Baylor was HUGE. He and Zoubs remind me of Battier without the offensive power. Shane did whatever needed to be done; Lance and Zoubs are doing the same.

And boy am I going to be watching when they cut down the nets!

Go BIG GUYS! GO BLUE DEVILS!!!!

By the way, this in no way diminishes the play of the Plumlees! They have been great too.

[CPDUKEGUY24]

Pride/Happiness (motivational movie type) are the two words that come to mind when I think a/b what Z has done in his 4 years here.

The guy has a tremendous heart/ High IQ (on and off court)/ vast amounts of work ethic!

Your plight is inspirational, and you deserve everything that comes your way because of it.

These things will forever be in my memories when I think of "The Legend of Big Z"

[JohnGalt]

I wanted to bump this thread because it was recently brought to my attention (draftexpress) that Zoubs is now projected in the late second round.

Admittedly, I wasn't much a fan of Brian (putting it mildly) for 3.5 years, but from the Maryland game in Cameron on, he's made me a believer. Thus, I'd like to propose the following question(s):

Are there any NBA GMs that will be believers too? Do you all think he has a place in the NBA?

[Matches]

I thihk he'll at least get a cup of coffee in the League. He's 7'1", rebounds well, isn't afraid to throw his weight around. At minimum he could be a useful practice player for someone.

[Starter]

As a Knicks fan, I'll take him over this freaking guy.

In all seriousness, I really do think he's going to find a spot in the league, not as a star or anything, but still. I could see him doing well for himself as a defensive specialist backup center.

[NM Duke Fan]

He moved quite well the latter part of the season, good recovery from hedging, decent foot movement, excellent screening, agressive rebounding, good strength. He is just now hitting his stride and getting into a rhythm, finding out what he can do when healthy. I suspect he will get some looks for the second round, and if not drafted, will have a solid chance at being a free agent.