Scouting report on Czyz

[dkbaseball]

First full disclosure: I'm definitely a glass-half-full sort when it comes to evaluating players. I tend to focus on the upside potential, and ignore the weaknesses. A friend from Duke never tires of reminding me that I filed glowing reports on Mike Tissaw, Crawford Palmer and Joey Beard. I liked Kenny Blakeney, Christian Ast and Tony Moore, though there was nothing particularly spectacular about them in high school. I got the contribution of Grant and Wojo about right.

That said, Grant is the only Duke signee I've seen play in high school who got me as excited as Olek. (I've seen him play six times now, against half decent competition, but nobody who had a chance to beat his team.) This guy just oozes potential and explosiveness. I think he's on another order of magnitude of potential from the aforementioned Duke players, except for Grant. The guy is 100 percent athlete. And I don't just mean running and jumping. He's an athlete in the football sense of strength, explosiveness, aggressiveness and physical confidence. And in the baseball sense of terrific hand-eye coordination and body control. There's no stiff in him, nothing mechanical. When you hear him called raw, it just means that he could use more work on his shot, his moves down low, and generally just getting a feel for positioning himself. But there are no limitations on his tools, that I can see.

To start with his main strength: the guy runs the floor like Johnny Dawkins, tirelessly and effortlessly. He's always the first one down the floor, just loping along easily. A pretty stark contrast with, say, Lance, whose high-knee gait makes it look like he's running in place. And when Olek gets an open lane to the bucket, oh Mama. There's at least one or two highlight-reel, rim-abusing dunks every game. But he can finish in other ways as well. In one very impressive sequence, he caught a long down-court pass over the shoulder and laid it up on the glass in the same motion, for two. Tremendous agility in the open floor. As a finisher on the break, Grant and Gerald are the only Duke players I can thin of who have been comparable to Olek right now.

But also -- and this may come as a surprise -- he's great going down the floor with the ball. Like Josh and Kyle he'll sometimes grab a rebound and take off dribbling. On one occasion, he brought it up dribbling behind his back in traffic, just like Josh, only a lot faster getting down the floor. He's a very good passer leading the break, putting just the right amount of lead on the ball. He's also a good passer in half court offense -- for example, a one-handed bounce pass to a back-door cutter thrown from the three point line. So, excellent handle and passing -- something I haven't noticed in reports from any recruiting guru types, but I've seen enough now to credit him with these abilities. In the open floor, he's a phenom, right now.

His shooting stroke is fine, and his outside shot is coming along, though it still needs more work. He's textbook on the free throw line, and it goes in about 80 percent of the time. And he can definitely shoot further out. In warmups before one game he went around the three-point line -- seven for seven, nothing but net. During the game, in the half court offense, he needs to be in rhythm for the shot to go in. But he plays at such a fast tempo, it's hard to say what's in rhythm for him. On one play he was isolated on a guard around the three point line. He puts some juke-step moves on the guard, including dribbling between his legs, elevates high behind the line -- nothing but net. But when he has time to think about it, the shot doesn't go in so much.

He really elevates on a short fadeaway jumper down low, and in the one game I saw that he was using this it went in every time. Could become a real weapon. But mostly he wants to attack the rim -- more on that in a minute. He elevates also on the mid-range jumper, and his stroke is fine, so this shot put me in mind of Len Bias. But it doesn't go in much now, and needs plenty of work to become a weapon for Duke.

As for the main things everybody wants to know about -- rebounding, shot blocking and moves in the low post: well, it's a work in progress. Obviously he has the tools -- strength, hops, explosiveness, agility -- to be a real force for Duke in each of these areas. As one kid who played against him put it: he's an "absolute beast." But I think he can get significantly better in each of these areas with good coaching. In particular, he can probably develop a better feel for positioning himself to do these things. He gets plenty of rebounds, but not as many as Luke Babbitt, another top Div. One recruit out here, who has been a gym rat all his life. Olek is much stronger and more athletic than Babbitt, but has been playing organized basketball only for the four years he has been in the U.S.

He blocks plenty of shots, but more often it's in the mid-court area when he comes flying out of nowhere to block a guard's shot. Down low, he's coached to hold his ground and raise his arms, rather than trying to block shots -- like Duke's bigs are doing now. As a defensive player generally, I think he has phenomenal potential, particularly in Duke's system. He's got great lateral quickness for his size, and should be superb at going outside to contest a passing lane, then getting back inside quickly to defend the hoop -- an area in which Duke seems to ask more of its bigs than any other program. Of all the post rotation players I can think of who have played for K, only Grant and maybe Shane have been as good as I think Czyz will be at this kind of movement.

As for low post moves, he loves to attack the rim aggressively, with mixed results right now. Often he gets into no-man's-land -- like a guard who goes into the air before he knows what he's going to do with the ball -- and puts up a shot that doesn't have a chance to go in. Other times he looks absolutely unstoppable down low. He's certainly not reluctant to go up strong. Several times I've seen him go straight up and jam it from a standstill. I think coaching can make a tremdous amount of difference here, as far as what sort of scorer he can be in the blocks. And I do like that short fadeaway jumper.

Of course, his best attribute is supposed to be his attitude. An "unmatched passion" for the game, according to his coach. Oozes enthusiasm, never misses an opportunity to dive for the ball. I'm sure K fell in love with the body language immediately. Apparently he has worked on and improved his game exponentially in the past year or two. Very much a team player, but more on that in a moment, as I'm concerned he may be too deferential.

Obviously, I'm smitten. Just to make sure I'm not, in my dotage, falling in love with every decent player who comes along, I went to see Babbitt play. Babbitt is a top Div. One recruit, on Duke's radar at one time, according to watzone, probably will be a McD's A.A. Doug Gottleib calls him the second best player in this high school senior class, for what that's worth, and compares him to Larry Bird. Babbitt is a very nice player -- much like Taylor King, a long range lefty, who also has a great mid-range fadeaway, and at 6'8" gets a lot done underneath. On the night I saw him he was dominant -- 42 points, 16 boards, seven blocked shots against a decent team. He's a gym rat who has spent many thousands of hours working his game for years.

But seeing Babbitt at his best, I still much prefer Czyz as a prospect, particularly in Duke's system, and given the shooting talent Duke already has in the program. There's no comparison athletically -- Babbitt lumbers up and down the floor. And no comparison, undoubtedly from K's perspective, in body language. Babbitt walks around most of the time, shoulders slumped, like the big star who knows he's going to shoulder the burden and has to rest up before exerting himself. Olek bounds up and down the floor like a big puppy dog who just wants to slam the ball down on your head, again and again.

My concern about Olek has nothing to do with his abilities. I'm afraid, rather, that he might not assert those abilities as much as he should. As an immigrant to the U.S., and as someone whose game has been really coming on just lately, he's used to deferring -- to Babbitt around here and during the summer on the Las Vegas AAU team, and on his own high school team to a little gunner point guard who has the ball much of the time. I'm surprised at how little respect he seems to get around here. And I'm afraid he might go to Duke assuming that he's supposed to be the 12th man on the team, when ability-wise he might have the best package in the program.

But, as one recruting guru type said, people seem to either love him or hate him. After talking to a few locals who weren't giving him the respect I think he deserves, I found a coach who shares my view. He rates Olek as a "ten times better" prospect than David Padgett, the last top recruit to come out of Reno High. Padgett is currently the starting center for Louisville, and was called by Tom Crean the best "offensive facilitator" in the country.

Apparently a few other pretty sharp observers fell in love with Olek also. He just came on this past summer, the first time he had started for the Las Vegas Prospects. In short order he had corralled scholarship offers from K, Rick Pitino, Billy Donovan, Bill Self, Billy Gillispie, Herb Sendek, Tony Bennett, and several others.

Well, to wrap it up, what do we have here? I think at a bare minimum, Tony Moore with a huge desire to improve and willingness to work at it. On the topside, gosh I don't know. I see elements of Grant, Len Bias, Psycho T. But as Jim Sumner said, let's just give him an opportunity to be the best Olek Czyz he can be. I'll be fascinated to see just what that is.

[Jim3k]

Great post!

Was wondering when you would decide you'd seen him enough so you could describe it.

Makes me excited.

[SeattleIrish]

dk:

That was a GREAT eval of Olek - made me much more excited about his potential. How in the world did you get to see him play 6 times...are you from Reno?

To provide a "half-empty" perspective, here's a link from this year's game that matched Olek against Luke Babbitt:

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...55/1018/SPORTS

"I can understand it (the hype) but it's really Galena versus Reno," said Babbitt, who had a game-high 34 points while Czyz finished with just four for the second straight year against Galena"

Luke clearly got the best of Olek in this matchup :-(

s.i.

[Ignatius07]

You throw out a lot of big names in this write-up - I hate to see what your evaluation of Elliot would be.

Seriously, though, it's evident that you spent a lot of time on this and I certainly appreciate it. It seems like it will be important for Duke fans to realize Czyz is very much a project. We all said the same thing about Zoubek, but here we are waiting for him to anchor our defense only 1.5 years in. Hopefully we can exercise better patience with Olek, whose future could potentially be very bright.

[dkbaseball]

I do live in Reno. I will be very surprised if Olek gets filed in the project drawer. He is an athlete -- as good as Duke has had -- and athletes always play at Duke. He does seem to defer to the established pecking order -- which could cost him in Duke's Darwinian practice culture -- and he does get down on himself when he has a bad run. I can see where his head would start working against him in the match-up against Babbitt, but I'd still rather have him than Babbitt.

[Bob Green]

dkbaseball,

Thanks for a great post! I'm very excited that Olek Czyz is coming to Duke. He seems to be exactly the type of recruit so many people have been longing for - an athletic forward with the strength to bang down low. Your post makes it clear that he will also be able to fit into the Duke system by getting out in transition and running the court.

[kramerbr]

Sounds like he would fit perfectly into Duke's current system. Should be alot of fun to watch him get up and down next year.

[captmojo]

Thanks for your insight DK.

[gw67]

dkbaseball - Why don't you tell us what you really think about Czyz? Just joking! That was a terrific post. From previous reports on this board, I envisioned a Dan Meagher-type player (strong, aggressive, with good leaping ability). From your description, it sounds like he may have the potential to be better but that remains to be seen.

From your list of players and previous posts, I presume that you used to live in the DC area. I too saw Tissaw play as either a soph or junior at Robinson and thought that he would be a good college player. I saw Beard get badly outplayed by a 6-4 center for TC Williams and figured that he would need of lot of work to play college ball.

gw67

[revmel53]

Thanks dk for a great report! With only dmark leaving and Elliot coming already - we don't need Olek to be all world. I pray that he doesn't lose confidence - from having to go up with other outstanding athletes every single day... If we can follow up in '09 with an outstanding class, next year's two guys will be able to keep things going when it's their turn. Thanks for not holding back...

[Devilsfan]

Sounds like Tony Moore to me. Now where's that banger we need TODAY!!
Even Pheonix who we are supposed to be patterned after, went out and singed a big man.

[365Duke]

Sounds like Tony Moore to me. Now where's that banger we need TODAY!!
Even Pheonix who we are supposed to be patterned after, went out and singed a big man.

You do know that it would be against NCAA regulations to go out and sign a free agent don't you

And we can't make a trade, cause we ain't giving up nobody!

[Jarhead]

dk:

That was a GREAT eval of Olek - made me much more excited about his potential. How in the world did you get to see him play 6 times...are you from Reno?

To provide a "half-empty" perspective, here's a link from this year's game that matched Olek against Luke Babbitt:

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...55/1018/SPORTS

"I can understand it (the hype) but it's really Galena versus Reno," said Babbitt, who had a game-high 34 points while Czyz finished with just four for the second straight year against Galena"

Luke clearly got the best of Olek in this matchup :-(

s.i.

Looks like all he lacks is the coaching. K will take care of that.

[ACCBBallFan]

Sounds like Olek can challenge Lance and Brian for defensive post player slot, leaving Singler/King to share the SF slot with McClure sometimes a SF and sometimes a wing defender in Nelson role.

With Elliot and Marty, Duke should be every bit as good at the 1-3 as this year with all having another year of whiskers.

Just depends on how well Olek, Elliott and Marty learn to defend to make up for the loss of Demarcus next year. I would think Greg and Dave can assume his leadership captain role.

[AtlBluRew]

Nice post, dkbaseball.


I found this fun video of Olek in action on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2TXxeVy9h4

[dkbaseball]

dkbaseball - Why don't you tell us what you really think about Czyz? Just joking! That was a terrific post. From previous reports on this board, I envisioned a Dan Meagher-type player (strong, aggressive, with good leaping ability). From your description, it sounds like he may have the potential to be better but that remains to be seen.

From your list of players and previous posts, I presume that you used to live in the DC area. I too saw Tissaw play as either a soph or junior at Robinson and thought that he would be a good college player. I saw Beard get badly outplayed by a 6-4 center for TC Williams and figured that he would need of lot of work to play college ball.

gw67

What year did you see Joey play? I watched him as a 6'6" freshman starting alongside Grant, and he was very mechanical, not an obvious Div. One prospect. Then I caught him as a senior, and he had turned into a multi-skilled big, though still a bit soft because he just didn't have the body to bang. But then, I had seen Danny Ferry play for DeMatha (forgot to mention him) in a similar role -- a 6'5" player named Carlton Valentine did most of the work on the boards, and Danny did his multi-skilled thing all over the floor.

One little anecdote: In the summer of '92 I went over to UMd to watch some AAU games. K and two of his assistants were parked at one of the courts, intently watching Beard. I was sitting between that court and another, watching both games, and I wanted to holler at K: "Check out this little sandblower point guard getting stuff done on the next court, K. Looks like he might be your kind of player." But it wasn't until the following summer that Wojo came onto K's radar.

[dkbaseball]

Sounds like Tony Moore to me. Now where's that banger we need TODAY!!
Even Pheonix who we are supposed to be patterned after, went out and singed a big man.

Anybody who watches Czyz play and envisions Tony Moore at Duke is a glass-99%-empty sort of guy. Tony was similar in size, strength and leaping ability, but didn't have anything like this guy's motor.

[dkbaseball]

He seems to be exactly the type of recruit so many people have been longing for - an athletic forward with the strength to bang down low. Your post makes it clear that he will also be able to fit into the Duke system by getting out in transition and running the court.

Sums him up perfectly. And oh man, can he get out in transition. I mean, in high school he's beating the defense down the floor every time, usually starting out from a defensive position near the basket. Take somebody like Monty Towe who could chuck downcourt baseball passes at him, and amazing things might happen. And it's truly exciting when he gets a chance to attack the rim on the break.

[Madrasdukie]

... let's just give him an opportunity to be the best Olek Czyz he can be. I'll be fascinated to see just what that is.

dkbaseball: that post was so much fun to read - thank you.

A few questions:

How does Olek's passing skills, and low post defense compare with that of Josh ?

What is the Psycho T element you see in Olek ?

How does Olek's jump shot compare with that of Gerald's, esp. the way Gerald creates and elevates over his defender in that Kobesque fashion ?

[Dukebacker]

Thanks for the report! I'm excited to see this guy. Hopefully with all that athleticism he can become a Tyrus Thomas sort of player and altering shots and coming up big in march. The potential of him coming in and providing a spark as Elliot Wiliams will probably do as well, will make us one heck of a team if we only lose DeMarcus. Probably one of the best starting fives and more then likely the best bench in the nation.


Just curious though..how are the hands? Can he catch it well in the low post and stuff? It would be very cool if we could add a Hansborough type player to our arsenal, yet more athletic.

Wow just thinking about all the talent we have this year and getting so much more next year . The development of Brian and Lance this year. Well hopefully Brian. But the team next year will be nastier then this year. But i'm going to enjoy this season as much as i can after the last year's disaster.