How's Zoubek doing?

[greybeard]

I noticed in one or possibly two of the pictures, Zoubek standing with his knees locked back. Many tall thin people do that. It is a balance thing. Only, while it "feels" more secure, it isn't. Not only is a locked-back knee stance woefully unstable, it is also impossible to move from that stance without first readjusting. Impossible. So, if you notice Zoubek standing that way, I'd say he needs to get himself to an Iyengar yoga teacher pronto; or a PT who will work with him on trampolean, balance board, standing one footed, knee bent in various degrees, and do other things to improve his standing at rest position. It will make him oh so much stronger, faster, more explosive, if my reading of that picture is actually telling. Anyway, check it out if you are in the gym. Then, if you got the nerve . . . .

[bhd28]

Olympic, thanks for the report. I thought it was very accurate. I will say, for Kyle, that he looked MUCH better Sunday vs. Monday. On Sunday, he called for and got the ball, made a couple of mid-range jumpers, one-3 from the corner, and drove on T.King several times, using spins and pumps effectively to get off his shot. He set screens a number of times for the PG, and used the 'roll' or 'pop' effectively from it. He also crashed the boards much more on the offensive end and got several boards for his effort. That said, he didn't put them back that effectively, with BZ and T.King (who has long arms) effectively blocking his shot a couple of times. That said, unlike several players on the team, Kyle didn't call many fouls on 'minor' contact. A couple of his misses could probably have been considered fouls.

[whereinthehellami]

I know that we are loaded with talent and experience at the guard positions but Smith has a really balanced game. He has decent size, good speed, good hops, a good bball IQ, and some decent experience playing for a loaded HS team that played other tough HS teams. I don't see Smith starting at all this year but I like the thought of a long, speedy penetrator who plays good defense.

[SilkyJ]

Why is it that we always seem to break that bone??? What the heck is going on?!?

http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.db...ATCLID=1087696

At least we are realllly good at treating it. Since he has already added weight to his frame, I wonder whether that will affect his rehab/recovery time. 8-10 weeks has him back on the court in September, so shouldn't affect his development too much...right???

[Capn Poptart]

This is bad. We need him in triathlon-quality shape this year.

At least it didn't happen in September or later.

[mapei]

Duke basketball has to have a disproportionate number of significant foot injuries.

[Lord Ash]

Wow wow wow.

That is really really bad.

So much for developing over the summer.

[Patrick Yates]

This is devastating to any real post-season goals. GP had a similiar injury last year (foot) and every on the board claims that was the root of his problems last year.

BZ, in addition to the weightroom work, needed reps in practice more than anything. No player needed to simply play, more than he did. His footwork was what hurt him the most last year, and now it is the one thing he cannot work on. Just awful for the team. We can still be good this year, but I think any talk of BZ being ready to be a significant force this year just ended, along with any realistic talk of the FF.

Patrick Yates

[4decadedukie]

- sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

[ato3]

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[hondoheel]

I don't think he was going to play much anyway.

[markbdevil]

It has to be the shoes, time to switch from Nike to something else!

[captmojo]

is it the fifth metatarsal or a d%*n 17 point lead? Which is worse?

[Zeb]

Boozer, Paulus, Brand, Zoubek have all broken their foot... am I missing someone?

[FreezingDevil]

Does anyone know how exactly you get such an injury? Do you roll your foot or come down too hard on that side? This injury seems to be so common with basketball players it makes me think it must be a matter of weight and massive shoe size. Zoubs, if you hadnt already noticed, has a slightly bigger shoe size than the average man.

[AKG]

This is devastating to any real post-season goals. GP had a similiar injury last year (foot) and every on the board claims that was the root of his problems last year.

BZ, in addition to the weightroom work, needed reps in practice more than anything. No player needed to simply play, more than he did. His footwork was what hurt him the most last year, and now it is the one thing he cannot work on. Just awful for the team. We can still be good this year, but I think any talk of BZ being ready to be a significant force this year just ended, along with any realistic talk of the FF.

Patrick Yates

Honestly Yates, enough is enough. First of all, Duke fields an extremely deep and talented team this year. I'm very confident that Coach K will be able to manage the excellent talent he has assembled this year. There have been some extremely compelling suggestions for the various "small ball" lineups K could utilize (e.g. Singler, GH, Scheyer,Nelson,Paulus) as well as talk of playing a high pressure Team USA style where he could use a blue and a white team because of all the talent at the 2 and 3 spot. I'm really excited to see a highly athletic team use the press to jump start the offense. I think transition baskets were a key component missing from the offense last year. More importantly, what is your basis for the speculation that "any realistic talk of the FF" just ended?
Statistically speaking:

Zoubek: 7.3 min 3.1 pts 2.2 rbs 1.2 to

Granted, he was expected to play a much larger role this season, and some of his benefit in terms of protecting the rim and occupying space don't show up in the stat sheet. However, it's not even certain that he was going to earn significant minutes this year. That said, what is your basis for saying with certainty that a july foot injury precludes us from the FF? I've noticed that you tend to measure the potential success of a team by where you think they'll finish in the tourney. (X will get us to the sweet 16, Y makes us a FF team) Realistically, this isn't how college basketball works. I can see you predicting an ACC regular season finish or even a final overall ranking, but the tournament is totally unpredictable. That's the beauty of it. If JJ and Shelden's team doesn't run into the perfect storm of a JJ shooting slump and an absurdly athletic LSU team, they could very well have won it all.

I also don't see the relevance of your comparison to GP's injury. GP's problems were IMO 95 percent related to lateral quickness defending the perimeter and the lack of an explosive first step. Which of these two skills were you reasonably expecting out of Zoubs? Also I remember a certain duke team having great success with REGGIE LOVE at center. I thought reggie was great (and was friends with him when I was a student) but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that Lance or KS is a better option at center.

I'm extremely optimistic about the potential of this duke team. I think people are going to be blown away by the performance of a healthy GP. Demarcus Nelson is a winner, and GH is a superstar in the making. Lance and Marty could be ready for breakout seasons, and I haven't even mentioned the freshman. So how about we wait and see and not start predicting the demise of the team...in JULY.

[EarlJam]

Boozer, Paulus, Brand, Zoubek have all broken their foot... am I missing someone?

Hurley, 1992

That's when G. Hill took over a large part of the point guard duties.

[ACCBBallFan]

Definitely hurts Zoubs ability to practice footwork or lower body weight training, but he can still work on upper body, and FTs.

[hondoheel]

I remember Bill Russell once talking about James Donaldson when he was a young player, and how he should play ping pong to develop hand-eye coordination. Might be something he could do while he recovers.

[Olympic Fan]

Not all foot injuries are the same -- this is the same injury that Brand, Boozer (twice) and Hurley suffered. Chris Collins also suffered the same injury in 1995 in preseason.

On the other hand, Paulus' injury was very different (it was the aggravation of a chronic problem that he brought with him).

The timing of the injuries is also significant -- Boozer suffered his first broken foot in September and was back at full speed by mid-December. He suffered his second on the last week of the regular season in 2001 and returned to play a big role in the Final Four just over four weeks later.

Brand suffered his injury in late in December his freshman season and returned two weeks before the end of the regular season. Hurley suffered his in the first half of the Feb. 5 loss at UNC and was back in the lineup Feb. 26 against Virginia.

This will hurt Zoubek's development, but based on past performance, he'll be back at full speed in mid-to-late September, in plenty of time to get in peak shape before the start of the season.