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I traveled to Trenton New Jersey earlier this year for an all day tournament at the Arena in Trenton. The city itself that day was kind of desolate that day, and I felt almost like the last man on earth while walking from the train station to the arena., and later that evening the big snowstorm of the year began with whipping winds thru the street of probably 40 plus miles per hour as I was walking back to the train at near midnight.
Within this wonderful day, where nature showed another side, I got to see Brian Zoubeck with his Haddonfield High School Team play against Solon, Ohio, possibly the top team in Ohio and at the time undefeated. Brian matched up against Dallas Lauderdale, a top 50 prep star from the class of 2007.Lauderdale didn't have a great game offensively, but certainly played excellent defense on Brian, and made him earn his way to the basket. Lauderdale displayed excellent ability to get his hands on the ball in traffic and made some very nice steals as well. It was a great game, with Solon looking like a team right out of the movie Hoosiers, with right on the mark shooting from deep with defenders in their faces. I focused my attention on Brian Zoubeck and I was duely impressed. Brian is rated on most national lists at about 25 to 30, and being 7’2, this rating might not give an apt description of his college potential, being that some very tall players do get overated at the national level and end up averaging a couple of points a game in college. Brian however, from what I observed, has excellent skills. He was a force all game long and looked excellent in both the transition and post up game He seemed to know the focus of many of the fans and the game was on him, yet seemed to relish in the limelight. . He ran the court a couple of times to finish with leaning opposite hand flips in the lane, and his balance and footwork were excellent with good foot speed and quickness, necessary for the prototypical big man to do well at higher levels of basketball. He was particularly impressive on defense and on his rebounding, at times leaning away from contact very nicely to avoid foul trouble. He worked particularly well with his teammates on a ball rotation offense, quickly rotating the ball back to open outside shooters at times. He exhibited nice ability to quickly turn from about 10 feet out and take it too the rim. He displayed a nice touch in traffic and to the foul line. Most importantly he had a constant presence on the game, he was a leader on the court, and he kept his focus on the court the whole game and had a nice consistent effort and played with enthusiasm and passion. It looks like Duke is fortunate to get him, as he looks like he can be an effective scorer in the ACC right away, and presents a Swen Nater type look, a former solid pro who both scored and rebounded in double figures in the pros. Again though, it was most impressive the way he was able to lean away from situations where he was just being baited to get into foul trouble He did give off the vibe of a movie star, which is good, in the sense he seems to feel comfortable in the limelight. Also, particularly impressive in this game for Haddonfield was Princeton bound Blake Wilson, who looked like the blond surfer boy as he was supposed named after a member of the Beach Boys. He looked super smart on the court, with just picture perfect passes to Zoubeck and others, and in drilling the jumper or quickly taking it too the rack. I predict he will potentially start on at Princeton. Wilson looks like he could play in the major conferences, but his game should suit the Ivy League nicely. |
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