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Cal said Big Z didn't practice for 2 weeks

Mike-McD

Mike-McD

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Aug 3, 2022
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...due to being sick. Which explained the fouls and the defensive lapses.

And yet he turned in 5/7 for 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 blocks in just 12 minutes.

Of course he did have 5 fouls, but only 2 in the second half (LOL).

When he gets the fouls figured out he will be a very important player for us. Imagine if he'd played 25 mins last night.

He has the potential to be our best player.
 
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^^^Agreed 100%. I'm just pointing out Cal's remarks for the calboi/Z haters who love to rip on his "defensive lapses."
 
Mike-McD said:
...due to being sick. Which explained the fouls and the defensive lapses.

And yet he turned in 5/7 for 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 blocks in just 12 minutes.

Of course he did have 5 fouls, but only 2 in the second half (LOL).

When he gets the fouls figured out he will be a very important player for us. Imagine if he'd played 25 mins last night.

He has the potential to be our best player.
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Cal effectively said others may just have to sit more as Z ramps up in practice (and translates that to games). At least seems open to the possibility of playing him more down the stretch, as he should be. We have a much higher ceiling with Z at the 5 compared to Ugonna or Bradshaw. Just need to reach that ceiling.
 
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Pretty much all of Z’s apparent deficiencies (occasionally out of place on defense, picking up BS fouls) are things corrected by simply getting more game experience on the floor. It’s a damn shame the NCAA robbed him of something like 20 games to start the season. Otherwise, he is clearly very highly skilled. He needs to get as much run as possible over the next 4 weeks.
 
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Offensively and rebounding he has a lot of potential. Defensively he has a long ways to go. In some ways he is like Dillingham (Rob taketh away and Rob giveth back).
The good:
- nice 3pt stroke, 4-6 in small sample size, but the form looks good too
- nice court awareness at times, with good passes
- rebounds quite well, with 18 reb in 46 min, that is 11.7 per-30-min (the next best is Onyenso at 9.4)

The bad:
- does seem lost out there often on assignments, where he needs to be, losing his man for easy buckets
- on offense, if he gets the ball within 8' of the basket he is shooting it no matter what, ignoring open teammates
- fouls a lot (probably due to the above), 9 fouls in 46 minutes. That is 1 every 5.1min, the next worst is Burks at 6.4, then Bradshaw 7.7 & Dillingham 9.3
- does seem to get overly excited/frustrated at good/bad plays he makes (like last night he slammed the ball on the floor after giving up an easy basket, and we know they can give a tech for that), but maybe that is partly due to the long wait the NCAA made him go through

But I say roll with it, because we NEED what he could become by mid-March, more than we should worry about his current deficiencies.
 
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Runnin'Ramel said:
2 weeks? He have COVID? Mono?

Cal is so full of sh*t.

BTW, Z's 5th foul was hot garbage and the ref knew it. You don't call that BS. Z should have ended up with a dunk or a beautiful assist after spinning around his guy on the baseline.
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Two of his fouls shouldn't have been called. One of the ones in the 1st call was worse than that one.
 
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JonathanW said:
Offensively and rebounding he has a lot of potential. Defensively he has a long ways to go. In some ways he is like Dillingham (Rob taketh away and Rob giveth back).
The good:
- nice 3pt stroke, 4-6 in small sample size, but the form looks good too
- nice court awareness at times, with good passes
- rebounds quite well, with 18 reb in 46 min, that is 11.7 per-30-min (the next best is Onyenso at 9.4)

The bad:
- does seem lost out there often on assignments, where he needs to be, losing his man for easy buckets
- on offense, if he gets the ball within 8' of the basket he is shooting it no matter what, ignoring open teammates
- fouls a lot (probably due to the above), 9 fouls in 46 minutes. That is 1 every 5.1min, the next worst is Burks at 6.4, then Bradshaw 7.7 & Dillingham 9.3
- does seem to get overly excited/frustrated at good/bad plays he makes (like last night he slammed the ball on the floor after giving up an easy basket, and we know they can give a tech for that), but maybe that is partly due to the long wait the NCAA made him go through

But I say roll with it, because we NEED what he could become by mid-March, more than we should worry about his current deficiencies.
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The ignores open teammates comment, I have no idea where you pulled that from. I think Z gets more excited delivering a pass to a teammate that scores than he does scoring himself. Horrendously bad observation on your part. The rest of it was fine and I agree with.
 
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cats2010 said:
The ignores open teammates comment, I have no idea where you pulled that from. I think Z gets more excited delivering a pass to a teammate that scores than he does scoring himself. Horrendously bad observation on your part. The rest of it was fine and I agree with.
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Yeah don't forget the behind the back pass to Reeves for an open three...Z was UNDER the basket at the time.
 
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The_Answer1313 said:
Dude played 12 mins last night and had 6 offensive rebounds.

If we start rebounding on offense to go along with our outstanding shooting and lack of turnovers, this is an absolute machine on offense.
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That is one thing that pisses me off. Not every shot that your teammate takes is going in. If you notice we are not even looking for offensive rebounds 1/2 the time someone puts up a shot.
 
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ukfan1622 said:
Two of his fouls shouldn't have been called. One of the ones in the 1st call was worse than that one.
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Right. But here we have a lot of people saying he needs to learn how to not foul. Newsflash, he isn't fouling necessarily, he's just dealing with trash SEC refs who are so emotionally influenced by fans it is silly.

I think his D is fine, relative to being on par with the rest of the team. Hell, remember his first series against UGA? He waiting patiently at the rim, saw the guy driving, and went up straight to block the shot. Someone who is clueless on defense commits a foul there 10 out of 10 times.
 
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Mike-McD said:
...due to being sick. Which explained the fouls and the defensive lapses.

And yet he turned in 5/7 for 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 blocks in just 12 minutes.

Of course he did have 5 fouls, but only 2 in the second half (LOL).

When he gets the fouls figured out he will be a very important player for us. Imagine if he'd played 25 mins last night.

He has the potential to be our best player.
Click to expand...
He AND Burks have shown they are PLAYERS , but can't contribute unless they are put on the court. ZERO reason s they both shouldn't/couldnt be playing g 12-14 minutes a game.
 
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Mike-McD said:
...due to being sick. Which explained the fouls and the defensive lapses.

And yet he turned in 5/7 for 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 blocks in just 12 minutes.

Of course he did have 5 fouls, but only 2 in the second half (LOL).

When he gets the fouls figured out he will be a very important player for us. Imagine if he'd played 25 mins last night.

He has the potential to be our best player.
Click to expand...
Duh, Vandy not a good yardstick to measure talent. if it was, write in Burks for 1st team all american.
 
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Mike-McD said:
...due to being sick. Which explained the fouls and the defensive lapses.

And yet he turned in 5/7 for 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 blocks in just 12 minutes.

Of course he did have 5 fouls, but only 2 in the second half (LOL).

When he gets the fouls figured out he will be a very important player for us. Imagine if he'd played 25 mins last night.

He has the potential to be our best player.
Click to expand...
Unless it's Reeves, Dillingham or Sheppard, foul trouble shouldn’t be a major issue with this team.
 
Disappointed Cat said:
Duh, Vandy not a good yardstick to measure talent. if it was, write in Burks for 1st team all american.
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You mean to tell me you can't/couldn't see he should be playing more minutes. Looks like he has plenty of talent and love his enthusiasm and energy. 10/14 mpg.
 
I like the lineup with Z and Bradshaw low and Reeves, Dilly and Shepard.
I thought they really looked in sync.
I don't think many teams can stop the lobs if we throw ten properly.
I get it was against Vandy but that looked like the best combo to me.
When you have 7''s throwing lobs to 7'ers. That is tough to defend.
 
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dlh331 said:
Cal needs to use all of his recruiting ability to get Ivisic back for next season. Z has the potential to be a top 5/overall #1 pick.

Get him and Reed back and we are a title contender.
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This. That kid needs to be in the weight room and gym all summer because if he did come back, he could be a monster next year.
 
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westerncat said:
That is one thing that pisses me off. Not every shot that your teammate takes is going in. If you notice we are not even looking for offensive rebounds 1/2 the time someone puts up a shot.
Click to expand...

maybe missing Oscar a bit on that aspect.

Then again I feel like sometimes things are a bit give and take with all of this. For so many years we were a great offensive rebounding team but didn't shoot the ball particularly well. Now we are top 10 in both effective FG% and turnover % on offense but dead average (172nd) in offensive rebounding and 294th Free Throw Rate.

But there's that give and take as well. Take more 3s than we normally do, your bound to not get to the line nearly as much.

If Big Z can help with the rebounding part, that just makes us all the more dangerous on offense.
 
Runnin'Ramel said:
2 weeks? He have COVID? Mono?

Cal is so full of sh*t.

BTW, Z's 5th foul was hot garbage and the ref knew it. You don't call that BS. Z should have ended up with a dunk or a beautiful assist after spinning around his guy on the baseline.
Click to expand...
last night he found out what happens when you play for UK and gets called for fouls. He is a tough kid who has played against men but he acts surprised anytime they call a foul so hopefully somebody will explain that to him. Loved seeing his game last night
 
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