Way Too Critical of Zoubek(Tarheel Perspective)

He was the NJ player of the year for 2006. He won 3 straight State Championships. He was ranked in the top 150 coming out of high school.( I think top 25?)

Now, i know looking at that, you would think he'd better than he is, but the transition to college has been a little tougher for him.  He's had a couple surgeries and was out the majority of this past season. I dont think Coach K ever expected him to come in and be a double double guy or even score in double figures. He's there to mainly grab rebounds and alter shots inside, from your opponents. He does both of these things extremely well, when he's in the ball game.. Does he need help with his foot work? Yes! But, that will come.. He only played 20 minutes 3 times this season. Every other game was fewer than that. If you take a look at his stats for each game and the minutes played in those games, you'd see that he really hasnt played that bad. Considering the people that on the team, the style of play your coach wants from the team and the few touches that he receives, he really doesnt play as bad as you guys say. I think sometimes when people dont like a certain player, they tend to only see when they do something wrong, rather than observe the entire picture of whats actually going on.

Your Friendly Tarheel

Good post.

Zoubek needs to work on his foot work on both ends of the floor.  On the offensive end this allows him to create post moves without traveling and on the defensive end it allows him to continue to block/alter shots, clog the lane and grab rebounds without getting into early foul trouble.

He's a classic example of a "project"...with good health comes some more minutes and more time to improve.  If that happens, he'll be a pretty valuable player on this team iver the next couple of years.

Hey, the ballet class might actually work..?  thats not a bad idea.. Hop scotch, maybe not????

I'm a Duke fan, I have absolutely nothing against Zoubek, but this guy has really not performed at all since he got to Duke.  The guy turns the ball over every time he touches it.  How can anyone sit back, who watched Duke play this year, as well as last, that this guy has nothing short of absolutely atrocious footwork.  He has not post moves, he brings the ball down to a level where guys can take it from him when he get rebounds or passes, he's not strong with the ball when he gets it.  At this point, the only thing he really does is eat space.  I'm not trying to be an A$$ about the whole thing, but you'd think as a Division 1 prospect as a big man that he would have at least some kind of skilled footwork in the post and he really doesn't.  The bottom line is this, Duke needs a talented, ready to contribute big man that can make an immediate impact and doesn't need this kind of coaching on his footwork and post moves.  Zoubek is truly a project, and lets face it, he's going into his junior year and time is running out.  It's time to start earning your scholarship and put the work in on the offseason to make some kind of contribution next year.  I'm still not quite sure what Coach K saw in this kid when he recruited him, but he must have seen something that none of the rest of us have, because he's yet to impress me.  I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for one more year, but to be honest, it's a short leash.  Time to earn your scholarship Brian, that's an expensive education you're getting there my friend!

I understand the frustration, but look at the numbers.. For a guy that doesnt even play half of the game, his numbers are pretty good. Considering the style of Duke play and the fact that duke shoots more threes than any team in the nation, but one. He only had more than 2 turnovers twice all season long, so he isnt walking that much. If you look at his FG attempts and makes, you'll see that he probably has one of  the highest percentages on the team. When looking at those numbers, you'll see that he doesnt really touch the ball that much, but when he does, he's usually scores. On a team, where the center will never be the first option, i think he's done a decent job. Obviously not anything you can write home about, but a lot better than one would think, from reading message boards about how horrible he is. When i look at the last three games of the season, well even the last five, it makes me wonder why he only played 2 minutes in the West Virginia game?????