CameronBornAndBred wrote:Ima Facultiwyfe wrote:
Don't shoot the messenger.
Just thought I'd pass it on for what it's worth. I know this "big man coach" topic is beaten to death.
Must mean there's something to it.
I'd attribute Zoub's slow progression to injuries and his overall ceiling than anything else. Brian is having a fine senior season, especially since the calendar first showed 2010, but in the grand scheme, he is a limited basketball player in several respects, and I think he himself will tell you that. He has admitted that injuries slowed his physical progress, but he has also said repeatedly this season that his noggin is playing a big role in his progress, too. Over and over, Brian has talked about "playing smart." An observation from Seth Greenberg last night corroborated this. Greenberg said that Zoubek always seemed to be in the right place to make a play, and that he never seemed to have to go far to do it. That's a great example of playing smart.
I don't entirely discount the comments of a coach, and I hope I don't come across as a blind defender of everything Coach K does. Lastly, Ima, I mean none of this in a personal capacity toward you. But I think this conversation is bunk. The coach knows the game, but does not know the team the way K and his staff do. Moreover, we've had enough dominant big men under K to discount the notion that he can't coach them. Shelden Williams and Carlos Boozer are but two of the most recent examples. If you really want to know why we've lacked a strong inside presence in recent years, look to the recruiting trail. K has gone after (and down to the wire with) some very good big men in recent years, Patrick Patterson and Greg Monroe for example. But scarcity is the name of the game in recruiting, and there's only so much you can do to plan for the vicissitudes of 17 year-olds. But then again, nearly every NBA team is still on the lookout for a dominant big man, too. As the level of competition rises, there just aren't that many of them.
Instead of lamenting the supposed lateness and self-taught nature (the more I think about that, the more ridiculous it becomes) of Brian Zoubek's progress as a player, I'll choose to celebrate the extremely gratifying sight of a kid working his ass off and then flourishing in his senior season as an example of everything we want Duke players to be.
