Dave in Green

Nice to hear Coach Dambrot single out the San Antonio Spurs as a desirable place for Zeke to land. The Spurs have one of the best all-around organizations and a great coach in Greg Popovich. Coach Dambrot also mentioned the opportunity for Zeke to learn under Tim Duncan. Not only does Duncan have perhaps the best fundamentals of any center currently in the NBA, he also has the kind of class and professionalism that could really help influence Zeke's development. I wish Zeke had been given a chance to have a workout with the Spurs. Hopefully they had a chance to slide over to Houston while Zeke was training at the Coach John Lucas Camp. List updated to include the Cavs. That's 13 of 30 NBA teams. Have I missed any? Any other possibilities before the draft Thursday? Dallas Mavericks May 31 Detroit Pistons June 3 Houston Rockets June 5 Phoenix Suns June 6 Sacramento Kings June 10 Minnesota Timberwolves June 12 Portland Trail Blazers June 14 Los Angeles Lakers June 17 Chicago Bulls June 18 Charlotte Bobcats June 19 Philadelphia 76ers June 21 Indiana Pacers June 22 Cleveland Cavaliers June 24

SI's Andy Glockner redeems himself by including Zeke in his list of top 10 small-school prospects in the NBA draft:

I would expect that NBA teams would put every workout player under an electron microscope. Each team knows when and where each visiting workout player has been and where he's going. They understand that it sorta kinda simulates an extended NBA road trip. They're looking for clues as to how far along each college player is. I'm pretty confident that Zeke was thoroughly briefed on all of this during his stay at the Coach John Lucas Camp in Houston. If for any reason Zeke was not thoroughly briefed on this, then Coach Lucas owes Zeke at least a partial refund.

Bring dynamite and a crane Blow it up and start all over again Name that song.

Nice to hear that the Cavs aren't going to completely ignore Zeke. Maybe some of the workouts played more to his strengths and some to his weaknesses. Maybe some team scouts had different expectations. Lots of possible inconsistencies that may not be Zeke's fault. Anyway, all it takes is one team that likes what they see.

Another good post-workout video interview with Zeke after today's workout with the Indiana Pacers has been posted on NBA.com here.

HustleBelt takes a swing at answering the big question: Will Zeke Marshall Get Drafted?

I was aware of that. The important thing is that even though the Spurs cut him, they didn't totally give up on him. San Antonio allowed Green to prove himself at an appropriate level for him at the time, kept a close eye on his development and brought him back once he'd satisfied their expectations. In other words, the Spurs organization played it exactly right. The Cavs let Green go and lost his phone number. If Zeke should be so lucky as to end up with the Spurs, I believe he would get a better opportunity to develop at his own pace than with almost any other team in the NBA.

This is what kills me about the big-time sports media. SI's Andy Glockner writes an article entitled NBA Draft 2013: Second-Round Sleepers. I'm looking forward to some surprises. He lists Trevor Mbakwe, Colton Iverson, Jackie Carmichael, Erick Green and Mike Muscala. Every mock draft has these guys listed as solid second round selections, and many sports journalists have written about their NBA potential. They're only "sleepers" to those who don't follow college basketball beyond watching the NCAA tournament championship game. Hint: A sleeper is someone who becomes unexpectedly successful or important after a period of being unnoticed, ignored, or considered unpromising or a failure. Try digging a little deeper, Andy, like maybe a player who's having workouts with nearly half of the teams in the NBA and almost none of the big-time sports media are talking about. Example: BlogLockers.com has Zeke Marshall going to the San Antonio Spurs as the #58 draft selection. The Spurs have one of the best and brightest organizations in the NBA when it comes to evaluating and cultivating sleeper players like Danny Green, who was cut by the Cavs but just set an NBA finals record for 3-point shots made playing for the Spurs.

I just did a little research on the term "wing" as used in describing basketball playing positions. While there are many slightly different definitions of wing players, most describe a wing as someone who plays both the small forward (3) and shooting guard (2) positions, also known as a swingman. I think that's what threw me about reading the description of Kwan Cheatham having once been a wing with inside and outside games. I assumed that he had played both the 2 and 3 positions before moving to the 4 spot. If he has the strength to play the 4 against D-I college competition, Kwan's good outside game and the ability to handle the ball more like a 3 may qualify him as a stretch 4. Examples of stretch 4s in the NBA include players like Dirk Nowitzki, Chris Bosch and Carmelo Anthony.

@ZachTheZip, Zeke and Cody Zeller are working out with the Bobcats today. There's news and video here. Near the end of the video I believe that might be Zeke standing at the far end of the court in a dark blue uniform with his back to the camera. It's funny that Zeller is on court with other players, as it was noted in an earlier post in this thread that Zeller's agent had recommended that his client do private team workouts as he did in Portland and not work out against other players. No word on whether or not Zeke and Zeller actually went up against each other during the Bobcats workout.

How about a cooperative effort putting together what we're pretty sure we know from unofficial channels. For example, I'm pretty sure there's an ongoing series with Cleveland State (this season's game should be in Cleveland). I think there may be an ongoing series with Middle Tennessee (that would also be a road game this season). Then I believe that Marshall may still owe the Zips a home game. The Zips seem to schedule at least one SWAC team at the JAR every season. And to close out BracketBusters, maybe the Zips will play a return game at North Dakota State this season. So, to start the list: At Diamond Head Classic Tournament (Boise State, Iowa State, St. Mary's, South Carolina, George Mason, Oregon State, Hawaii) At Cleveland State? At Middle Tennessee? Marshall? SWAC team(s) TBD? At North Dakota State?

@KC4three, that's my bad memory for identifying Kwan as a former shooting guard. In fact, I was the first one on ZN.o to post any information about what positions he had played, and I cited that he was a wing who could shoot from both the inside and outside before moving to power forward. He developed his outside shot playing the 3 spot and not the 2.

The Detroit Pistons just posted this on their official video channel:

@Spin, not saying it isn't worth a mention in this discussion, just hoping a general discussion of other non-UA-related companies doesn't take the focus away from the UA-related point of this discussion.

* Highly recruited 4-star recruit Anrio Adams, a 6-3 guard, is leaving the Kansas Jayhawks after his freshman season to transfer to OU. Link. * OU beat out Temple, Georgetown, Miami (Fla.) and VCU to get a verbal commit from 3-star recruit Tariq Owens, a 6-9 forward from Maryland. Link. * tOSU has actually signed the Kitties to play a regular season basketball game in Columbus. Link.

Hoops On Hoops is definitely not a Zeke skeptic, moving him all the way up to #43 in his latest mock draft, going to the Milwaukee Bucks.

Nothing wrong about having a little fun with the skeptics.

InfoCision will be thrilled to be categorized with smoking and gambling.

@pat, thanks for the link to the followup ABJ story. It's interesting to see that the Association of Fundraising Professionals has a code of ethics. There's always a temptation to push the envelope on various codes of ethics in the interest of generating more quick cash. There's no way for us to know how many of the charges from employees are accurate. I'm always a little skeptical when any company or any person is labeled all good or all bad. But some are certainly worse than others, and we're left to try to differentiate between them as best we can. Specifically on the issue of fundraising for charitable organizations, it used to be done mostly by volunteers who sincerely believed in a cause. The rise of for-profit fundraising corporations with professional salespeople making a living off of charity has been a game changer. Some think it's for better and some think it's for worse. Questionable practices can ultimately lead to damaged reputations, lower credibility and reduced donations/profits in the long term.

You guys make me feel proud to be an American.

@Spin, I'm well aware that other companies have been reported to act in a manner that I personally believe ranges from unsavory to unethical to downright illegal, and I feel the same about all of them. The difference here is that this is directly connected with UA and Zips football. I think discussion of other companies doing similar things would fit more into the OT forum on ZN.o.

This is great news for Zips football. We previously had a discussion on what effect a MAC player going #1 in the NFL draft might have on Zips recruiting right here. Tom Wistrcill certainly should get credit for his role in this.

I should have said more revelations. There were some new ones to me in this article, and I give credit to the ABJ for bringing more to light. The last one about winning national awards as a great place to work by forcing employees to fill in surveys on a company computer where their responses can be tracked is downright Orwellian. That along with employees being forced to sign nondisclosure agreements promising they will not talk about the company publicly even after they leave, regardless of their reason for leaving, suggests a corporate philosophy that knows it's dirty and will go to any lengths to cover up the dirt.

I hope that everyone reads every word of this long story because there are many, many disturbing revelations from beginning to end. Link.