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Zeke Finally Makes the Big Time!


Dave in Green

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So, what does Arnett Moultrie think about Zeke?

MSU forward Arnett Moultrie made just 2 of 13 shots, finishing with 8 points and 15 rebounds. Akron 7-footer Zeke Marshall blocked five shots and altered many more.

"It bothered me a lot," Moultrie said. "I was worrying about finishing over him. That's why I missed so many easy buckets."

Zips overwhelm zipless Bulldogs

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A Quick Hit from Rush The Court compares Zeke to who?

Big Zeke. Goodness, for much of tonight, the seven-foot Akron junior, Zeke Marshall, appeared to be a rawer version of Greg Oden at Ohio State. He certainly gave the Mississippi State guards fits in that he rejected and altered numerous forays into the paint tonight. The official stat line says that Marshall only had five blocks this evening, but his impact on the game was far more apparent than that if you saw how much trouble MSU had getting past him. Marshall could be ready for a breakout year in the MAC.

Rush The Court

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Zeke is definitely going to be on the NBA radar this year, ESPECIALLY if we get some good post season play.

We better hope he does not enter the draft early, we don't have a replacement lined up for next year.

I think Zeke is smart enough to know that a full four years will give him the best chance to succeed at the next level. I also think earning his degree is legitimately important to him. I think he's a four-year Zip.

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If the NBA draft was today, I think Zeke will be an early second round pick and he will have a Ryan Hollins like career. If he, however, stays in school and keep progressing at the rate he is, at the end of his senior year, Zeke will be a top 10 pick with the potential of a Lamarcus Aldridge career.

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If the NBA draft was today, I think Zeke will be an early second round pick and he will have a Ryan Hollins like career. If he, however, stays in school and keep progressing at the rate he is, at the end of his senior year, Zeke will be a top 10 pick with the potential of a Lamarcus Aldridge career.

I think someone hit the nail on the head in another thread when they said Zeke's ceiling in the NBA is a Tyson Chandler type. I don't think the comparison to Aldridge is a very good one. Aldridge is more of a PF and a much more polished offensive player. Chandler on the other hand is a C who provides a defensive presence around the rim and is adept at getting easy buckets from put backs and off pick and rolls. Despite some injury issues over the course of his career, Chandler has carved out a pretty good NBA career for himself, and was a big key to Dallas' Championship run this past spring.

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Tyson Chandler is about the perfect NBA model for Zeke, not only because their styles of play are similar, but also because of their size. Chandler is 7-1, 235 pounds, which I believe is virtually identical to Zeke. Chandler's success in the NBA at that height and weight proves that Zeke does not have to bulk up from where he is now in order to go head-to-head with the NBA heavyweights.

The thing about Chandler is that he's physically strong and he's a warrior. He plays with great passion and intensity, and doesn't get pushed around easily despite his weight disadvantage to other NBA centers and power forwards.

I think that Zeke has the physical tools to be a Tyson Chandler-type player in the NBA. The question is whether or not he really wants it. Zeke would really have to dedicate his life to basketball and spend countless hours on physical conditioning. The reward if he made it in the NBA would be many millions of dollars. But there are no guarantees. Zeke could give it his best and still fall a little short. There are thousands of talented kids going after those few hundred NBA player jobs.

If Zeke doesn't make it to the NBA, he'll still be able to have a fulfilling professional career as he has other interests and options.

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I think that Zeke has the physical tools to be a Tyson Chandler-type player in the NBA. The question is whether or not he really wants it. Zeke would really have to dedicate his life to basketball and spend countless hours on physical conditioning. The reward if he made it in the NBA would be many millions of dollars. But there are no guarantees. Zeke could give it his best and still fall a little short. There are thousands of talented kids going after those few hundred NBA player jobs.

I have to disagree on that point. If Zeke gives it his best, the only thing that would prevent him from falling short (of an NBA career) is a major injury (hate to even think about that). His combination of height, length, agility, intelligence and speed is EXTREMELY rare.

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But there are no guarantees. Zeke could give it his best and still fall a little short. There are thousands of talented kids going after those few hundred NBA player jobs.

It takes a lot of luck as well. One can have the talent and not get with a team that really needs him.

I knew a guy who was the 47th guy on the Steelers roster back when teams only had 47 players. He never understood how easy it would be to replace the 47th player and he was gone after one year. There are lots of guys who have the talent to play in the nba or nfl and the right chance doesn't happen.

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I think that Zeke has the physical tools to be a Tyson Chandler-type player in the NBA. The question is whether or not he really wants it. Zeke would really have to dedicate his life to basketball and spend countless hours on physical conditioning. The reward if he made it in the NBA would be many millions of dollars. But there are no guarantees. Zeke could give it his best and still fall a little short. There are thousands of talented kids going after those few hundred NBA player jobs.

I have to disagree on that point. If Zeke gives it his best, the only thing that would prevent him from falling short (of an NBA career) is a major injury (hate to even think about that). His combination of height, length, agility, intelligence and speed is EXTREMELY rare.

John Edwards and Chris Dudley played for many years in the NBA. That's all I have to say about that.

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I think someone hit the nail on the head in another thread when they said Zeke's ceiling in the NBA is a Tyson Chandler type. I don't think the comparison to Aldridge is a very good one. Aldridge is more of a PF and a much more polished offensive player.

I see what you're saying quickzips and you're absolutely right. Aldridge is more of a PF. I do however feel that Zeke's offense is getting there and that with two more years of high level college bball, he will develop a better feel on how to put the ball in the basket.

He made huge progress since he first came to Akron: no more fumbles, much better shot selection, better footwork, and better positioning for both alley-oops and putbacks...this is why I compared him to Aldridge..

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We're Zips fans, and Zeke is our Zeke. We all want to think the best about him. But the reality is that the competition to get into the NBA is brutal.

A real eye opener is to see what someone who specializes in evaluating potential NBA talent has to say about every detail of Zeke's game. Interestingly, Jonathan Givony posted an updated evaluation of Zeke's game on Draft Express just two days ago (Nov. 9). Reading this gives an idea of what Zeke has to accomplish in his next two years.

Of course, Givony is just one person. And it's also interesting to note the recent tweets in the lefthand column where Givony tweets:

Watching Akron-Mississippi State on ESPNU. Zeke Marshall looking better than I gave him credit for in my scouting report today.

Another of the tweets suggests that the best case for Zeke is to be a Ryan Hollins, the 7-foot, 230-pound center currently playing for the Cavs (if the NBA was playing).

Anyway, read the following and see what you think:

Zeke Scouting Report on Draft Express

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Diop and Hollins are 2 more. Zeke will play in the NBA and stick around for a long time (assuming no injury). One more thing he has going for him is that he is not a punk or bad guy (and he is a genuinely GOOD guy...all the better). NBA Execs may carry punks and trouble makers if they are great...but not if they are role players. Zeke has upside that may be developed by coaching and 100% focus (without the distraction of school). How well he does will depend on him. And those options will multiply once he has the money from his NBA career in the bank.

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Diop and Hollins are 2 more. Zeke will play in the NBA and stick around for a long time (assuming no injury). One more thing he has going for him is that he is not a punk or bad guy (and he is a genuinely GOOD guy...all the better). NBA Execs may carry punks and trouble makers if they are great...but not if they are role players. Zeke has upside that may be developed by coaching and 100% focus (without the distraction of school). How well he does will depend on him. And those options will multiply once he has the money from his NBA career in the bank.

Diop and Hollins would be close to a worst case scenario for Zeke. Both are simply journeymen C's who occassionally carve out minutes on crummy teams with little depth on the front line. Neither one has anything close to an offensive game, and are little more than average defenders.

Unfortunately I think if Zeke left for the NBA right now this would probably be the career he is looking at. His offensive game is way too raw, and despite being a good shot blocker, he has a lot of work to do in other areas on defense if he wants to be a truly elite defender at the next level. Right now any half way decent NBA coach would drag him away from the basket and make him defend the pick and roll all night long where he would be mostly a liability. If Zeke is going to make it to the level of a Tyson Chandler or Marcus Camby in the league he will have to work on his lateral quickness on the defensive end.

On the offensive end Zeke needs to continue to work with our guards on scoring off the pick and roll and continue to try and develop that little mid-range jump shot. He is probably never going to be a guy that you can regularly dump the ball to in the post and let him go to work ala Shaq or Dwight Howard. But if he becomes more adept at scoring those cheap buckets off the pick and roll and he perfects than little 12-15 foot jumper he could still be a guy that averages 12+ points a game in the league, and is not a liability on offense.

The last thing he needs work on is avoiding fouls. He will never reach his full potential until he can regularly avoid foul trouble. This is probably going to mean learning a little bit of discretion in terms of when to get up and go for the block and when to stay down and defend, which in turn should also help with his issues on the glass.

In short, the potential is there for Zeke, but there is still a lot to work on. Leaving for the NBA after this season would be a pretty big mistake, and I don't think it is one that Zeke is going to make. For the most part the coaching staff has him on the right track on a lot of these issues, but there is still a lot for him to improve on.

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The latest NBA Draft Express mock draft for 2013 has Zeke going #25 to Oklahoma City Thunder

Zeke @ #25 in the First Round

This mock draft must have been put together a while back.

It has Arnett Moultrie of Mississippi State being selected by Denver at #22.

Zeke got in this kid's head so bad that he had "sit me down, coach" kind

of game against Akron.

No way is Moultrie better than Zeke.

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