Zekes improvements

[phil]

Zeke has really improved this season and especially the last few games on how much he has been on the floor. Last year he seemed to get winded easily and would ask for a breather, especially if he was working hard at both ends of the floor. This year his conditioning is much better.

He has also stayed out of foul problems this year, especially at home. I wonder how much Keith complained about the ticky tack fouls called at the JAR last year. It seems like this year, at least at the JAR, they are letting Zeke play. He has not been close to fouling out during the recent home stand. Compare that to the away games where Zeke would get called for a foul if he even breathed on a player.

His offense also has improved, especially when he knows what he want to do on offense when he gets the ball. (ok dunks are easy, just slam it down). I noticed that when Zeke holds on to the ball for a long time before he goes to the hoop, his chances of scoring go down. When he makes his move quickly, he seems to score. I really like when he takes that open 12 footer. The Cavs Z made a living off that shot and Zeke is developing a nice open shot at this range.

Obviously, watching him block shots is worth the price of admission. Hoping that the foul trouble is a thing of the past.

[Doug Snyder]

Zeke has really improved this season and especially the last few games on how much he has been on the floor. Last year he seemed to get winded easily and would ask for a breather, especially if he was working hard at both ends of the floor. This year his conditioning is much better.

He has also stayed out of foul problems this year, especially at home. I wonder how much Keith complained about the ticky tack fouls called at the JAR last year. It seems like this year, at least at the JAR, they are letting Zeke play. He has not been close to fouling out during the recent home stand. Compare that to the away games where Zeke would get called for a foul if he even breathed on a player.

His offense also has improved, especially when he knows what he want to do on offense when he gets the ball. (ok dunks are easy, just slam it down). I noticed that when Zeke holds on to the ball for a long time before he goes to the hoop, his chances of scoring go down. When he makes his move quickly, he seems to score. I really like when he takes that open 12 footer. The Cavs Z made a living off that shot and Zeke is developing a nice open shot at this range.

Obviously, watching him block shots is worth the price of admission. Hoping that the foul trouble is a thing of the past.

the only thing I see that he needs to fix is he often moves his hips on picks...that will cause a lot of ticky tack fouls. Get in position...don't move the hips.

I think he is getting adept at shooting with either hand. he will be a monster next year.

[UAZip0510]

Over the last four games:

28 MPG, .552 FG%, .708 FT%, 15 PPG, 8 RPG, 3 BPG, 1 PFG

He's scoring and rebounding more while fouling less. Hopefully he has made improvements and this isn't just due to a large helping of "cupcakes"...

[Dave in Green]

There has been a huge change in Zeke's demeanor on the floor. He no longer makes the exaggerated reactions when he's called for a personal or loses the ball. He's much more stone-faced and in control of himself. He accepts things that go wrong as part of the game, immediately puts them out of his mind and focuses on the next play. It's like he went from playing like a kid to playing like a man.

He still plays tough, tight defense. But he's developed a feel for when to back off slightly at the last second so that he doesn't draw the minor contact fouls he was called for in the past. On offense, he has great confidence in his shots. As 1981grad points out, he generally does better when he shoots quickly rather than hesitating and allowing the defense to collapse on him. But most of the time when he hesitates, he ends up kicking the ball back out. He even has a good rhythm on his free throws, and is making a good percentage of them.

He's also snagging more rebounds. In fact, I can't think of any phase of his game that hasn't improved. He's gained weight without slowing down because the weight is all muscle. He can play long minutes without tiring out.

His progress has been slow but steady, and I expect that progress to continue at a slow but steady pace throughout the rest of his college career and on into the NBA.

[Quickzips]

Zeke has really improved this season and especially the last few games on how much he has been on the floor. Last year he seemed to get winded easily and would ask for a breather, especially if he was working hard at both ends of the floor. This year his conditioning is much better.

He has also stayed out of foul problems this year, especially at home. I wonder how much Keith complained about the ticky tack fouls called at the JAR last year. It seems like this year, at least at the JAR, they are letting Zeke play. He has not been close to fouling out during the recent home stand. Compare that to the away games where Zeke would get called for a foul if he even breathed on a player.

His offense also has improved, especially when he knows what he want to do on offense when he gets the ball. (ok dunks are easy, just slam it down). I noticed that when Zeke holds on to the ball for a long time before he goes to the hoop, his chances of scoring go down. When he makes his move quickly, he seems to score. I really like when he takes that open 12 footer. The Cavs Z made a living off that shot and Zeke is developing a nice open shot at this range.

Obviously, watching him block shots is worth the price of admission. Hoping that the foul trouble is a thing of the past.

MSU - 5 fouls in 24 minutes

Valpo - 5 fouls in 11 minutes

WVU - 5 fouls in 19 minutes

MTSU - 5 fouls in 23 minutes

That's 4 out of 11 games this season that Zeke has fouled out of and averaged less than 20 minutes per game. Those were also 4 of our toughest opponents.

Listen, I love seeing what Zeke has done over the past 3-4 games as much as the next guy, but lets not lose sight of the fact that in that span the Zips have played such juggernaughts as Youngstown State, Florida A&M and Arkansas Pine-Bluff. You aren't likely to see any of those teams in the sweet-16 any time soon. In fact, I would be pretty surprised to see any of them make the big-dance this year.

I've said it all along, when Zeke can put together an extended streak of good games (1/2 a seasons worth or more) in which he scores at a reasonable clip, rebounds the ball and stays out of foul trouble, I will start to buy into the idea that he has truly "turned the corner". Until then, I will continue to consider this another in a line of intermitent solid performances from a player who has yet to fully develop.

[Dave in Green]

@Quickzips, were you in Cleveland for the CSU game? That's where I first noticed Zeke's ability to slightly back off from committing the touch fouls he had been getting called for.

CSU is much stronger than the three teams that the Zips have beaten at home over the past week, yet Zeke had only 2 personals in 33 minutes at CSU.

Zeke has had 6 fouls in the last 114 minutes against one strong team (CSU), one fair team (YSU) and a couple of weaker teams.

That's an average of 1.5 fouls per game while averaging 28.5 minutes per game.

Doesn't mean he will never foul out again. But it represents a good trend. If he continues to play defense the way he has the last four games, he should not have as many foul problems as he has in the past.

I can see a difference in the way he's playing defense from way up in the stands, so I'd expect the refs to see it down on the floor.

[skip-zip]

Listen, I love seeing what Zeke has done over the past 3-4 games as much as the next guy, but lets not lose sight of the fact that in that span the Zips have played such juggernaughts as Youngstown State, Florida A&M and Arkansas Pine-Bluff.

And you forgot something.....very undersized. I always like to think that he is turning the corner, but at the same time I also continue to be frustrated by his inability to finish. I sure hope that this year, some of these early season glimpses of improvement carry over to the conference slate.

[Blue & Gold]

I posted this link in another thread, but this is actually the perfect thread for it.

Look at Zeke's muscularity through the shoulders & arms in this picture. Definitely a HUGE "improvement" over his freshman year.

[Quickzips]

@Quickzips, were you in Cleveland for the CSU game? That's where I first noticed Zeke's ability to slightly back off from committing the touch fouls he had been getting called for.

CSU is much stronger than the three teams that the Zips have beaten at home over the past week, yet Zeke had only 2 personals in 33 minutes at CSU.

Zeke has had 6 fouls in the last 114 minutes against one strong team (CSU), one fair team (YSU) and a couple of weaker teams.

That's an average of 1.5 fouls per game while averaging 28.5 minutes per game.

Doesn't mean he will never foul out again. But it represents a good trend. If he continues to play defense the way he has the last four games, he should not have as many foul problems as he has in the past.

I can see a difference in the way he's playing defense from way up in the stands, so I'd expect the refs to see it down on the floor.

You've kind of missed my broader point which is that we've seen small stretches of "turning the corner" by Zeke in the past. Problem is they've never lasted. Three or four games is simply too small of a sample size to say one way or another. If you judge by the first seven games of this year Zeke hasn't turned any corners. If you judge only by the last 4 he probably has. I for one want to see a good 10, 12, 15 game stretch in which Zeke plays to his full potential before I'm going to be a believer. I've seen far too many threads about Zeke "turning the corner" over the past two and a half seasons. If he had truly turned a corner every time Zipsnation believed he did he would have gone in circles about half a dozen times.

[Captain Kangaroo]

You've kind of missed my broader point which is that we've seen small stretches of "turning the corner" by Zeke in the past. Problem is they've never lasted.

He is a different player this season. He's looking for his shot. He's being aggressive.

He has had a couple games where he's committed some stupid fouls. Usually when he starts thinking he's a guard and strays outside the paint. But his entire game is better this season.

Last year, when everyone was down on the kid, I simply stated a universal truth - 7-footers Develop Slow. With the rarest of exceptions, this is true.

I believe I predicted his numbers would be roughly double from last season. We'll see if that holds true. It'll probably fall a little short, but he'll still make a huge leap over 2010-11.

[Dave in Green]

@Quickzips, I do get your point about getting a statistically significant sample before declaring a permanent change in any area of Zeke's game.

Looking only at the foul situation, here's how it averages out comparing all of last season to all of this season to date:

In 35 games last season Zeke averaged 22 minutes and 3.3 fouls per game, while this season through 11 games he's averaged 24 minutes and 2.6 fouls per game.

So, despite the 4 games this season where he fouled out, on average he's improved about 20% on reducing fouls per minute over the first 30% of the season.

Zeke has also clearly improved in other areas when comparing stats from last season to nearly the first third of this season, such as shooting percentage.

We're only 6-7 games from the halfway point of this season, at which time I think everyone could agree that these improvements are likely permanent.

[Zip Watcher]

You've kind of missed my broader point which is that we've seen small stretches of "turning the corner" by Zeke in the past. Problem is they've never lasted.

He is a different player this season. He's looking for his shot. He's being aggressive.

He has had a couple games where he's committed some stupid fouls. Usually when he starts thinking he's a guard and strays outside the paint. But his entire game is better this season.

Last year, when everyone was down on the kid, I simply stated a universal truth - 7-footers Develop Slow. With the rarest of exceptions, this is true.

I believe I predicted his numbers would be roughly double from last season. We'll see if that holds true. It'll probably fall a little short, but he'll still make a huge leap over 2010-11.

+10

[Jalapeño Zippy]

How much do you think having taller, stronger and quicker players around him helps to keep him out of foul trouble?

[phil]

Assuming that that the players around him stay the same (no injuries or further suspensions) and the referees treat him fairly, I believe that Zeke can score between 10 and 20 points the rest of the season.

His teammates are looking for him more often and he has been scoring 3 dunks or layups each game. Based upon his recent aggressiveness, rebounding and going to the hoop, he should get to the foul line for another 4 points. I thought that the game on Monday he missed some shots and still scored 11 points. He also did not play the last 6 minutes. When Zeke gets easy baskets early in the game, he seem to get in an offensive rythem

One of the reasons he is scoring more is that he has better hands this year and is controlling the ball better once he receives it. But more importantly, Zeke is developing a very good chemistry with his teammates. Keith seems to have found a good rotation. Zeke has athletic and strong guys around him that can drive to the basket aggressively. With Tree you have a very aggressive rebounder. I believe this team has the capability to get offensive rebounds and break down defenses. The athleticism on this team will help Zeke score. This is something that we did not have the last 2 years since we liked to pass around the perimeter and shoot the 3.

I hope that I am not being overly optimistic but I like what I am seeing out on the floor even if the competition might not have winning records.

[Pack_The_MAC]

Something that I have noticed is that instead of going for the monster blocks at every possible moment, he has also backed away and settled for affecting the shot just with his presence. Their have been many occasions recently where he just put his hands up and the ball bounced off the rim.

[Dave in Green]

How much do you think having taller, stronger and quicker players around him helps to keep him out of foul trouble?

Definitely a contributing factor. The more the other Zips keep the players they're defending in check, the less Zeke has to be relied on as the final line of defense. That presents fewer opportunities for Zeke to commit fouls. This situation should continue to improve as all the new players get better at executing Zips defensive schemes.

With Zeke now a major part of the Zips' offense as well as the defense, the team takes an even bigger hit if he fouls out. Zeke needs to play long minutes for the Zips to be consistent winners.

[Blue & Gold]

Something that I have noticed is that instead of going for the monster blocks at every possible moment, he has also backed away and settled for affecting the shot just with his presence. Their have been many occasions recently where he just put his hands up and the ball bounced off the rim.

I've been crying for Big Zeke to quit trying to block every shot for a year! Just be satisfied with altering the shots. It's not as exciting as a block, but is still effective, and will help him avoid foul trouble. Additionally, Zeke continually leaving his feet in order to block every shot also costs him rebounding positioning.