BREAKING: UNC Forward Zayden High OUT for 2024-25

breaking news out of Chapel Hills Zaden high is not enrolled for the fall semester at North Carolina and will not be on the 2024 25 roster for the tar Hills what's it all mean let's talk about it you are locked on Tarheels your daily podcast on the UNC Tarheels part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day hey there what's up with welcome into this LIVE edition of the locked on tar Hills podcast it is Tuesday evening August 27th 2024 coach Pat Kilby and I have already recorded tomorrow's episode of the show a season preview of Seth Trimble so I wanted to come to you live this evening as the news of Zaden High breaks I'm your host Isaac shade you're joining me at the place to get your Tar Heels content every single day it's all part of the locked on podcast Network special shout out to all the every dayers joining us and all the members of the locked on tar Hills Discord this live breaking news episode is brought to you by FanDuel right now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a free three-week trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV visit fanduel.com locked on to get started all right guys uh you know gotta come together today with some sad news and I want to just lay out the beats for you of what I have learned about the Zaden High situation we'll talk about it unpack it and then look at what it means for the Tar Heels I've got my scholarship chart ready for us to pull up and look at and if we've got some time at the end I'll take a few questions and uh man tough but here we are so here's the Beats of this about 24 hours ago Monday afternoon I was surprised of the fact um that there had been something ongoing with Zaden high and that uh it was coming out that he would not be with the Tar Heels for the 202 2425 season um I have a source very close to the situation and here's what I know from that source and this is what I will say is the current plan and I specify current plan because very obviously things can and do change very quickly in college athletics especially now in the transfer portal era so this is what we know right now as of 706 PM Eastern Time on Tuesdays uh what is today August 27th okay Zaden high is not enrolled at North Carolina for the fall 2024 semester the plan is that he will be back enrolled as a student in the spring of 2025 however he will be red shirting the entire college basketball season so Zaden will not play for the team even when he comes back in the 2025 spring semester So the plan is that then he would be back with the team for the 2025 26 Season he will with red shirting will still have three years of Eligibility left to be able to play 25 26 26 27 and 2728 this is related not um to an on the court issue or anything like that but related to an off- the court issue there is no legal you know obviously when I say something like that all sorts of bells and whistles and things start going off in everyone's brains let me just say this concretely there is no legal trouble to the best of my understanding that Zaden is facing and that's all we're going to say about that side of it right now um look this is a tough deal right you never want to see this um you never want to have to to deal with it and you know it's unfortunate anytime you lose a player obviously uh last year just ahead of the Season Simeon wilter decided to decommit and ended up going to St John so you know we're not strangers to this happening um and here's another part of this for Zaden Hyde that I think speaks very highly forgive me of that of his character from my source Zaden could have decided to go to a different school last week but he is choosing um to just take this accept it stick around Humble himself and then come back next semester and then we move on from there and so um as my source says and I agree man this just shows a lot of character from Zaden in what he is deciding to do now we have to be very prec as precise as we can in these situations one of the things I saw immediately come out this afternoon as this news is another national college basketball media personality said that Zaden High had been dismissed from the team that is not true right like like yes he is not playing on the team this semester but it is not a dismissal from the team because that would indicate like dismissed can't come back right like so that is not the situation here so that's where we have to be very precise with what we are saying and discussing so that's the news Zaden High not with the Tarheels Zaden High the plan to be back as a student in the spring and then back with the Tar Heels as a basketball player for the 2025 26 Season what I want to do now is pull up our scholarship chart we're just going to go hopefully a tight 10 uh to 15 minutes or so here on the show I would uh I I'll see if there's any questions we want to get to um but just want to kind of quickly give you the information talk about what it means for the on the court side of things and then everybody get back to their evening so uh for those of you watching on YouTube you you might be listening back to this later I'll I'll put this in our audio feed for those of you watching though you know with the addition of taian Claude recently Carolina had gotten up to 12 of their 13 scholarships so this just simply moves Carolina back down to 11 scholarships utilized meaning that Elliot kdo is the lone sophomore on this year's team I have put Zaden back into the mix for the next three season following this year just with that red shirt designation by his name but this would then put him in the class with James Brown Ian Jackson and Drake pal so the big thing is you know there there had been some buzz and some movement of Hope of more playing time for Zaden this year you know he he's made comments of like I I'm gonna try my best to force coach Davis to play me and and not keep me on the bench and I I love that energy and I love that attitude obviously zayan's got an Energizer Bunny motor that goes for days and days and days and uh just could have brought some things this year especially um in a front court for North Carolina that has a lot of questions as we all know this North Carolina backc court is absolutely loaded this season with the return of RJ Davis sophomore version of Elliot CDO Seth Trimble entered the portal and decided to come back for his junior year Ian Jackson and Drake po bringing in all of their freshman energy and talents uh Kate Tyson who will play on the wing right but just to all this Talent at the one two and three positions but the question mark all along has been at the four and the five so with Zaden High not being part of the team it leaves for Carolina in the front Court Jaylen Washington Jaylen Withers Vanderbilt transfer V Allen Luben Georgia Tech transfer taon Claude whom I just mentioned and then the third freshman James Brown and then there's obviously the conversation of does Carolina go small ball maybe play K Tyson at the four maybe play Drake Powell at the four some th those are some of the other things we'll watch um and so you know for Zaden High obviously I I think he would have had chances and opportunities within that mix I don't believe he would have been a starter on this team and I don't even think he would have been first or second Off the Bench but I do believe there was opportunity for more playing time and for him to carve out something of a real Niche for himself this year specific what that would be I don't know and I can't say right now obvious viously because it's August 27th but um man it leaves something on the board to the positive specific for Zaden with his basketball development sorry I got disconnected everyone back here uh with you on locked Ontario sorry what I was saying this this does give Zaden the opportunity um to continue working and growing and developing and be ready to come back with the team for next year so let me pull our scholarship chart back up I apologize again uh for getting booted out their internet man it's crazy sometimes um and so so there is that side of it we can watch to see how that allows Zaden to have maybe even more of a role on this team over the course of the next three years um another thing another issue this cause causes excuse me is that it brings into Stark relief all the other front Court misses that the tar Hills have had this offseason um seeing how you know there were all these opportunities and hopes that Carolina had and you know thankfully you do have guys like Benin Allen Lubin who have come in and taian Claude more recently but you know having not gotten your Jonas adus or your cliffo moris uh that comes into bold relief one thing that we do have to think about as maybe a a potential Silver Lining is this does un muddy the front Court picture some right it makes it pretty clear and apparent you know you've got these Five Guys in Jaylen Washington Jaylen Withers Vin Allen lubben taon Claud and James Brown right like that's that's the only guys in that mix along with anybody that might play again a small ball four so we'll keep our eyes out for that to see what happens all right gang what I do want to do is get to your comments um to see if there's any questions you have that I can answer and so we're going to do that coming up in just a second but before we get there I do want to tell you about our good friends at FanDuel hey you've heard me talk a lot about FanDuel this summer America's number one sports book usually this summer I've been filling you in on the opportunity to get a boost or a bonus every day from FanDuel well got something a little different for you right now right now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV then with the YouTube TV Bas plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account and a current form of play payment excuse me and then you can cancel at any time man how about this line for Carolina at Minnesota tomorrow night FanDuel did have Minnesota favor now it has flipped and the Tar Heels are favored tomorrow night by a point and a half just visit fanduel.com locked on to download America's number one Sportsbook all right let's pull up your questions and see what kind of things we've got here obviously just a a lot of people sad um and things going on and uh T-man asks this question says will Zaden be able to sit on the bench next semester or is he not allowed to do anything with the team uh my guess would be that since he is red shirting uh that he he would not even sit with the team I I would imagine there are opportunities to work out with the team but I'll need to to to work at verifying some of those things and we'll get to that that's a great question there um from T-man all right um and so uh what else do we have here um CJ hooker says and I'm with you CJ this absolutely hurts hope the kid can bounce back from this and I think this is where we have to stop and just remind ourselves of this Zaden high is not a robot Zaden high and his family and their friends are human beings and going through something very real right now right like you and I if this kind of thing happened in our life we'd be able to just quietly go away for the semester and then come back or whatever it is because of the public nature uh of student athletes putting themselves into the spotlight like this there is going to be criticism there are going to be questions there are going to be assumptions made and I would just ask you to and and all of us to the best of our ability to to not make those assumptions to not jump to conclusions without um having true and you like information um that that we know and can take to the bank and so um you know I I'm with you CJ I it it hurts um as a fan of the program it also hurts as you just think about this young man and and Zaden and what he and his family will be going through so our hope our thoughts go out to him and also the idea of Hope the kid can bounce back from this like for example um meat tooth says he will not be back and that's the sentiment that's been echoed to me by a lot of people already is um look in this day and age with the transfer portal I don't think Zaden will be back uh you know I I think um he's gonna end up going somewhere else or he won't be able to come back and play just all these things that people speculate on and it's just impossible to know right now again I want to reiterate the fact that he potentially you know could have gone on somewhere and chose to stay and work through this I think speaks miles of Zaden now when the transfer portal opens next year at this point we just don't know what's going to happen and so we'll have to wait and see on that um and our guy the nintend ner always great to hear from you nintend ner and and this is just a great way to kind of sum this up this is a personal issue not a basketball issue I'm more concerned for Zaden and any parties involved than I am about our basketball season even if we need to dis even if we need to discuss that um and and I love this sentiment man thank you nintend nerd for just putting that front and center for all of us as we think and talk about this um for those of you who might or might not be aware um I also have been in Ministry for a long time in my life as a worship Minister and one of the things that I always say to like the musicians and instrumentalists in our bands is things like man I love who you are uh you know and I'm grateful for your skills as an instrumentalist but who you are as a person matters more to me and it's that exact same kind of thing here who Zaden is as a human and coming back and in working through this uh matters infinitely more than what he could or would have done on a basketball court this season so brother uh our thoughts are with you Hi family our thoughts are with you as well all right that's going to do it uh for tonight and this quick update on the Zaden High situation um want to remind you I said this on Twitter we have a brand new lock on tar Hills Insider program I sent this information out yesterday about 24 hours ago to our insiders so they already knew about it if you'd like to be involved in that Insider program where you can text directly back and forth with me where you have all sorts of access to things like my scholarship chart all my stats all my data I keep a whole bunch of different spreadsheets whole bunch of record book type stuff and you have free access to that when you join The Insider program right now the first 23 people that sign up yes that's a Michael Jordan thing get four free months and then after that it's just $5 a month to be part of this it's like buying me coffee so we can hang out and chat once a month and it's also a great way to support the show if you haven't subscribed to us on audio and video man that's a great way to make 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