Carolina Insider - Interview with Zayden High (Full Interview) - Nov. 7, 2023

Intro a little nervous about today's interview with Zaden high oh because as you know we like to do extensive research on our interview subjects before we get started Universal consensus Zaden High best trash talker on the team this year so I'm worried that if this doesn't go well he might try to get in our head n no no you're good you good you ain't got to worry about no we'll pass him like in the hallway later in the season and he'll just trash talk to the point we would just run away yeah he those questions were absolutely horrific I was embarrassed for you n so just take it easy on us I got you I got you for sure we good so Zaden High Carolina freshman is with us uh Zaden we're just getting started on your freshman season but what have these first couple months in Chapel First few months in Chapel Hill Hill and being first couple months being a Carolina basketball player what have they been like um it's been an experience for sure it's been a learning learning experience just learning from all these older guys I'm only I mean it's only two freshmen me and Elliot so um there's a lot to learn from you know guys like Cormac and Armando and and um RJ know cuz they've been here for a little while um I mean it's been a great experience just just playing at the University of North Carolina I've had a great time all right I have been taken aback in the times that I've seen you like you never stop like dude like you're activity level is insane yeah so I mean has this always been the Zaden High way to play is it a way that you realizing hey I can get on the floor here if I play this like what where does that come from um me well like you just said like I just want to I just going to be on the court no matter where where coach needs me to be but uh my dad likes to say I have high energy I like that high energy High motor um so I mean I just do the little things like you said just to keep me out there out there on the court might not surprise you but I Under the basket feel like I was completely I had this completely wrong perception of you in my mind Zaden high was like a guy who stood out there and shot three-pointers a lot but that's not you at all why why did I think that and is this some sort of recent development that that I just wasn't aware of I mean yeah when I first came here my first instinct was yeah I wanted to shoot the ball like that's that's what I kind of thought I was getting recruited here for but um coming in seeing that we have Shooters on our team green light Shooters it's easy to do the little things and like they like they put up shots it's easy for me to go in there and get a rebound or or get a rebound push the pace and and me getting rebounds and Armando getting rebounds and Harrison getting rebounds like that's that's going to help us push the pace and play that a lot of faster pit so yeah it's it's exciting it's been pretty physical under the basket in uh in practice so far yeah what do you what do you like about that and how's that been educational for you um that's kind of where all the trash talk comes for sure um there's been a learning curve too cuz I mean there's vet those vets out there they know how to play basketball um Armando is really good under the basket and those battles in practice are fun like that's what I look forward to and going to practice every day what is h key to the art of good trash talking I Trash Talk Adam all the time but he's an easy target so I need I need like some more tips and pointers of what can make me good honestly I I couldn't even tell you like it just hen for me it just happens like like we if my team is playing good that's when I feel like okay I can I can start saying something but like if we we just out there messing around stuff yeah then good I ain't going to say too much well and one thing about zanen that he Trash talker probably is not going to want to talk about there was a pickup game this Summer that like you have no there's no filter on you in terms of who you are talking to you don't care who it is because there was an older tarel who you were going back and forth with a little bit so I take it like there's no there's no line oh no no not not for real um we'll go into it I I I'll tell you about it so I don't remember what it was like first two three weeks we here we were playing pickup it was late night pickup like 10 10 o'clock at night um we I mean couple couple games in like four or five games in kind of at the end end of it but uh we start we started playing it was actually one of the best games we had since we were in there we started playing it was competitive uh we got a few buckets I start started getting in Lane got a few buckets started talking a little junk Armondo was on the other team so um I don't remember what the score was but he came down he set a screen he rolled and I was helps side so I stepped over he got the ball on the roll he didn't even think to look twice at me he looked at the rim and punched it I was like dang but um yeah he definitely said something after that yeah it was it was funny is part of the art of being a good trash talker that you have to be able to take it also for sure for sure yeah you can't get your feelings when somebody says something to you yeah it's all right Texas right Texas native but High School in Arizona at least the last year right yes I did first three in San Antonio and then my senior year I did in Arizona so how does a guy from San Antonio who went to high school in Arizona how's he end up at Carolina I mean really it was just the best fit when I came on my visit I had like that was the my aura on my visit was just at its highest um I would say the coaches were really really caring and giv to me and my family and my family I mean at the end of the day is North Carolina like who wouldn't want to be here but yeah this this place just felt like home as soon as I stepped on campus what did you know about Carolina basketball prior Basketball to visiting here I mean I kept I didn't really have like a certain favorite college team but I I kept up like I watched watched college basketball of course um um I mean the recent most recent uh memory I have is obviously Caleb hitting the shot against Duke um but yeah that's that's really like the the set point where I remember okay yeah that's where I want to be for sure I feel like everybody kind of went on your visit with you because your mom had a very popular Tik Tok about the visit and like what it was what it was like visits are crazy huh is that typical of the level of like cool stuff that you get to do yeah it's cool for the first one or two two visits but then after like 3 four five that's this starts getting exhausting and um yeah my mom she she takes videos everywhere we go so she can post it on her little Tik Tok account but yeah I mean it's big it's pretty big everybody go go follow High Life priority for sure High Life priority is what it's called so she's probably got some videos of like young Zaden the basketball tyke like just learning how to play I mean she probably got videos in the archive somewhere yeah there's probably videos of me everywhere and phone has it always been basketball have you played other sports like tell tell us a little bit about kind of your journey to to get to the point where you're a D1 athlete I mean I grew up playing football baseball and basketball up until high school and then in high school I just made the decision to go straight basketball but really my favorite two sports were baseball and basketball um I feel like those were just I feel like on the court I'm really good like IQ and stuff like that in baseball you're you really have to have a mental really good mental capacity and I feel like that's that translated to that game what position you play um I play a little bit every guy mean right I could throw the ball I mean I could pitch a little bit but I played center and third base did you have any idea where it was going I feel like you might be a pitcher who scared that's exactly what I am like I if I throw there going to be a lot of heat but it might go in all different directions so you never knew where it was going but sometimes that's a good thing you keep them on their toes a bit right right and you've got a sister who's a pretty good athlete too right yes sir she plays volleyball so is the high family pretty competitive like if if y'all are going out in the driveway or things going to get heated oh yeah we there's been a couple games of pig in the parking lot that that uh I would say I've won all of them but that would not be true um yeah but shout out to them we we they're's real competitive in our family if you didn't win who did I can't speak I can't say that I can't say that we just going to keep that one under we don't want to give away anything Adam to any of the members of we don't want them feeling too good about them what have you learned and I understand that at the time we're speaking to Zaden Carol I had even played a regular season game yet but what what have you learned about being a division one athlete what it takes to be a D1 athlete and kind of just the differences between trying to be consistently successful at this level compared to high school honestly the one big difference I would say is like coming to practice every day on a consistent basis and and showing up um in high school I feel like in my senior year it prepared me for this level maybe the pace is a little bit faster but I feel like it it prepared me for this level um but yeah I would say the one thing is like keeping your body like in shape and ready to go every day for practice is one the big thing for me how about combining everything with the Time Management basketball like just the time management and the school part and all the various commitments that yall have what have you learned about how to handle all that um it's been it's been um kind of difficult at first but I mean I picked up on it um I mean School juggling school basketball and then outside doing homework and stuff like that it's been been it's been pretty good I mean I haven't had um to to I haven't uh what am I trying to say I haven't it hasn't been too difficult for me that's that's what it's um you mentioned Pace that's something that Carolina's long been known for but I don't think the tel have played the last year or two at the pace that they want to play right uh how have you guys tried to play faster how have you tried to practice to to when you carry it over to the court to be able to play at that level um a lot of conditioning in the preseason because the way we play like you have to be in shape at this level and so I would say the one big thing coach Davis has stressed on is getting the ball like they score get the ball out let's let's push the pace let's outrun the team let's make this attract me and so um yeah it's been it's been uh another level for me for sure feels like that could be a style of play that you do well in though like just I mean just and again I'm talking limited viewings of seeing you play but it feels like that's something you could do well for sure yeah it's just I mean it's Just Energy at the end of the day you bring energy you bring that motor that we're talking about I mean you'll be all right it's it's all good in college sports Team Chemistry 2023 I think we're used to guys going places where they're guaranteed to start or guaranteed certain number of minutes you've come to a place where you knew when you got here you were going to have to fight with a talented team that had a lot of really good players right what made that the right decision for you honestly I just bet on myself and coming into this decision I was I knew I was going to have to work for anything and everything and so I want no handouts and I came in with the right mindset and then now it's just I mean it's up there for me to grab so was there anything that happened this summer or maybe during during practice in the preseason that made you feel like you know what like I can do this I I belong here um not really I mean coming in I knew like like I deserve to be here just like everybody else on the team but at the end of the day like I just I also want to do whatever my whatever I need to do for my team to win so lot of new pieces coming together some young guys some guys who have played a bunch of college basketball here some guys who played a bunch of college basketball other places yeah how how did you try to mix all of this together because from what we've heard from coaches and talking to other guys the word chemistry has been thrown around a bunch and that this group seems to really like each other how have you guys tried to Foster that I mean it's fun to go out there and play basketball when you're all friends like it's fun to go out there and know like oh that's my best friend like I'm passing the ball to my best friend so especially if he scores like yeah I'm going be happy for him um but yeah we have in the locker room the the energy and the vibe is just really like good like this is the best like chemistry team I've ever played on does it help you to have another freshman who's going through some of the the same things yeah yeah definitely does for sure cuz I mean sometimes it's like trial and error he do something wrong I know I'm not going to go and do that same thing but um and vice versa for me but yeah it's it's it's really good to have Elliot what's something about Elliot K that most people don't know um he doesn't like like these top tier rappers he likes to listen to like underground like oh underground rappers that nobody really listens to so that's what I would say he's put me on a lot of music for sure oh well yeah got to give us some examples see Adam and okay let me give you the quick backstory zayon so when leaky black was here and was a freshman he he tipped us off to L baby and dub baby before they were a big deal okay and I understand wait wait who's dub baby we don't like anymore is that right Adam but little baby we're still on with is that about right sounds about right all right had some off the court issues we've been on the baby trains for a long time so you got to give us a couple folks that maybe in like two years or something when Adam and I say oh yeah we knew him back then that we're going to sound extra cool um I mean when Elliot came out in his intro song I bet nobody knew what song that was yeah no what was it it's a song called Virgil 2 by ot7 kwani but you got that Adam yeah I'm on it okay for sure yeah and then a couple other guys like King Carson is kind of rising up right now um let me think who else does he be listening to uh Smo the dude name is Smo but that's about it I mean that's not these are good notes yeah yeah yeah but you're the goto guy from what we've heard musically a lot of people are impressed with your depth of knowledge like how do you have this diverse musical background honestly is my parents my parents love listening to music and so like they listen to all their old old R&B rap music or whatever so I just picked up on that and then I like listening to music too always have my headphones on so uh any song that really come on I could kind of name it so that's okay what do you consider like an old song where you're like ah this is like old my parents listen to this can you give us a good example of one that you would hear that you like but you're like man this is this is old stuff here maybe like some biggie some oh boy is that not old you guys no just makes us feel bad it just confirms that we are old yeah that's yeah okay okay that's okay J you're not doing anything wrong okay so but you like biggie yeah okay oh that wasn't real confident yes yeah no for sure I love biggy okay for sure what else like what else is on your uh your frequent playlist it doesn't have to be old stuff it could be new stuff um I listen a lot of L baby some Gunna uh right now I'm listening to a lot of future for some reason I have no idea why uh but yeah he's big and then little Uzi little Uzi for sure we know little Uzi um pregame set list do you have something that you like got to get your mind right before the game okay so before a game I'm not really like big into like listening to all the rap music I'll listen to like some like R&B like kind of calm me down and slow down yeah for sure kind of slow my anxiety down before a game so I'm not as nervous but yeah that's probably that's probably my genre music I listen to before a game do you get nervous even at this point when you've played in a lot of basketball games yeah I get nervous before every game but I wouldn't say it's nervous it's more like me anxious to get out there on the court but yeah there's definitely some sort of like nervousness I would say well I can't imagine there's been too many times in Zaden High's life where you're going to play a basketball game and you're not going to start the basketball game right right so have you have you figured out how to kind of manage that as you're waiting for coach Davis to look down there and go all right I mean it's not it it has a kind of a big um adapt I have to adapt to it for sure but I mean it is what it is I'm not not not tripping about it or whatever but yeah it's kind of something I have to learn about might need to play some R&B at the Smith CER we just slow it down like yeah like the 16-minute timeout we'll put some R&B on him Z don't come to scores table be ready to go that's a bet for sure um what do you like to do away from basketball and obviously listen to music music we've talked about what else do you like to do I like to do puzzles oh really yeah I'm really big me and my dad and my little sister are kind of big into puzzles and we like we'll just sit there for hours just talking to each other doing puzzles kind of kind of relaxing I like that what size puzzles we talking about like thousand pieces 2,000 pieces whatever whatever it is go big or go home man right my son gave me one that's the same on the front as it is on the back have you done one of those waa I've never seen a puzzle like that it's really hard I've never seen a puzz like don't do it it make you that sounds that sounds I kind of want to do it now though just do it's so frustrating are you like a are you a separate out the edge piece guy yeah you got to flip the all the pieces over you okay you take the puzzle you flip all the pieces over you get all the Border pieces and then start wherever you want to start some people don't flip all the pieces over I don't understand that that makes me so mad you there's no way you can't flip all the pieces over there I like to organize them by like I'll have the ones that have the little circles on the ends then the three and then the one like I do them by like pieces like that that's really confusing no no but then like you'll be doing it and you're like okay I need one that has like a circle on all four sides so then I have a little pile of just those then I can look you see what I'm saying kind it's like divide and conquer kind of thing that's pretty cool it works te each their own works for me that's next level organization that's like some like top tier something now does it take me like four hours before I actually start the puzzle after I pull perhaps when's Jes going to do the puzzle he only open at at 10: a.m. and it's 4 p.m. it's not time to do another hour or two um all right Zam what uh what are you excited for right here the beginning of the year what and let me also Branch off to that of what should Carolina fans be excited for for not just you but but for seeing the entire team out on the floor for real here in the very near future I mean I think Carolina fans should just be happy that they get to see a team that wants to go out there and have fun um I mean you kind of got to you got of got a glimpse of the exhibition game I mean we were all just passing the ball around every time someone got a bucket everybody else is happy for each other so yeah everybody's just having fun out there and then my for me I just want to go out there and have a good freshman year like I'm taking everything in I'm learning and stuff like that so yeah it's just exciting for me