2024-25 UNC Basketball Roster Preview Series: Zayden High | Big sophomore leap for High?

The Freshman to sophomore leap is often massive for college basketball players so the question is what sort of jump are we going to see from Zaden high this year you are locked on Tarheels your daily podcast on the UNC Tar Heels part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday hey there it's Wednesday July 24th 2024 welcome in to the locked on tar Hills podcast the only daily North Carolina show out there I'm your host Isaac shade joined by our good buddy coach Pat Kilby coming at you from Oklahoma you're joining us at the place to get your Tar Heels content every single day as part of the lock on podcast Network thanks for making us your first listen or watch we want to send a special shout out to all the every dayers and all the members of the lockon tar Hills Discord Community where we're always having a great time today's episode is brought to you by game time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase terms apply coming up on the show today the summer roster preview series rolls on like it does every summer we just finished last week wrapping up the Freshman we went from James Brown to Ian Jackson to Drake Powell and then now we move into the sophomores I let Pac pick the order and he said we're going to Zaden high and so that's who we're talking about today so pack give us that bio blast on Mr Zaden High yeah so obviously we have Zaden who is going to be a sophomore for the tar Hills this year position is forward height 6'9 weight 225 jersey number one Twitter Zaden high but the I and high is a one H1 G and then Instagram is just his name Zaden High uh let's run through the 2324 stats real quick games played 23 started zero 4.4 minutes per game8 points per game 18 total points on the season 1.1 rebounds 26 total on the season uh three total assists nine total turnovers um three blocks five steals his uh plus minus total was Nega n his best was + 15 against Charleston Southern and plus six vers Tennessee worst was minus8 at Miami minus 6 at Florida State um field goal percentage 31.6% from the field six of 19 total um three point field goal percentage is 0% 0 for8 and from the free throw line 66.7% at 6 for n okay so pack obviously with Zade we're going to talk about numbers and stuff we saw there's not a great big sample size but there there's enough there to go on as you extrapolate out we'll talk some uh per 40 minute or per 100 possession numbers um here in just a little bit um pack from a source about Zaden high right like so the the listed height and weight obviously from last year's roster he was 225 uh from a source they feel quote that he will have a big part he being Zaden big part of the roster this year but will be at the four chiefly he is up to about 235 pounds and pack I know that 10 pounds doesn't seem like a ton but when you're packing on muscle that feels like a pretty big deal to me in order to be able to really do what you need to do in the ACC and at the big National level do you like hearing numbers like that for Zaden absolutely yeah that's see those numbers right there you know when you talk about putting muscle on and growing in your strength um that tells me a couple things number one he's gotten stronger U but also um he's gotten to the point where he's getting bigger and stronger and he's able to bang with those big guys but he's not so big that he loses his mobility and he maintains his athleticism which is obviously super important for the way that Carolina plays with their bigs the way we like to run the floor and get up and down so um I I love to see that yeah he's putting on that muscle but but maintaining the mobility which is great and and I know that quote is that you know he will be chiefly at the four do I I don't think we ever see him slide down to the three but do you think we see some lineups with Zaden High where he's playing a small ball five yeah I mean there's definitely a possibility um and so much of it is up for question right like obviously we know that there's um a lot of optimism around Zaden high and his growth from freshman to sophomore year um there's a lot of wh ifs or question marks around Vin Allen luin and how he fits yeah is James Brown ready to play at all um and so it's just like there's a lot of question marks right now that haven't been answered with our front court yet and so um it's going to be really interesting to see but I certainly think it's a possibility that we could see some Zaden high at the five for sure yeah I mean the height is there the I mean the dude is just a motor dude he's the or bunny he just goes and goes and goes and I love to see it with Zaden all right here's another question you mentioned in his three-point shooting that Zaden was 0 of eight last year and pack you know where it's like oh man he didn't hit any let's also remember some other freshman Tar Heels that haven't exactly lit It Up From Beyond The Arc Kenny Williams made one three his entire freshman season and that was in the ACCC tournament Jaylen Washington was 0 of seven very comparable to Zaden High his freshman year and then went eight of 15 last year not a massive sample size but he hit more last year than he took uh his freshman year and so with Zaden pack do you expect that we'll start to see some some connection from outside do you think he'll start hitting some threes yeah I think it's a possibility um I don't know how if we'll ever see him shoot them at like a higher clip you know I don't I don't anticipate him shooting a two threes a game or anything of that nature I just don't see that as his style um but I certainly I mean obviously the only only way to go from zero% up so I do think he will be more consistent um when he does shoot them for sure but I just don't know that we'll ever see him take volume threes or even you know two threes a game even I just he's so good in the mid-range and like in his face up game that I just don't foresee him getting to that point in his game um or nor do I foresee that we need him to do that that's good point so but I do think I mean obviously I think he's going to be more consistent than what he showed his freshman year all right pack here's another question and this is probably the most interesting one of segment one here you mentioned that Zaden played 4.4 minutes a game last year he played a total of 103 minutes is his role on this team going to go up in 20124 25 100% yeah I I think obviously with a a lot of the questions in the front court that we just mentioned um the one thing that for sure Rings true for Zaden is he's a fantastic teammate and he has a motor he plays hard when he's out there and uh that alone is going to get him an opportunity um and I do I do happen to think um that he's going to take some advantage of that and and buy himself a much larger role than what he had last year um and and think you know it's just he's in a really good spot because um there are a lot of questions he's going to get opportunity and um like I said with his heart and his determination the way he crashes the boards and um is not not too big to play the the cleanup guy the trash guy around the rim yeah that's there's good money to be made in being a trash guy there is man and literally and on the basketball court he's GNA be rewarded for that all right pack well there we go we want to talk more about zayan's strengths and weaknesses we got a little glimpse into that from some statistical data from last year we're going to get into all of that and more in just a second right after I tell you about game time going to MLB games in the summer is hands down one of my favorite all-time things to do the game food the people everything that's part of the experience I'm excited to make all new memories this summer at the Ballpark I even got to do that on July 4th with my family thankfully if you're doing that if you're going to a last if you're getting tickets last minute you don't 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and use code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase again create an account and redeem code locked on college for $20 off terms apply download the game time app today last minute tickets lowest prices guaranteed thanks so much for joining us on locked on tar Hills your team every day we're glad to be with you Pat Kilby and I'm Isaac shade Pac we're going to move next to talking about strengths with Zaden High we started to see some of that last year obviously we're going to continue to see more you alluded to some of them earlier but as you look at Zaden high in terms of his strengths what is it that he's going to add to this Tar Heels team yeah so um I really want to point to the scrimmage U that kind of went viral there a few weeks back um one of the things that Zaden did in that was he caught one about 15t from the rim he was able to just face up and knock it down and see I've noticed that as a part of his Game dating back to his time as a high school player and so to see him do that comfortably in the scrimmage um I'm really excited to see what that looks like this year because although we haven't necessarily seen it yet live in in Carolina uniform in games I think it's a strength to his game the 15 foot and in um I think he has a really good knack for rebounding like 70 70% of rebounding is straight hard you know you just got to have the want to to to read a ball to track it trace it go get it uh you got to want it more than your opponent and and zayon has that so um he's got you know good 15 foot ingame he rebounds the ball really well he's really pretty stout defensively actually um maybe doesn't get enough credit in that area of his game or or is a little underrated there um so those things I think are are his strengths and our Staples for him that he can hang his hat on pack a couple that have stood out to me as I'm looking back on his numbers from last year is that Zaden again it's a small sample size but he had 2.7 steals per 100 possession possessions excuse me first among scholarship players the only player on the team that had a higher rate of steals per 100 possessions was kraton Libo and then at right behind him comes Zaden I I think that that long we talked about the length last week with Drake po it's a similar thing here that he's going to be able to get in and poke the ball away some which is really nice for a post player right we we often think about guards being able to do that really well but a big that can get his his Ms on the ball is a really good thing and another thing too on this roster that doesn't have a Cormac Ryan or a Harrison Ingram who we know are going to be these vocal leaders it's nice to me to have somebody like Zaden high that I think is going to talk a lot we saw last year he done mixing it up when he needs to either to defend himself or to defend the teammate I I think he's GNA we're going to see him step up even more with that this season yeah I totally agree he's got a good personality for that yeah the thing is that makes that special um like you can really be vocal when you're a great teammate and your teammates will hear hear those things that you're telling them but if you're not a good teammate and you're trying to tell people things well it's a lot harder for us to hear those things so um Zaden does a really good job of leading out as a teammate so that he can be vocal which so that fits him really well that that moves well let's let's remind ourselves of the time last year I can't even remember who it was was doing an end of game on court interview and Zaden just stood there and waited on him so he didn't have to come back uh down the tunnel to the locker room by himself I wish I could remember who it was but it's a story about Zaden and so just those like small things that that people don't C or see that's a big deal and and I love that point there pack about him being a good teammate all right what about the flip side of this coin right what what are the weaknesses or the areas of growth in your eyes for Zaden this season yeah so like we talked about I think if he is going to make the three-point line a part of his game or try to stretch the floor a little bit which is a possibility uh because that is the way that hummert has you know preferred to play in his first three years as head coach is to have that fourman somewhat be able to stretch the floor so obviously he needs to improve with that um and then you know free throw percentage needs to improve which 66% not not bad uh but certainly could be better uh was below the team average so uh definitely needs to be better in that regard and then um to me you know it's just about being consistent for him and and so he hasn't been that yet but he hasn't had a huge like opportunity to do that either and so this year is going to be um just a really really big opportunity for him to prove that some of those weaknesses either aren't weaknesses or they um you know could even potentially be strengths for him we just haven't got a chance to see that yet that's right uh a couple thing I want to dive back into the stats like I did in the strengths again small sample size so take it with a little bit of grain of salt but two specific areas for zanen that I'd like to see um some growth in from that are turnovers zayan's turnover percentage last year was 27.9% pack that that's a lot and you know to to frame it up against the rest of the team James aono was the only other player who was at in the 20s and he was at 20.9% in terms of the other there are six players returning to Carolina this year the other five returners their their turnover percentage last year were 7.4 11.9 12.6 16.4 and 19 % we know this as a team last year that that as a team was incredible with turnover percentage and so if this is an area where Zaden can take a leap pack that's GNA put him even if he could get that down to 20% I mean you'd love to get it into the teens but even just knocking off eight% down to 20 would be massive and then the other area is in fouling Zaden last year committed 12.5 fouls per 100 possessions nobody else on the team was was in double digits nobody else on the team was above 99.3% in fact in terms of the other five returners their fouls per 100 possessions possessions I don't know what a possession is were 2.8 3.9 5.3 6.5 9.3 and then you get Cade Tyson coming in his was 4.4 per 100 possessions and Van Allen lubben was 4.3 per 100 possessions I forgot to mention them with the turnovers but they both Cade last year was at a 10% turnover percentage and Van Allen Luben 99.9% so those two transfers coming in are going to Aid what Carolina's already doing in terms of a low turnover percentage and low fouls per game but I'd like to see Zaden come down to join the rest of the team in both of those areas yeah totally agree and you know we talked uh last week about uh Drake Pal's floor right and so if we if we look at zad's floor um coach Davis has got to know he can put him on the court and trust him to not turn the ball over and so that's definitely something that I agree with he he needs to improve in that regard and uh we got to be able to know he's going to take care of the ball and I think there's gonna be as we said earlier in the show there's always this big massive leap from freshman to sophomore year and I think that's gonna be one of those points of pro progression for him is realizing as you just said if I want to be on the floor for those things I've got to be more trustworthy and so I think he's going to work on those well coming up here in in just a second I'm going to ask coach Kilby to turn into coach Hubert Davis and give us an end of season meeting with our guy Zaden High we'll find out the things to say and we want to talk more specifically about zayan's expected role this season all that coming up in just a second all right pack when we're doing these returning players for our season preview series I always force you to put your Hubert Davis mask on and turn into him and conduct an end of season meeting so I'm uh asking you coach Hubert Davis what would you tell Zaden high are three things specifically to work on ahead of the 24-25 Season well I think it goes back to what we just talked about U you know number one got to be able to stretch the floor with the offensive style that we're playing so um not necessarily saying it has to be three-point shot but got to be a consistent threat from 15t and Beyond um and then you know the other two things are free throw percentage that needs to be consistent especially as much as Zaden loves to bang around the rim and get rebounds and second chance opportunities a lot of times that leads to fouls so want the free throw percentage above 70% and then like you had mentioned Isaac I think it's going to be really important uh to take care of the basketball uh when you can make yourself for yourself a high floor you can earn trust which gets you on the court and so um if Zaden is able to do those three things and work on those and fix those then I I see no reason why he can't be a major contributor to what Carolina does in 2425 man love it so let's talk about zayan's expected role place on the depth chart those kind of conversations Pac we we talked some about this earlier with you know the front Court in some ways is pretty wide open and it's there for the taking give me give me an expected role in terms of like minutes per game it was 4.4 last year what what do you expect and I know we're not doing a full-on like minutes breakdown here but just off the top of your head if you had to say Zaden high will average X minutes a game what would you say you know if you had asked me this a month ago or maybe a little more I would have given you a totally different answer um like so so now I'll just tell you I I would probably project somewhere between 13 and 15 minutes per game um but previously I wouldn't have I wouldn't have even cracked 10 minutes per game um but just with the questions around the front court and the growth that uh I feel like I'm seeing plus my guy Riley Riley Davis man he's high on Z me and him been talking and he's kind of got me convinced to be high on him too so uh I'm thinking that he's going to play a bigger part than what I originally imagined which is great uh because that's that's a win for for Carolina if these guys are getting better and earning more minutes and so I I'm going to say 13 to 15 minutes per game for him okay okay so both you and Riley Davis are high on high you'll love to see it that's a great bit of news um so pack there are 11 scholarship players on this team right now given that 12 or excuse me 13 to 15 minutes a game where where would you have Zaden in terms of place on the depth chart man that's really tough because I feel like there's just so much unknown with right um I do think that VIN Allen luin is gonna pan out really well um so I'm just kind of talking through this as you ask me but look Riley Riley literally just texted me this is hilarious in real time obviously he's not listening to the show it's just like his ears were burning keep going I'm sorry that's too funny um so I I think Zaden is going to be you know ninth or 10th um on that depth chart but that's nothing to really scoff at because I I do feel like this is the year that we really break into the bench and and play these guys a lot especially in the front for because there's a lot of things that have to be figured out and uh I know that pretty much anyone that watches Carolina is sitting here screaming at their uh screen saying Hubert doesn't play their bench players but I do feel like this this is that year so even though I view Zaden as probably ninth or 10th 10th at the worst I think he's he's going to get some serious for Carolina yeah and I mean that would be a big CH I'm looking back at last year's minutes per game ninth on the team was 8.31 on the team was Zaden at 4.4 and so if that's going to be the case and he is going to get 13 to 15 minutes either he's got to be higher on the depth chart or as you just said coach Davis is going to have to play the bench more and and that's a real you know like there's a it's a loaded question because in a lot of ways the depth chart is rated based on like where I think he is as far as what you know is he better than the eight or nine guys I have in front of him yeah I you know I don't know but the front court is so um not loaded he's going to get opportunity yeah the back court are the ones that are going to be fighting for the minutes that's right that's that's EX exactly right pack um because one of the questions we like to ask in in this part about the returners is who are the newcomers affecting playing time and who are the departures playing time and I gotta be frank I don't think any of the newcomers affect playing time because Nei I mean unless Drake's playing some small ball four which he very well could do neither he or Ian Jackson's going to affect Zen's playing time and I think James Brown you know I James is more of a five Zaden more of a four but I I don't think James is going to see enough of the court all due respect to him this year to affect zayan's playing time so the bigger the bigger effect would be ven Allen Luben in terms of newcomers and maybe Kade Tyson if he's playing the four so I don't think any of the Freshman newcomers affect it but there is some some battling there with the the incoming transfers yeah and it's going to be really interesting to see how it pans out because obviously coach Davis has a vision we don't know what that is yet um but like you just mentioned does K play some four does Vin Allen play the four with Jay wash at the five and it just it throws a real wrinkle into things so it could definitely stand in the way of Zen's minutes to an extent but it's not going to negatively affect it so much that he's at the minute total he was last year or less than that um I I definitely think he's going to play more um so I don't know that you could argue that really anyone is affecting his minutes because obviously we're expecting his minutes to grow yeah it's the kind of thing where he's affecting his minutes right like the amount of growth he shows this year is really G and I mean obviously you can say that about any player but I I think it ring rings really true here pack let's kind of get to the point of wrapping up the show with some bold predictions about Zaden Hyde do you have yours ready or you want me to go first um I can go yeah so my uh I if it wasn't bold enough that uh I'm guessing you know estimating him to play somewhere between like 12 and 15 minutes a game uh I think that we're gonna find Zaden High starting at least three games this year oh I like that at the four or the five oh uh let's say three of those games so let's say he starts three games I think two of them at the four one at the five okay man I think there's going to be some experimenting that goes on early and z opportunity okay I love it again bold predictions are supposed to be a little bit out there because here's mine this is guaranteed to go wrong but it's bold if it ain't bold I shouldn't be putting it out in the universe Zaden high will lead the Tar Heels in rebounding in 20124 25 that's my bold prediction pack how wackadoodle is it on a scale of one to 10 it's up there no I it's not that I can't see it happening I just don't I don't know if he'll get enough minutes necessarily for that to happen but he is a solid and talented rebounder so it's definitely a possibility that's right that's why it's bold baby I'm going out on a limb for our guy Zaden high that rhymed oh my all right pack that's it great conversation today about Zaden we continue on with the sophomores next week we'll get to the point guard who's apparently deaf in one ear Mr Elliot CAD we're going to be talking about him on next week's show and that will be great uh actually um that show instead of Wednesday is going to be on Thursday we're going to have an end of Academic Year wrapup Monday Tuesday and Wednesday the top 10 most impactful moments in Carolina Athletics from last season and then pack and I will be together on Thursday for the Elliot kdo show so make sure you are in for that if you haven't subscribed to the show on video and audio make sure to do that it's a great and easy way to make sure you don't miss a single second of the show if you're not part of the locked on tar Hills Discord we'd love to have you come for the Tar Heels stay for the community the link is in the show notes and it's absolutely free to join you'll love to see it uh shoot I said you love to see it I'm trying to curtail that I apologize to everyone out there oh it's always a great day to be a Tar Hill we'll talk again tomorrow but until then peace [Music]