The Four Corners Podcast - Ep. 411: Zayden High Not Enrolled at UNC

the 411th edition of the Four Corners podcast starts right now this is the Four Corners podcast and that could make a difference Lawson at the buzzer got it maybe not Ty Lawson wins it at the buzzer deep three and green rips Down The Rebound in traffic four on one what a great job what a terrific job in transition I mean you could plan that any better as a [Applause] coach gets the roll here we go Paige has it Carolina down one 8483 Paige into the front court with 4 seconds Paige to the rim got it he got it 9/10 of a second to go inbounds Washington gets it to Warren his full court shot no good Marcus paage does it for the Tar Heels Carolina wins it don't force it if you're Goss comes in blocked by Meeks bar up ahead the Jackson and he dunks it down for the five-point lead Matthews Off the Mark and this year the confetti is going to fall for North Carolina they're not going to be denied this time inside 30 overall love top of the key oh big time the ly here are your hosts Josh Marlo and Anthony pagata hello and welcome in to another LIVE edition of the Four Corners podcast coming at you uh on a Tuesday tonight Josh and Anthony were back with you guys uh once again um not was not planning to do this edition of the show tonight um wasn't planning to really do anything until after uh Carolina played their season opener in football at Minnesota which is now just 48 hours away but um you know as you know by now if you don't know by now some pretty big news on the basketball front Zaden High not enrolled um for classes in the fall will not be a part of Carolina basketball for the upcoming season there were some rumors that were kind of starting to circulate um out on on Monday we told you if something happens you know we would be here to talk about it and lo and behold something happened and well we're here to talk about it so um that's what we're going to do on this edition of the show um as a just a crazy wild offseason season uh has another plot twist in it um for the Tar Heels but before we get into that we start every edition of the Pod as we always do pod thought of the day we go to former women's soccer coach at Carolina Anon dorance and that pod thought is quote can your can you drive yourself with self discipline when others are not there no one's going to be constantly pushing you insisting that you get fit or hone your skills when it truly counts you're on your own your margin of success is based on your inner drive and that's today's pod thought of the day um Anon with a lot of great uh thoughts over the years we'll use plenty of them uh moving forward here on the Pod so let's let's go ahead and get into what we're here to talk about tonight which is Zaden High um not going to be a part of Carolina basketball for the upcoming season inside Carolina reported that around six o'clock uh this evening um you know and a and know they had a a statement that they've obtained from the basketball program but the basketball program per my knowledge is not on their Twitter P it's not on their Twitter page it's not on go heels has not made that full statement public about um H not being enrolled um at UNC for the upcoming season and look on the surface um you this is a guy that played in 23 games last year and in four and a half minutes but this is a guy that between the both of us really optimistic about really thought this was a guy that was capable of taking a step forward um I think we both believe in his talent there's definitely an edge that Zaden uh brought to the team a year ago um if you remember when the team won at Cameron to outright win the ACC title he as much as any guy on the on the floor was talking that that trash to the Cameron crazies a guy that literally did not impact the game on the court was over there running his mouth because that's just the kind of guy he is um he was an energetic part of that bench um I in the article I wrote a great culture f for what Hubert Davis wants in a basketball player I mean that guy as much as any guy on the on the team last year cheered on the success of his teammates as much as when he did something good on a basketball court and so um you know we were kind of looking at him going into this season wondering would we kind of get to see his talent his ability uh come to you know come to light and you know coach Smith always said a player takes their biggest step as a player between their freshman and sophomore season if you go by that logic that would tell you that Zaden was going to be in for uh you know some sort of a pretty successful sophomore campaign none of that's going to happen now um not this year at least we'll get to what Isaac shade the locked on Tar Heels podcast uh what what he was reporting uh with what the sources he has within the program but um and to me I think this is this is troubling um the the front Court you know I I think I'm higher on it than you were with the additions of a venau Lubin from a Vanderbilt you bring in taian Claude uh earlier this month um you're trying to replace a a program figure in Armando Bott but you need everybody to take a step forward uh if you want to compete for a national championship um and now while on the surface on P there isn't a lot of lost production uh in the loss of Zaden high but all of a sudden this front Court loses a bit of its depth um something that I don't know um if they could have afforded to to lose and the worst part is is man you you've gone through the summer workouts which he was there for he was there in practice we watched highlights of of him they they were talking you know you heard some reports about how he was looking in the growth and the development um he was showing and now it's now it's all for not um and it's it's really disappointing because you know after the Claude uh commitment it felt like you had your roster set and it was go time to really start gearing up for this upcoming season and now we sit here about a month or so away from the start of preseason practice and Carolina loses uh a piece that could have been a part of the success they hope to enjoy this upcoming season yeah I mean this one this one really hurts there's no doubt about it because he was a guy that could play the five if you needed him to but he was also going to be able to play the floor the four and be able to stretch um you know stretch the floor a little bit better than some of the other big men on the roster and was also going to be a guy that could defend on the perimeter and you know the thing is is you watched those scrimmages that the team had in the off season and you can't take a ton away from those because it's it's just pickup but at the same time you saw some things that you just did not see in his game last year because one we didn't get to see him a lot and two whenever he was on the floor he was def you know he was bound to pick up at least a foul or two and so I think you saw the growth that was there I mean first scrimmage that we saw that was you know put out to us on YouTube by somebody that was in attendance man he was knocking down almost every three he was looking at that was something that you were looking forward to having at that four position especially because he's 69 and would have brought the size and then you saw his ability to run the floor especially defensively and protect the rim like those are things that you were really hoping you were going to get a chance to see and the other thing is the mentality just a guy that talked a lot liked to bring energy and I think last year was just you know a little overzealous as a true freshman but I think he would have settled in the personality would have been great for a team that right now we just don't know where that type of Personality comes from we don't really see anybody on the roster that really exudes that type of Personality that you had with Harrison Ingram with cormack Ryan Zaden high was the guy that we were looking to and saying that might be the guy on this year's team that serves that purpose even if he is limited in the time that he actually plays and so now Caroline is forced to Pivot they've got to find somebody else that can fill that role but more importantly they've got to find that added depth that they need on the wing and that they need at the center position I think it sort of explains to us a little bit more why they went out and added taian Claude but the problem is is that Claude is far from a perfect fit to fill the role that high brings because he can't shoot the three ball at really at any level yeah uh what this does uh at least in my opinion is it really adds pressure to jayen Withers to be a more complete basketball player um and quite frankly I don't think he's capable of being that um and look a lot of that is probably because I haven't forgotten those two possessions he had in the lost to Bama um where you know he took an ill-advised three and then committed a a pretty bad foul on the other end in the in the literally the final minute of the game that ended Carolina season but you know even as this front Court came together and as much as I believed in their ability like everyone has a had a specific thing that okay this is what they do well if they do this well okay this thing can work but now you're going to have to have Jaylen Withers be able to to knock down three-point shots to help spread the floor for Carolina because I think you're asking way too much out of Jaylen Washington to be the guy that in the front Court opens up the floor for RJ Elliot kdo Seth Trimble those guys to get to the rim um and live there and um you know I I love I love what vinow and Luben can do um you know the offensive rebounding stuff speaks for itself that guy's going to grab a lot of misses and he's going to convert on a lot of Misses that guy's not capable of stepping out and shooting 38% from three on on a volume like Zaden High even though we hadn't seen it yet if you watch him mechanically it looked like you could see that like it would make sense if he shot 38% from three on 2.7 attempts over the course of the season and so um you know you're talking about adding depth and stuff like that Carolina's already enrolled in classes so adding to the roster um I I guess if there's still a it's well I mean you can you just they enroll in in the winter and then you're having to work someone in in the middle of conference play like that's like no like so now I mean I went from when they were adding Tai Jean Claude being like semi frust rated because I was like okay we got our roster let's go then we add a guy we do our homework you really dig in okay I could see why they go and get them and then three weeks later we're losing another piece who was here for the entire summer I think that's where I'm just outright uh confused isn't the right word no I'm mad because um we don't know exactly what it is um you know if you read the report according inside Carolina this was on the table all summer long um yet with that he still participated in practices and workout sessions was on their team bonding trip where they went to uh the beach uh earlier this month as well and then we get to the first week of class um and all of a sudden he's not enrolled so you know if we want to be skeptical I think it's easy to say that it was probably an academic issue where they were hoping because you know these athletes they are enrolled in summer school he would do what he needed to do academically in the summer to be eligible to to play um but that's not confirmed by anyone as at at this moment but it's it's pretty frustrating because um you know I'm not saying that RJ Davis came back because of Zay and high I'm not saying that Seth Trimble came back because of Zaden high but you have the pieces to win a National Championship and it it was going to take every single member of this roster for Carolina to achieve that like if Carolina wins a national championship it was going to be a total team effort in doing so and as of right now you know it appears that one of those teammates did not hold up their end of the bargain in the summer leading up to a preseason and a season that I think we're all pretty excited for because with the best guard back in the country you theoretically can and should compete to win a National Championship yeah um I mean it's it's there's nothing you can really say because we don't know what is actually happening they will not release it to us it's it's not going to happen like in terms of the statement from the program or whatever they're not going to make it official that they never none of the sites ever write about this like go go heels is not gonna put something out about him no longer being on the team they don't do it when guys transfer they're not going to do it now so I have no idea what is going on and even if we did even if there were people that were throwing out what it could possibly be until something is actually confirmed then you there there's no reason to speculate on what's actually going on so as of right now you just know that we're not going to have them um and in terms of you know what it does and how it affects this team as a whole I mean look I I would assume that it is if it was well known by the staff if it was known by some of the writers then I'm assuming that guys on the team probably had some sort of understand standing of there's there's a chance that we're not going to have him and so they've probably been preparing as if they won't have him so for I don't think it's something that should be devastating to this team I don't think it's nothing I've seen a lot of people that have said well this isn't a loss he didn't really do anything last year and it's like well again guys it doesn't guys can grow this is the same argument that we were having with people that either Jaylen Washington wasn't good or that people that that thought Jaylen Washington was going to be a superstar like we don't we have no idea they they had an offseason to get better I think Zaden high from what we saw in those limited scrimmage Clips we saw a guy that was starting to show signs of improvement so I mean that's the only thing that we can really go off of but yeah in terms of having an understanding as to how big of a role he was going to have on the team we have no idea about that um I I think the one thing that should be comforting to you is that one of the guys that'll probably play a bigger role because of the fact that you will not have Zaden high on the wing you've got Drake Powell who I think showed some flashes and you think there is potential there both of the freshmen are going to contribute this year we know Ian Jackson with that scoring touch it's going to be hard to keep him off the floor I think now it'll probably be even more important for Drake Powell to be the festar that he was coming out of high school and I think he has the capabilities to be that guy but yeah I mean you're right the the guy that has to step up the most is going to be jayen Withers and I mean I don't know if I would say I don't think it's possible I don't know how good of a I mean you we saw even those even in those scrimmages like ellot Kido was shooting the ball better Zaden high shooting the ball better some guys that struggled last year from the outside they were doing the things that they had to do in those scrimmages to knock down shots it wasn't going for Jaylen Withers I think the ability to shoot from the outside that he had it liable I just don't know if it's going to be there at Carolina at any point so what they may have to do is when jayen Withers is on the floor similar to what we wanted them to do with Pete Nance once we saw how good he was back to the back you may have to play a version of basically two big men now one of them would be 69 but I think that's where jayen Withers is going to thrive is at The Rim as he showed you last year in the first two NCAA tournament games and then probably as a mid-range guy I think that's probably where he plays best so Carolina may have to do some adjusting of how they want to play uh if they want to succeed with a guy like Jaylen Withers at the four yeah um you know we we'll now just kind of transition into the how this impacts the front court and I mean I think dramatic is is too strong of a of a word but you know I I don't think that Zaden High's potential absence was the reason why Huber Davis I mean literally was like us on Tinder with a big man in the portal like if someone entered the portal Carolina showed up um because and look I think I think the staff does believe in Jaylen Washington I I I I think they think he's going to you know with a guy that plays 28 minutes a night I think you're going to see him average double digits points six plus rebounds it's not him they worry about it's it's everybody else um and I think you brought in nice complimentary pieces in a VIN Allen Luben a Tai Jean Claude but those guys aren't Dynamic game game changers um Zaden high with his skill set and his ability could could have developed into that maybe not this year but if if you project forward could maybe be um you know kind of the future of the front court and so you know I I look at this and I really um you know we we've talked about it at different times this off season um I I think you're going to see a a an extended version of small ball for Carolina this year um I I I you know I I think I think you'll see Jaylen Withers and um Jaylen Washington play quite a bit but there could be a situation where you're basically playing with four true wings and whatever big man's out there at that time um and I don't know how that translates I think and I said it I don't know if it was in the last Edition or two editions ago I think offensively Carolina's going to be fine I think they'll be ACC Championship caliber good offensively I don't think this roster uh is built to be as good as it was defensively a year ago and as much as you know we applaud the efforts of RJ Davis Carolina's ability to defend and rebound really carried them to a lot of their successes um the second half of the season and so um you know I think what you're going to see from the front court is it's going to be their roles are going to be heightened but you're going to see less big men I think playing together where you might see what you see a lot of the NBA which is a true four round one where that four guy is not a stretch four that four guy is a wing player um and and look I think you know Hubert Davis talks about wanting to play that style so I I think he'll be comfortable playing that style it's going to be an adjustment um you just worry in the long run does Carolina hold up a just defensively and B on the backboards if they don't have the adequate depth or the trust to play a front Court that's going to be weakened within with the absence of Zaden High yeah I mean yeah I I it's I I don't I I just I don't know I mean that's the thing I I there's there's so many different areas that you could go with this because we just we have no idea what this front Court looks like outside of maybe jayen Washington and even that is is confusing we don't know if he's going to be a guy that takes that next step and becomes the starter that we need him to be can play 25 to even up to 30 minutes like you were used to your starter playing so now I mean it just it limits one it limits your athleticism because we saw what he can do in the open Flor he's certainly built more slender can get up and down the floor and now I mean you've got Vin Allan Luben who you know again he's two inches shorter than even high was uh maybe one it just depends on which one you go by some people have them at 67 others have them at 68 Claude also shorter defin definitely not the type of rimrunner that Zaden high is and so I mean yeah it limits a lot that you can do down there it probably also brings into um you know the possibility that you will see James Brown at some point this year um which you were kind of hoping you wouldn't necessarily have to see him he'd be able to go through uh you know a year in the program sort of gain weight and just red shirt so now I mean you probably are telling him hey just in case you need to be ready to go and then yeah you're the the thing that I think you probably will see is more than likely you will see that lineup of Washington Tyson and then you fill out the back court with whatever combination you want to fill out back there because some guys you know have stepped up so far in this off season but yeah I mean that that lineup yeah there there's going to have be a lot lot of success offensively um T Cade Tyson looks like a guy that can do everything that you need him to do in that position which includes being able to get down the floor and score in the open court but yeah you're right the biggest concern then becomes do you have a good enough group defensively to be able to compete with some of the stronger defensive teams that are on your schedule and that's where I feel like this probably has you a little concerned because that was the one thing I think we all thought you could probably count on with high another year um you've seen the energy on that end of the floor you figured okay this guy is going to bring something on that defensive end of the floor the bigger question with him was would he fill out offensively would that three-point shot fall would he be able to develop a game inside where he's able to finish at a consistent level now we don't have to that that's off the table completely and you're just banking on Kade Tyson being a guy that was able to take his game to another level defensively very quick uh as I mentioned Drake Powell you're hoping that he's a guy that can progress and I mean look we know jayen Withers can defend but yeah to an even you know bigger extent I I think with with Jaylen Withers you're kind of just saying he is what he is offensively and we know he's a he's a solid Defender where with high you at least had that upside that you were banking on so I think it kind of just is it's going to make this team one where everybody is going to have to play at a really high level because there's really no margin for error there's nobody else that you can really turn to either in that at that five spot or at on the wing at the four um it's it's G to be everybody all hands on deck trying to figure out how to put together a a group uh that can fight their way through what will be you know a pretty significant loss if he really did take the steps that we saw during those scrimmages yeah and I think it's it's fair to have and ask this question does his absence impact Carolina's chances to win a National Championship because I think on the surface people are going to hear and laugh at that because you're you're talking about a guy that played four and a half minutes in 23 games but we just spoke very eloquently about what his absence does to the the front Court like it it changes it just changes everything for what you thought I mean it changes expectations it changes roles it changes minutes um I mean because I'm not expecting James Brown to come in here and be a contributor but I mean now he may he may have to be if Carolina if Carolina wants to win National Championship um I I didn't want to ask any more out of a venau and Luben or Tai Jean Claude because I think what they do they do really really well but I don't know with now the absence of what Hyde can do if it's good enough for Carolina to win a National Title and I'm just gonna be pretty blunt about this if if we if if we don't do what we want to do this season which means we don't get to the final four we don't cut down the Nets and it's very glaring evident that we missed a guy that of 69 that could stretch the floor that could rebound that could be an energy piece man I don't know if I'll ever forgive him because I I've never as a fan I've never wanted someone to win a National Championship as much as I want RJ Davis too and I watched Tyler hansboro play his senior season I watched Marcus pagee play his senior season I I want I want RJ to win a National Championship more than I wanted those two dudes and those are two great players that and RJ's now joined them in that category but I mean if if I could if I could will something in my life I would I would will it for this kid to win a National Championship and so um I know it might seen over you know as as an overreaction but I do think that losing him his size his ability does impact I think Carolina's chances to be a national championship caliber team I mean yeah I I I'm with you because I mean now again what kind of impact I don't know how significant it is but yeah there's there's few guys that are on this roster that can play the four and the five that can stretch the floor and can bring the type of effort that he brought defensively um I look it's tough to say that we wouldn't be able to forgive him I mean it again it depends on what the actual situation is if it comes out that this is a family matter that he has to take care of or something like that then family comes before really anything we've learned that over the years ourselves but yeah I mean that's that's the thing is we just we just don't know and that's why right now it's so tough to speculate and the other thing is like the impact of it is tough to know at this point too because we could have a guy that ends up stepping up I mean for example let's say that Drake Powell really just takes off and them playing him out there um or you know Kade Tyson takes a step defensively and you find out that you can play Kade Tyson almost exclusively out there at that four spot sometimes you got to go a little bit smaller but it works out then we're not going to be sitting here talking about this we'll we'll say I mean honestly I don't even know how much how many of us will remember that Zaden high was even on the roster at that point um unless he does you know officially come back next year but I do think that sitting here right now I find it hard to believe that it doesn't have at least some sort of effect on this team just from at least my perspective as a fan because like I said I would believe that they have been told as a team that this was a possibility you need to prepare for this for for Zen to possibly not be here and we're gonna have lineups that are not going to have him out there there's going to be scenarios that we really have to work on just in case this situation comes up so hopefully they've been working on that look my thinking all along with this team is that they're probably a second weekend of the tournament team I I could see them being a team that exits in the sweet 16 uh with the addition of Claude because of how good of a rebounder he was I may have been convinced enough to see this team as an elite eight team but I I mean I think now yeah I'd probably be comfortable with saying again they're they're a sweet 16 team which sucks because you have Much Higher Goals than that especially when it comes to RJ Davis but I just look at this roster and I just I don't see a perfect Group which is pretty much what you need in order to get to a final four so we'll see how impactful this ends up becoming but other guys simply are going to have to step their game up yeah one last thing that we'll talk about before we get out of here you know we mentioned uh what Isaac shade was uh reporting and shade is a first off a personal friend to both of us does a tremendous job um on the locked on Tar Heels podcast um and he sent out a tweet um and you know he's got sources within the program um and and the source that he was reporting off of was saying that the expectation the belief is that this will be a red shirt year for Zaden high and that he'll be back in 2025 2026 with three years of Eligibility still remaining um which would be you know in a lot of ways if that happens good because you still have the three years of service um and you could still build your front Court around him moving forward I think it's unrealistic in today's era to expect that where the portal is the Beast that it is yeah I would here's how I would say it don't hold your breath be surprised if he actually returns that's that's how I would look at it well I mean I think it's I think there's two ways to look at this if he transfers I mean at TH at this rate no harm no foul that's the expectation what you hope for is man this is the humbling teaching lesson that sometimes a college kid has to learn and this is a guy that feels the burden of letting you know uh if if it's what you know if it's a situation academically where he didn't do what he needed to do um that he feels that burden and he feels that pain comes back motivated dedicated gets the job work in the classroom bust his butt uh on the basketball court and you know at the end of his time here we all hold hands and sing Kum Baya um if it's a Family Matter then there will be no issues and it's one of those where you take as much time as you need to make sure your family is is is is good um you know Carolina had no problem doing that with Dawson Garcia when Dawson Garcia left to go back to Minnesota I think the way that Garcia handled it was the problem that caused the friction in the locker room which is as to why they were kind of just mum about him leaving the way that he left um and um really had nothing to say nice about him when he did leave despite him leaving to go take care of his family so um it's going to be interesting I if I had to say do I think we see him play again in Carolina I don't um I you know whether it's an academic or a family issue I find it hard to well I find it hard to believe that he suits up again you should not expect him to suit up again but um if he does this could be one of the the the crazier stories we've seen in Carolina basketball history where a guy going into a sophomore season was supposed to be a part of the rotation misses that year but comes back and still has a productive career it would be you know an interesting story to say the least but according to Isaac shade um and he's a good man I trust him um from what he's being told it's that he's going to red shirt and he'll be back with Carolina basketball starting in the uh the summer of 2025 gearing up for the 2025 2026 season so um with that that is going to wrap up this edition of the show um this again was not planned to uh to be recording tonight um but here we are hey it was under these types of circumstances but we told you you know once this kind of popped up on the radar that uh if something happened we'd be here and have you covered on the the podcast front and the website in the website front and that's exactly what we did with that we'll encourage you guys to visit the website heel blog.com the article's already up about Zaden High not being enrolled at Carolina for the upcoming basketball season um go read a little bit more in depth about some particulars about what this means for Carolina basketball moving forward we're inside 48 hours away from the football opener at Minnesota the preview for the opener will be up on the website uh in the next day or two so be on the lookout for that then we'll be back Friday morning uh recapping what happens uh for Carolina in Minneapolis as for the podcast you guys know where to find us every major podcasting platform simply search the Four Corners podcast where we will pop up there we encourage you guys to rate review And subscribe that way you don't miss any additions of the show throughout the basketball off season uh and the preseason is a month away so make sure you hit that subscribe button because pretty much once they get into preseason mode we'll be recording multiple times a week leading up to the season and then once the season is here you guys know the drill we're the only podcast that previews every game individually and Recaps every game individually you want to hit that subscribe button let way you don't miss any of those breakdowns throughout the basketball season well with that guys this is going to wrap up this edition of the show do want thank Anthony once again for hosting with me we want to thank you guys for watching and listening and as always goar heels