“Until today I couldn’t really breathe very well.”
So we’ll give him a pass on his 2-for-4, 6 point, 4 rebound performance against Georgia’s interior players, who made things difficult on Zeller Monday night.
Last night, Zeller was exposed a bit, though, and since he was breathing properly it’s worth noting. Against the strong and lengthy Georgetown front line (which lacks a true center by NBA standards) of Nate Lubick, Greg Whittington, Otto Porter and Mikael Hopkins, Zeller struggled to gain any type of scoring rhythm.
Despite being taller than his counterparts, when attempting hook shots he often went up with the ball too close to the defender; he didn’t create enough space to get the shot off as a result of the pressure, attention, size and length he faced on every possession. The big man is still so young and has an excellent touch around the hoop; he just has to learn the nuances of utilizing his body more to gain separation when using his low post moves.
Zeller has a type of awkwardness to his game that you can’t describe; he is a powerful player who has a good touch, but he certainly isn’t overly athletic and it shows at times when he plays against superior athletes. He tries to go through opponents regularly; he’s relentless in that regard, which poses its own problems for defenders, but sometimes he needs to use his body to create more space so he can get a higher quality look at the rim and thus a better chance to score the basket. He still got to the line 13 times and converted 9 attempts last night and was a solid passer out of the post to create opportunities for his teammates, but he didn’t have his best performance in front of NBA scouts, some of whom are skeptical that he can go up against equally sized, athletic defenders at the next level.
That being said, Cody also has skills that don’t come around very often. He’s an extremely gifted passer who can make plays from the high and low posts. As he gets more and more comfortable on the court, you can expect Cody Zeller to become an excellent – yes, excellent – 7-foot playmaker, which is a valuable commodity, to say the least. In pick-and-pop situations Zeller should thrive even more with more experience as well.
He runs the floor like a gazelle, uses his anticipation and body to make plays on the defensive end, which were limited in Brooklyn as the Hoosiers were forced to play zone for extended stretches to keep their valuable big man out of trouble. In case you didn’t notice, the Hoosiers are terribly thin in the front court right now with senior forward Derek Elston nursing an injury along with freshmen Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Peter Jurkin being suspended nine games by the NCAA.
Honestly, who knows if Cody, who has been compared to Andrew Luck, is even going to leave this season, but if he does leave and has aspirations of being the top pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, he’s going to have to prove that he can score consistently around longer and more athletic defenders.
Greg Whittington, 6-8, 215, Forward, Sophomore, Georgetown: A relative unknown to most coming into this tournament, Whittington is probably now on every scout at the Barclays Center’s radar.
The sophomore forward showed off an effortless shooting stroke with range to boot (5-for-10 3PT FG vs. UCLA and IU). Most impressive about his shooting stroke is the way he glides into his shot as the ball is thrown to him in catch-and-shoot situations; he jumps to the ball with two hands and two feet so that he’s in rhythm to shoot as he catches it. For a 6-8 sophomore, that’s impressive.
He’s most comfortable on the perimeter, though he doesn’t mind using his slight frame to post up against smaller and weaker defenders (who will often be matched up with him as a result of the Hoyas size). Against UCLA he got a little careless with the ball (4 turnovers), but overall the way he handled the ball under pressure and played within JT III’s offense was impressive.
Defensively, Whittington is extremely quick, long and mobile for his size, all of which bode well for his future development as a wing player. He has the ability to be dominant in a variety of areas, and with more experience hopefully he can put it all together.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, 6-6, Shooting Guard, Sophomore, Georgia: The biggest problem for Caldwell-Pope during the Legends Classic was that he got off to two slow starts before finally warming up in the second halves of Georgia’s games against Indiana and UCLA.