I don't think I've ever underrated a player more pre-season than I did with Zyon. It's not that I thought he wasn't good, I just thought he was going to be 6th or 7th man... fighting over the spot with Richard. I had Clayton, Kugel, EJ, Samuel, and Handlogten as my starters. As it turns out, Zyon is our team's backbone. He doesn't dunk on people or make amazing athletic plays. He just kills you with intelligence, skill, strength, and quickness. I guess I owe Will an apology, too. With him, it's not about the stat sheet. He is a guy you just like to have on the court. His effort and spirit is just essential to this team.
ZP is the most important guy on our roster. That's evident the moment he leaves the floor. He's clearly the best PG we've had since at least Chiozza, and probably before that. I hope we can find a guy almost as good in the offseason but that's asking a lot. Will Richard is a competitor with high BB IQ. Rarely has a bad game, and when he's got the hot hand he's tremendous. We're also lucky to have guards that are strong rebounders, particularly Will, Riley, and Zyon.
I still think Scottie Wilbekin is comfortably sitting in the top spot with Jayson Williams and Chiozza vying for second. Zyon will have a chance to move up depending on how far he can take this team.
I'm going to guess that Coach was playing it safe. Denzel hasn't been bad this year, it's just that there hasn't been much upside to having him on the floor vs one of the heavy rotation players.
With Riley Kugel playing better, Denzel is seeing less time. And I can't find fault with that. For a while, Riley was becoming a liability; now he's become an asset again. So, Pullin will get the most minutes at the point, and I see no reason he can't handle 30+. He'll be spelled by Clayton. Clayton will then be spelled by Kugel and/or Richard. That's four guards playing at a high level to handle two guard positions. In the frontcourt, we have 4 bigs to handle 2 positions. Eight guys in the regular rotation. Denzel will get situational minutes here and there. If he handles those minutes well, he'll get a few more, but I think we're in the basic pattern we'll see from here on out (barring injury, illness, or foul trouble, of course). We've won 5 of our last 6 SEC games. It's working.
His game pacing is also excellent. He’s almost the anti-Lofton (no disrespect to Kyle). He’s pushing and probing the defense on every play. They tarely have the option of casually strolling back into defensive position. Zyon will push the ball on them and make them spend the energy/effort. That’s why it was laughable that the UK fans were saying it was suicide for UF to play fast against them.
Top 5 and you pick your order. Hard for me to put JWill in there as he only played here 1/2 a season. Scottie Dan Cross Cheese Taurean Brett Nelson (first 3 seasons) And Zyon is playing incredible.
Are there any advanced stats for defense? Beyond steals. I'm curious how ZP stacks up against other SEC PGs as a defender. How often does ZP get assigned to an elite scorer? That was Wilbekin for me. He always took, and shut down, your best backcourt scorers.
Can't argue with that. I'll add Andrew Moten to the conversation. He wasn't maybe quite as good as those guys, but he wasn't far off either. Did everything well.
As big and strong as Zion is, he knows when to go to rim or a floater, off the board or a mid range shot. And if these are not there he finds someone open. A true point guard who is scorer within the context of his team. Great rebounder too. Better than the guards above because he does this on any team. A great player who should be All SEC at pg. He has walked in from day one and is doing his thing in a very tough, physical league. Thank you Zion for becoming a Gator and CTG for finding this stud!
I have been surprised, too. I had him pegged for a 10 and 4 guy, kinda like Newton last year for UConn. Didn’t see him being this solid defensively or being able to get to the rim as readily on our league, let alone shooting so well from the arc at a higher volume. But he has changed his body and fit seamlessly into Golden’s offense. I’m sure shouldering less of a burden offensively and getting less attention from defenses has helped. I also think he and Clayton just play so well together. Clayton can bring the ball up and get us into our offense well enough that Pullin can be secondary ball handler at times, which gives him a little mental and physical break, but also shifts help away from him since he doesn’t have a hair trigger out there on the perimeter.
I think people are forgetting how clutch Scottie was during his senior season. He just took over at the end of nearly every game when we needed it. He was also an elite defender. I think that is where he separates himself from ZP. ZP has trouble staying in front of the quicker guards, like A&M had. He can recover sometimes and use his height to his advantage, but I don't recall Scottie having that issue. He wasn't SEC POY for nothing.
It’s not even possible to comprehend what Pullin means to this team. I’m just going to enjoy the ride because life Post-Pullin is sad to think about.
