"He's graceful," Coach K said Friday on a conference call, according to ZagsBlog.com. "His lateral movement and speed and anticipation is off the charts. He can drive, he can post up, he understands the really game well. I know that everyone has watched him on YouTube with all the dunking and obviously that's impressive but he's a heck of a basketball player."
"At that weight or approximately that weight, he moves as fast as anybody, jumps higher than anybody and he's alert," said Krzyzewski. "We're not talking about someone who has excess body fat. This is a kid that's in pretty darn good shape and just has a man's mass. It's more mass and strength than any type of excess weight. I'm not concerned about that. He's done really well."
Also a rough transcript from the press conference.
Reporter: With Zion, a lot of the things that people see are the highlights films and the dunks..."
Coach k: "That's probably the only thing they see"
Reporter: "Having him on campus, what are some things that he really does well that you've seen from him?"
Coach K: "Well, he's an outstanding basketball player. He's a gifted, gifted unique athlete. I never had a player with that athletic base like him because he's such a compact, strong player. The weight that he has is really deceiving because when people think of that high weight, they think of being out of shape, fat...just the opposite with him. It's not a lot of body fat, he's got great mass. He's graceful, his lateral movement and anticipatory skills are really at the high level and he can really play basketball. I'm just trying to learn... he's a great kid, he works hard. I'm trying to learn more about him so I can give him an opportunity to use his skill set. He's a really good basketball player, an incredibly unique athlete for being that size and being able to jump that high and also his lateral movement is so darn good, he's quick. I love him and he's a great, great kid. He's a great kid."
Reporter: "How concerned are you, you said it's not a lot of body fat but how concerned are you with just in terms of it seems like it's a lot of weight for his knees."
Coach K: "Well, it's how its positioned, you know? He's so proportional, he's got a really good body mass, it's strength. I'm not that concerned because he's done all of our testing, he's doing the conditioning, very durable. I think he'll eventually because of how much you work find a weight that is good. I'm not saying the weight he has right now isn't good but were not setting up that you need to be at a certain weight. We're not doing that, it'll just flow naturally because he's moving so well. He's really very unique. He can hang in the air...he's gifted. He's gifted but he can play basketball too. He's a really good basketball player. Great passer, outstanding passer and again when he gets by you, he's by you and you're not going to knock him off. We're happy to have him."
"At that weight or approximately that weight, he moves as fast as anybody, jumps higher than anybody and he's alert," said Krzyzewski. "We're not talking about someone who has excess body fat. This is a kid that's in pretty darn good shape and just has a man's mass. It's more mass and strength than any type of excess weight. I'm not concerned about that. He's done really well."
Also a rough transcript from the press conference.
Reporter: With Zion, a lot of the things that people see are the highlights films and the dunks..."
Coach k: "That's probably the only thing they see"
Reporter: "Having him on campus, what are some things that he really does well that you've seen from him?"
Coach K: "Well, he's an outstanding basketball player. He's a gifted, gifted unique athlete. I never had a player with that athletic base like him because he's such a compact, strong player. The weight that he has is really deceiving because when people think of that high weight, they think of being out of shape, fat...just the opposite with him. It's not a lot of body fat, he's got great mass. He's graceful, his lateral movement and anticipatory skills are really at the high level and he can really play basketball. I'm just trying to learn... he's a great kid, he works hard. I'm trying to learn more about him so I can give him an opportunity to use his skill set. He's a really good basketball player, an incredibly unique athlete for being that size and being able to jump that high and also his lateral movement is so darn good, he's quick. I love him and he's a great, great kid. He's a great kid."
Reporter: "How concerned are you, you said it's not a lot of body fat but how concerned are you with just in terms of it seems like it's a lot of weight for his knees."
Coach K: "Well, it's how its positioned, you know? He's so proportional, he's got a really good body mass, it's strength. I'm not that concerned because he's done all of our testing, he's doing the conditioning, very durable. I think he'll eventually because of how much you work find a weight that is good. I'm not saying the weight he has right now isn't good but were not setting up that you need to be at a certain weight. We're not doing that, it'll just flow naturally because he's moving so well. He's really very unique. He can hang in the air...he's gifted. He's gifted but he can play basketball too. He's a really good basketball player. Great passer, outstanding passer and again when he gets by you, he's by you and you're not going to knock him off. We're happy to have him."
