Amanda Zahui B.

[Frodo]

after all the hype following her 39/27 and 27/27 performances against Iowa and Michigan I thought I'd watch the Minnesota game against Nebraska to see if there is really something to it. Frankly, unless she was seriously ill last night against Nebraska, I don't know how she put up those kinds of numbers in previous games. Huge disappointment...and she was often the last player down the floor on both offense and defense. Maybe the Nebraska game was the outlier, but she didn't impress this observer.

 

[ndmb]

after all the hype following her 39/27 and 27/27 performances against Iowa and Michigan I thought I'd watch the Minnesota game against Nebraska to see if there is really something to it. Frankly, unless she was seriously ill last night against Nebraska, I don't know how she put up those kinds of numbers in previous games. Huge disappointment...and she was often the last player down the floor on both offense and defense. Maybe the Nebraska game was the outlier, but she didn't impress this observer.

She's very broad, tall, and strong, and so can create a large window to receive the ball on the offensive end (she also has a good mid-range shot). She's good at getting position to rebound the ball and (as far as I can see from the limited number of times I've watched her) is rarely more than three feet from the basket, which helps there too. But she's unusually unathletic and in some cases a major defensive liability. Iowa got so many open jumpers from inside the free throw line, because she was being hidden at the center of a 2-3 zone but was still unable/unwilling to get out and guard those shots. It's one of the reasons I strongly disagree with the notion that she's the best post player in the country, at least for now.

 

[EricLA]

I agree - numbers don't always tell the whole story, but I did watch her and Cyesha Goree (Michigan center) go AT it in a recent game and came away impressed by both. I agree she's not the best post player in the nation, but there aren't really a lot of dominating centers out there in WCBB.

 

[Orangutan]

I disagree with the statement that she's "unusually unathletic". For her size and strength, she's quite agile. She doesn't run the floor too quickly but from what I saw against Michigan she's actually pretty good when receiving the ball as a trailer in transition. She had one nice one were she caught the ball at full speed and made a drive to hoop for a layup and and-1.

The blocks I saw were made flat-footed when her opponent simply underestimated her size. I don't knock that - it's how Delle Donne gets all of her blocks and it's a good way to avoid fouls. When you're 6'5 - jumping is optional. She definitely doesn't cover that much range, though. Most of her rebounds come from just being taller that opponents - it helps that nobody is strong enough to yank it away from her.

Offensively, besides having a decent shooting stroke, she's pretty raw and needs to learn to keep the ball high so guards can't rip it away. Once she learns some moves, she could be devastating. Right now she can score quite a bit off of putbacks and just immediately turning and dumping it in from close range when she establishes position.

 

[ThisJustIn]

A reason she needs to stick around for her full eligibility....

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I would say that she lacks polish in her game at this point. She is quite productive, although not normally quite at the level she produced for the 2 games.

That said, Minnesota has been remarkably successful lacking Rachel Bantham (spelling) - can you imagine them next year with Zahui-B and Rachel.

I think they were outmatched at Nebraska, played tired ball and just didn't have it. Since I saw Rutgers lay an egg at Michigan State just a couple of days ago - a much worse team than Nebraska - I get that it can happen.

 

[Striper69]

Road game after a double overtime game (I think) this weekend. You can excuse her for a letdown. Besides, she's only a soph.

She'll be fun to watch in the NCAAs.

 

[CocoHusky]

after all the hype following her 39/27 and 27/27 performances against Iowa and Michigan I thought I'd watch the Minnesota game against Nebraska to see if there is really something to it. Frankly, unless she was seriously ill last night against Nebraska, I don't know how she put up those kinds of numbers in previous games. Huge disappointment...and she was often the last player down the floor on both offense and defense. Maybe the Nebraska game was the outlier, but she didn't impress this observer.

Frodo, this (monster games 25 & 13 followed by pedestrian 4&4 games seems to part of her moniker -something she going to have to shake. Two years of data now and she either the difference or no difference at all in the game.

 

[ndmb]

I disagree with the statement that she's "unusually unathletic". For her size and strength, she's quite agile.

Maybe if you're qualifying your statement like that, we don't actually disagree that much? Lorin Dixon was a good rebounder for her size, but no one's comping Zahui for her size or strength when her defensive assignment is 20ft ahead of her in transition or when she's letting players get open jump shots from her area of the zone. I'm not saying that Zahui's not a great player with a ton of potential, but right now, she has some pretty glaring holes in her game.

 

[mudcat]

Maybe if you're qualifying your statement like that, we don't actually disagree that much? Lorin Dixon was a good rebounder for her size, but no one's comping Zahui for her size or strength when her defensive assignment is 20ft ahead of her in transition or when she's letting players get open jump shots from her area of the zone. I'm not saying that Zahui's not a great player with a ton of potential, but right now, she has some pretty glaring holes in her game.

Yes, but she's only a sophomore, and post players usually take more time to develop. Additionally, there's a BIG difference between how American post players and European post players set up and move (she and her coach have both publicly discussed the difficulty in adapting to the differences in something seemingly as simple as post footwork). Finally, I suspect that after those two games she may simply be getting a lot of defensive attention, and that tends to wear you down (fatigue you) over the course of the game. Especially when as a post player you have to play 35-40 minutes per game. I expect that, her own improvements notwithstanding, she will be more free offensively next year when defenders have to also pay attention to Banham on the outside.