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C Zisis Sarikopoulos (Tsmoki-Minsk - Belarus)

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Buckskin86

Buckskin86

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Ohio State welcomes transfer to men?s basketball program
Source: BigTenNetwork.com
Thursday, July 17, 2008

Thad Matta, Ohio State head men's basketball coach, announced the addition of Zisis Sarikopoulos, a 7-foot, 265-pound center from Athens, Greece, to the Buckeye roster Thursday. Sarikopoulos played last season at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. He will sit out the 2008-09 season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules and will have three seasons of eligibility beginning with the 2009-10 season.

Sarikopoulos appeared in 20 games as a rookie at UAB. He started four games, averaged 1.8 points and 1.1 rebounds for the Blazers, who finished with a 23-11 record in 2007-08.

With extensive international experience, a year of NCAA college basketball and a year to develop as a Buckeye, Matta expects Sarikopoulos to contribute to the Ohio State program down the road.

""Zisis will give us a physical presence and some size,"" Matta said. ""We have a year to work with him on getting stronger and learning our system. He entered college at only 17 years old. He will help immediately in practice. We are excited about his decision to join our program.""

Before traveling to the United States last August to join the UAB program, Sarikopoulos led the Under-18 Greece national team to a second-place finish in the 2007 Euro Championships and helped club team Olympiakos B.C. to a second-place finish in the country. He averaged about 20 points and 16 rebounds per game, all team highs for Olympiakos. He also averaged 7.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.1 steals per contest for Greece in the Under-18 European Championships.

Prior to joining the UAB squad, his only other appearance in the United States came earlier in 2007, when Michael Jordan hand-selected Sarikopoulos as the MVP of Greece, inviting him to compete at the Jordan Brand All-American Classic in New York City. Sarikopoulos joined a dozen other international stars as representatives of some of the top basketball players in their respective countries.
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Ohio State welcomes transfer to men?s basketball program - Big Ten Network

UAB Official Athletic Site
 
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Interesting the fourth 7' in four years for Thad. Slightly concerning that he only averaged 2 points and a rebound last year, probably a contributing factor in the transfer . But hey, with a year of practices and banging with BJ I'm sure that he will greatly improve.
 
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OState29 said:
Interesting the fourth 7' in four years for Thad. Slightly concerning that he only averaged 2 points and a rebound last year, probably a contributing factor in the transfer . But hey, with a year of practices and banging with BJ I'm sure that he will greatly improve.
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he was a 17 year old frosh, thats awful young. big men take awhile to develop. that makes him 18 this year, 19 for his rs soph year. 18 months in a weight room will be good for the kid. uab blazers get up and down the court. much more than mattas teams who play at about 66 possessions a game.

that being siad ive never seen the kid play...
 
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OSUBasketballJunkie said:
Another piece to add to the depth of this team in the future......we need that foundation of players who can bring some consistency to the program......

couldnt have said it any better. i like this addition. 7 foot 270 at 18? good size...
 
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From the above article on Bucknuts, it looks like this kid has a great deal of potential at least in Michael Jordan's eyes. He was one of 13 international players "hand-picked" by Jordan to participate in the Jordan Brand All-American Classic in New York City. He was one of 13 international players to be chosen for that event.
 
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A good thing about this is that we don't really need him this year in which is his transfer year, but will give him a great opportunity to learn the system, language barrier if there is any and also get to go up against BJ all the time...
 
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Since he's spent a year in an American college program ( no UAB jokes needed ) and is reportedly pretty bright I doubt there is a language issue to hurdle still.

Let's hope that Davis' system and lack of coaching was a main reason he sat. I'm also hoping he was just so young he hasn't yet grown into his body and coordination. A year to hit the weights and develop and maybe he can at least be Lauderdale's backup in 09-10 at C. It didn't look like we were going to have one and I did not relish having the skinny no-rbd Kec or KM having to play C out of desparation. At least now we may have an emerging big body who might be that legitimate backup.
 
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