{"id":216235,"date":"2021-05-20T10:29:17","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T08:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/?p=216235"},"modified":"2021-05-20T10:29:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T08:29:17","slug":"on-his-way-to-his-first-final-four-appearance-zach-leday-is-like-a-sponge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportando.basketball\/en\/on-his-way-to-his-first-final-four-appearance-zach-leday-is-like-a-sponge\/","title":{"rendered":"On his way to his first final four appearance, Zach LeDay is \u201clike a sponge\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his third year in the EuroLeague, Zach LeDay made his playoff debut by scoring the Olimpia\u2019s winner in Game 1 of the quarterfinals.<\/strong> Now he is preparing to debut in the Final Four. In his first season in Milan, he set his personal bests in points and rebounds, but also free-throw shooting and three-point shooting. He converted 91.5 percent from the line, way higher than his career 84.1 percent clip. He also hit 32 threes in one season. He had 23 combined in the first two years. His 48 percent let him finish seventh overall. The three-point shot is the most obvious aspect of his improvement. \u201cHelping him improve is an obligation for me, he has already made a lot of strides since the beginning of the year and will make more. He is only 26 and is much better than I was at his age. As far as understanding the game, his ability to help in so many different ways,\u201d Kyle Hines, who has become somewhat of his mentor, says.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle has been there and done that \u2013 says Zach LeDay \u2013 but if you enter our locker room there are so many players you just have to learn from. I listen, I watch how they work every day, their routine, they don\u2019t even know I\u2019m watching them, but it\u2019s the right thing to do to become like them, to win a lot. I\u2019m absorbing it like a sponge.\u201d LeDay has this attitude: take one day at a time, \u201cimprove today to be better tomorrow,\u201d he explains. The comparison with Hines has been following him for years because the size is similar, but Hines has always been primarily a center, LeDay is a forward. And Hines has never been the perimeter shooter that LeDay has become this season. \u201cSince I\u2019ve been in Europe I\u2019ve always been compared to Kyle Hines for many different reasons, the way we behave on the court, being undersized for example. To me it\u2019s an honor,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

LeDay came to Europe as soon as he left Virginia Tech where over two years he established himself as the best player on the team despite coming off the bench (\u201cI didn\u2019t ask to come off the bench, but it showed how much I was willing to sacrifice for the team, \u201che said). In Israel, he found the right conditions to explode, in a system favorable to his skills. From there he moved up to Olympiacos Piraeus and then to Zalgiris Kaunas. He is entering his first Final Four game 34 points away from 1,000 for his career, the threshold of excellence and longevity. But LeDay is only 26, as Kyle Hines says.<\/p>\n