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San Diego State's freshman point guard Kevin Zabo has been drawing nothing but compliments during his short time on campus. Few people outside of this year's team have seen Zabo play, but it sounds like the freshman out of Brewster Academy in New Hampshire will be an integral part of the Aztecs roster this season.
"He's a true point guard," Winston Shepard told the U-T San Diego's Mark Zeigler. "That's the best way I can describe him. He has the handles. He can shoot. He can command the team. He can play the pick and roll. And when you come from a prep school, you're a little better prepared to make the transition to the college game."
It's comments like these that lead people to believe that Zabo will emerge as the starting point guard in 2014 over senior Aqeel Quinn, sophomore D'Erryl Williams and fellow freshman Trey Kell. Zabo flew under the recruiting radar while at Brewster, and is ranked the lowest out of SDSU's four highly-touted freshmen.
As a senior, Zabo led the Brewster Bobcats to a National Prep Championship title and a NEPSAC class AAA title. He also represented Canada in the FIBA Under-17 World Championships last summer and averaged nearly 13 points per game. It seems like Winston Shepard and J.J. O'Brien are settling into their leadership roles nicely, but the Aztecs could get a nice spark from the battle-tested newcomer who's been described as wise beyond his years.
We all know Steve Fisher is no stranger to starting freshman. Former Aztec point guard D.J. Gay started 26 of 33 games as a freshman and went on to become the Aztecs' all-time leader in games played. Former guard Chase Tapley and forward Billy White, the two Aztecs tied for second all-time in games played, started 17 and 28 games respectively in their freshman campaigns. If Zabo's career at SDSU lasts four years, he's got a pretty good shot at Gay's record.
Zabo's name is buzzing because of what he might do for SDSU in the future. For old times sake, let's look at his official senior year highlight tape courtesy of 2ez Gang on Youtube.