Zayden High Comes Off Bench, Continues Upward Trend for UNC

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — With 6:25 to play in Saturday’s first half, Zayden High swatted the ball out of William Kyle III’s hands, dove to the floor between Kyle’s legs in front of the UNC bench to secure the steal, and immediately called timeout before being swarmed by a horde of teammates.

It was the exact same sort of play that, Tuesday night in Raleigh, Hubert Davis said his team didn’t make. Saturday in Syracuse with the Tar Heels ahead 25-20, High made sure his head coach wouldn’t have reason to make a similar comment postgame.

“Those are the types of plays that allow you to win — the little, boring, mundane things that make big things happen,” Davis said.

High finished with nine points and a career-high 11 rebounds Saturday afternoon, bumping his averages across UNC’s last three games to 12.3 points and 9.3 rebounds.

In the absence of Henri Veesaar and Caleb Wilson, High has played 81 minutes across the Tar Heels’ last three outings — more than he had in UNC’s 16 games prior, dating all the way back to the Nov. 14 win over NC Central. Across his limited usage in those 16 games, High averaged less than two points per game. 

“I feel like going in there, I was thinking too much about making a mistake instead of going out there and playing,” High said of his limited usage earlier this season. “But now, I go out there and play free.”

With Veesaar returning from a two-game absence Saturday, High came off the UNC bench for the first time since UNC’s Feb. 10 loss to Miami, playing 19 minutes — less than the 32 and 30 minutes he logged against Pitt and NC State — but was still effective, finishing with a team-best plus/minus of plus-17 in the win.

“(Zayden) is kind of showing and proving how good he is and how much he can help the whole team,” Veesaar said Saturday. 

And while it may be a surprise to fans, High’s performance during his time thrust into a larger role is coming as no surprise to his teammates. 

“He is very annoying to play against in practice, and I think a lot of times he’s better than this player I’m scouting, because of just the way he can operate short rolls,” Veesaar said. “And when he gets the move, because he has really good moves, and he’s very patient with his finishes with good touch, so he’s very hard to guard.” 

Across his three-game upswing, High has also been a noticeable energetic presence for the Tar Heels, illustrated by plays like Saturday’s first half steal, or the primal yells unleashed following his teammates’ buckets that could be heard well throughout the JMA Wireless Dome. 

And when Donnie Freeman slung Jarin Stevenson to the ground with 1:48 to go and the Heels leading 73-57, High took a stand for his teammate, earning a technical foul for his efforts, and fouling out of the game in the process.

“I just didn’t like the way that he had fouled Jarin and I just kind of checked him a little bit,” High said. “But it was nothing, we were just competing at the end of the day.”

With Veesaar now back and Caleb Wilson’s potential return creeping closer, Tar Heel fans can’t help but wonder if High has proven himself a key backup. 

“I know that’s something we needed, for someone to be like an energy guy off the bench,” High said. “Bench production, a backup big, so I’m excited to see where the future takes us.”