MBB: Zach Loveday Commits to Baylor

Scott Drew and staff are filling needs in the 2020 class.  They made three guys priorities in the class and have now hit on all three.  Zach Loveday is the latest to join the fold.  Loveday is a 7-0 215 lb stretch 4/5 who is athletic and skilled.  His game will resemble an Isaiah Austin (Baylor) or Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin).  

In the top Adidas Gauntlet competition, Loveday averaged 8.1 ppg; 5.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.  He shot over 50% from the field in AAU ball where bigs are rarely used efficiently.  He held offers from a host of great basketball programs including Michigan, Florida, Purdue, Marquette, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio State.  Ultimately it came down to Baylor and Louisville and Loveday chose the Bears.  

This commitment gives Baylor a top 5 national class in 2020 with three 4 star commitments of incoming freshmen.  In addition to Loveday, Dain Dainja and LJ Cryer have given their verbal pledges to Baylor.  All three can sign letters of intent to Baylor the week of November 13, 2019 to enroll at Baylor in the summer of 2020.  

Dustin Doparak wrote in the Athletic earlier this summer, “Loveday has evident strengths with a better-than-average handle for a man his size, superb passing skills for a center and a smooth left-handed shooting stroke that could make him a legitimate 3-point threat and a true stretch 5. However, he’s listed at just 200 pounds and has only the rudimentary beginnings of a post game, and he’ll need a lot of time in the weight room and a lot of training before he can be a force on the low block.”

What makes him so valuable is that he plays with an unselfishness that always makes his teammates better.  Here is some recent film of Loveday from this summer.