UNLV center Stephen Zimmerman rare breed to hit Koch Arena

Since Gregg Marshall took over as Wichita State’s coach in the 2007-08 season, there haven’t been a lot of lottery picks or five-star recruits to visit Koch Arena.

One of each, actually. And you can add another member to both of those clubs when UNLV freshman center Stephen Zimmerman hit the floor Wednesday night in Wichita.

Creighton’s Doug McDermott was the lottery pick, going No. 11 overall to the Chicago Bulls in the 2014 NBA Draft. McDermott played three games at Koch Arena, averaging 16.0 points and going 1-2 against the Shockers before Creighton left the Missouri Valley Conference for the Big East for his senior season in 2013-2014.

Seton Hall’s Isaiah Whitehead was the five-star recruit, scoring 23 points in a 77-68 loss to WSU last season, with 18 of those coming in the first half.

Zimmerman already has the five-star rating in the rearview mirror — the 7-foot, 240-pounder was the nation’s No. 10-ranked player in the ESPN 100 last season out of Bishop Gorman High in Las Vegas, and he seems like a lock to go in the lottery in this June’s NBA Draft, should he choose to leave school early.

Here’s some more on Zimmerman and how he fared against WSU in a 56-50 loss:

BIG MAN BACKSTORY

UNLV scored a major recruiting coup when it landed Zimmerman, a McDonald’s All-American who picked his hometown team over Kansas, Kentucky, UCLA and Arizona. He was averaging 10.1 points and a team-high 9.1 rebounds headed into Tuesday’s game against the Shockers.

There’s not a lot Zimmerman can’t do in the post — he can defend, hit the short jumper and is almost a sure thing when he gets the ball on the block. Athletic and can run the floor better than you would expect of someone his size.

▪  He’s active on social media and has almost 15,0000 followers on his Twitter account, @BIGG_ZIMM, where he posted a video from UNLV’s official basketball account of himself hitting a backwards, half-court shot on Tuesday night that read “On our way to Wichita State like...”

HOW HE DID AGAINST WSU

▪  An hour before the game, scouts from Oklahoma City Thunder and Brooklyn Nets were already in Koch Arena to see Zimmerman. .

▪  Zimmerman lost the opening tip to Shaq Morris, who took turns with Bush Wamukota guarding the big man for most of the first half. Zimmerman was quiet up until the last two minutes, when he got loose for two huge dunks, one on a cutting, two-handed slam and the other on a one-handed dunk after a couple of pump fakes. Looks like he’s starting to come alive.

▪  WSU coach Gregg Marshall starts second half with Wamukota on Zimmerman, then goes back to Morris right away, who gets free from Zimmerman for a dunk. Haven’t seen much from Zimmerman on defensive end, but he seems to get buckets pretty easily when the Shockers try to put Rauno Nurger on him.

▪  Zimmerman had a solid game and finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds, but disappeared in big stretches. He was openly disappointed with his performance after the game.

“(Wichita State) got 14 offensive rebounds, so I think that tells you pretty much all you need to know right there,” he said. “I don’t want to say they wanted it more than we did, but they did outhustle us in certain spots.”

He was also impressed with Koch Arena.

“This is a crazy place to play,” Zimmerman said. “I was blown away by how loud it was, the environment and just the town. We were at a Wal-Mart today and people were coming up to us, and they were nice, but they were telling us we were going to lose. You can tell the people here know basketball and love basketball.

“That’s a championship team, and we showed we can hang with the big dogs.”

THEY SAID IT

“I think (Zimmerman) has a lot of talent, definitely, but he’s still pretty young. My team, we have a lot of experienced guys we can throw at him and that made a big difference.” — Wichita State forward Shaq Morris, after facing Zimmerman Tuesday night.

YOU SAID IT

This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 11:56 PM with the headline "UNLV center Stephen Zimmerman rare breed to hit Koch Arena."