The 21-year-old Zhou Zhihao is the current NCAA No. 1 center, he is more than 2.20 meters tall, plays for Purdue University, ranks first in the NCAA Division I this season in points per game, and in the first game of Purdue University in 2024, Zhou Zhihao scored 23 points and 12 rebounds to help the team beat Maryland 67-53.
Due to his outstanding personal performance, Zhou Zhihao's NBA draft market has risen sharply, and the American media ESPN updated the 2024 draft list, among the top 25 potential rookie players, Zhou Zhihao successfully made the list, ranking 14th, which means that Zhou Zhihao is optimistic about being selected with the 14th pick in the first round and has the opportunity to become a lottery show.
In fact, Zhou Zhihao once signed up for the 2023 NBA draft, when he participated in the tryouts of many NBA teams, but the final effect was not good, and the draft market was poor, so Zhou Zhihao chose to withdraw early and return to the NCAA to play for another year.
Looking at it now, Zhou Zhihao's withdrawal at that time was wise, he has become stronger this season, and 2024 is a small year for the draft, Zhou Zhihao's competitors are not as strong as the class of 2023, and Zhou Zhihao has a chance to land in the NBA as a first-round pick.
It is worth mentioning that Zhou Zhihao is still a Chinese player, with Chinese ancestry, his grandfather is a pure native of Guangzhou, Guangdong, and then went to Canada to live, for which Zhou Zhihao once had the opportunity to play for the Chinese men's basketball team, but in the end Zhou Zhihao chose to refuse, he has no relatives in China, and Zhou Zhihao's family does not want him to return to China to live. At present, Zhou Zhihao is a member of the Canadian men's basketball team, and in the 2023 Basketball World Cup, Zhou Zhihao followed the Canadian men's basketball team to defeat the United States team and win a bronze medal.
A player who played the prospect of an NBA first-round pick or even a lottery show is naturally a leader in the domestic basketball world, as a comparison, Zeng Fanbo and Yu Jiahao, who are one year younger than Zhou Zhihao, were unselected in the 2023 NBA draft, and it is difficult to see a chance to compete in the NBA.
The Chinese men's basketball team has not had an outstanding player at the level of an NBA first-round pick since beating Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian, and Zhou Qi, Wang Zhelin and others were selected in the second round. In addition, Zhou Zhihao is only 21 years old, he still has room to grow in the future and has the opportunity to become a world-class player.
For this reason, it is a pity that the Chinese men's basketball team missed such an excellent player, and there was a chance to improve the strength of the squad. Of course, there are also many outstanding new generation players in the domestic CBA league, such as Qingdao genius Yang Hansen, who has been selected into the best team of the World Youth Championship and won the block king, this season Yang Hansen can contribute 16.3 points, 12.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.7 blocks per game in the first year of playing CBA, rebounds and blocks are the highest in the CBA, and Yang Hansen is only 18 years old, 3 years younger than Zhou Zhihao, which is also worth looking forward to!
(Lin Xiaoxiang)