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An Update on Ryan Fazekas

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Roughly two months have passed since Ed Cooley received a verbal commitment from sharp shooting Ryan Fazekas. Since that time, the 6’7 forward out of Marquette Catholic High School has continued to improve his game in preparation for his debut with Providence in the fall of 2015.

The Blazers of Marquette Catholic currently sit at 6-3 on the season having lost last night in the game’s final seconds. As reported by Jason Miller of the The News Dispatch, Fazekas finished the game with 14 points, trailing only Richie Mitchell who led the Blazers with 19. The Blazers held an 18 point lead in the third quarter only to give it all away and fell to South Bend St. Joseph’s on a last second shot by Greenan Sullivan.

Coming into Friday night’s game, Marquette Catholic had rattled off  six straight victories and head coach Donovan Garletts was pleased with his team play. Their two losses came against the number 1 and 5 ranked teams in Illinois. “We had six quality wins in a row, three against ranked teams. We really schedule up. We only have 200 kids in the school and we don’t play anyone who has less than 500 kids, so we play a really tough schedule.”_AJ39137

In terms of what Garletts has seen out of future Friar, Ryan Fazekas, he commented, “He’s being Ryan. He went off last night, 4 for 5 from beyond the arc and grabbed a ton of rebounds again. He’s a type of player who could score 30 a night, but he facilitates. He sees the bigger picture and if he sees an open guy, he won’t shoot it. He’s going to make the easy play, that’s just the type of player he is.”

Through nine games, Fazekas is averaging right around 12 points and 9 rebounds a game but Garletts could not confirm that those numbers were 100% accurate because when we spoke, he was not in front of a computer. In comparison to last season, Fazekas is averaging two less points a game but he is making up for that on the defensive end.

Adam Parkhouse of The News Dispatch, who covers Indiana High School basketball, told me that he has been extremely impressed  with the effort he has seen out of Fazekas defensively, saying, “He is working a lot harder on the defensive end of the floor. He’s making an effort to rebound a lot better and he’s blocking more shots. He has always been a very good offensive player, but taking that next step defensively is big for him.”

In terms of the slight decline in scoring this season, Garletts noted that Fazekas has been dealing with a slight hamstring strain. “He’s battling a little hamstring injury and he’s had a little bit of a pain there. He’s not playing to his full potential because of that, but obviously he’s still playing great.” Garletts continued with, “We actually have him bringing the ball up. He’s an outstanding ball handler for being as big as he is.”

When asked how it has felt to play this season without the burden of college recruitment hanging over his head, Fazekas told me, “It feels good to not have all that pressure and I can really focus on our team and not wondering where I want to go.” His coach added, “I think Ryan is looser, he’s playing loose. He has the pressure off his back and he doesn’t have coaches calling him all the time. Right now he’s concentrating on school and basketball. Ryan has a 3.7 GPA so he’s obviously doing something right. He has improved on a lot of weaknesses, he takes them to heart and he really works hard.”

Moving forward Garletts would like to see his future Division I player improve on penetration. He ended our conversation by saying, “We want him to work on getting to the basket, initiating contact and finishing; getting 3 points the old fashion way.”

Marquette Catholic’s next game comes on January 10th when they face off against Bishop Noll Institute.

Email Craig – craig.belhumeur@friarbasketball.com
Craig on Twitter – @craig_belhumeur

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