Notre Dame's Zach Auguste Stock Will Rise in 2015-16

What made the 2014-15 edition of Notre Dame Fighting Irish basketball so beautiful is that everyone on the team knew their role and played it to the best of their ability.

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Jerian Grant knew that he was the star of the show and as such he was the one the team leaned on to come up big in crunch time.

6-foot-5 guard/forward Pat Connaughton was the toughness and fire of the team. To lead the team in rebounding at 7.4 points per game and still find time time to be a deadeye marksman at 42.3% from trey is solid.

Demetrius Jackson had the ability to set the tempo and shift gears from the point. Though Grant led the team in assists at 6.7 per contest, Jackson was a glue guy for the backcourt.

But the person with the most important role on the team was the man in the middle, Zach Auguste.

Zach Auguste was the the man that had to protect the paint and play big inside.

If he got into foul trouble, there almost seemed to be a hole in the middle.

Auguste had a strong 2014-15 campaign averaging 12.9 points and 6.5 rebounds. He was efficient from the floor as the second leading scorer for the Irish hitting 61.9% of his shots from the field.

(Photo: Matt Cashore, USA TODAY Sports)

His contribution may have gone unnoticed by a lot of hoop fans who watched Notre Dame because of Jerian Grant putting together a “Player of the Year” campaign, or Pat Connaughton putting in major work from the wing.

But the game that put Zach Auguste on the map actually happened during the NCAA Tournament when Notre Dame played against the Kentucky Wildcats in the “Elite 8”.

Auguste had to hold his own against the Kentucky post play of Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein. He played huge finishing with 20 points and nine rebounds.

The 6-foot-10 forward matched Karl-Anthony Towns shot for shot. Both Towns and Auguste finished 10 of 13 from the floor. Towns finished with 25 points and five rebounds in that contest.

With Notre Dame only losing 68-66 in the contest, and Zach Auguste handling his business the way he did, this game is the one people will look to as the springboard for the notoriety that is going to come his way in 2015-16.

Auguste holding his own against the obviously NBA caliber frontcourt that UK had, is a big reason why NBA scouts are going to have Zach Auguste on their radar, and his stock is going to rise as the2015-16 season goes on barring injury.

What you see is what you get from Zach Auguste, his offense is limited.

It is not like you are going to see him knocking down baseline jumpers effortlessly, or posting and hitting a fadeaway on his defender. But in pick-and-roll situations, or following up after grabbing the offensive board, he flat out gets it done.

Auguste is 6-foot-10, 242 pounds. When you think about the landscape of the NBA and how someone like Auguste could play center for a team since everyone is playing small ball, his game is actually ideal.

Would you like to see that he has developed some kind of 15-foot jumper this year with the Fighting Irish? Of course you would want to see that.

But to be honest, for Zach Auguste to be a bigger and better version of himself is what is going to make his 2016 NBA Draft stock rise.

If anything we want to see Zach Auguste become the best defensive player in the ACC.

When you look at current Mock Drafts, Auguste is projected to be a Second Round draft pick by both draftexpress.com and nbadraft.net.

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Draft Express has Auguste as the 60th best player in the draft while nbadraft.net has him as the 48th best player in the draft.

Between his tourney outing against Kentucky which put him on the radar and the opportunity to have the spotlight on himself Auguste is in a position to boost his NBA stock when the 2015-16 season begins.

Notre Dame is still going to be one of the top teams in the ACC. They may not be the threat for the ACC crown that they were last season, but they are going to make some noise in the conference.

When that noise is made, Zach Auguste is going to be one of the main reasons why.

It would be a surprise not to hear his name called in next year’s NBA Draft. He just needs to play hard and stay healthy.

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2016 NBA Draft Radar: Notre Dame’s Zach Auguste Stock Will Rise in 2015-16

By James Fitzgerald | Aug 12, 2015

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