Matt Zona Adjusts To New Normal: ‘I’m Doing Everything I Need To Do’
In a time of a sports shutdown and athletes scrambling for contingencies, Matt Zona is a particularly fortunate basketball player.
He has a hoop in his driveway.
“I’m able to work out almost every day, depending on weather,” Zona said.
Gym and park closure problem solved. Shagging his own shots isn’t even an adjustment — he said he doesn’t use a rebounding machine at gyms. The monkey wrench in his plan, though, is the uncertainty with which his college career will begin.
Zona, a three-star center out of Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic and one of Notre Dame’s two fall signees, planned to enroll in classes and move in on campus in June. With the first three weeks of Notre Dame’s summer session now online only, that will no longer happen. As of now, the earliest he could arrive on campus is July. The university will decide May 15 if it will move the rest of the summer online.
Until then, the driveway basket will see shots snap its net with only rare interruption. That’s Zona’s new normal until campus is reopened and practices are allowed. Notre Dame’s staff has sent him workouts tailored to the limited resources available.
“There’s no machine work or anything,” Zona said. “A lot of body weight stuff, lots of running. It’s all things we take for granted when we have it, but now we have to change it up.
“For the first week it was a little weird. I had a routine where I go to the gym. Obviously, that had to be altered. Now it’s a new routine, I feel like I’m doing everything I need to do. It’s starting to feel as normal as it can feel at this time.”
Zona’s senior season and a chance at a title was halted after the New Jersey Non-Public league sectional final. Bergen Catholic (21-6) beat St. Peter’s Prep 73-66 in double overtime March 11 and advanced to the non-public state championship game. Zona and his teammates lost in the state title game in 2019. They never got a shot at avenging it. The game was canceled, his high school career ended by press release.
“Going into the last game we had, I kind of in the back of my mind felt like this would happen just with all the rumors going around,” Zona said. “I was a little upset about it. But happy to go out a winner. I thought we would have made a run in the state tournament if we got there.”
For now, Zona is doing online classes from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. each weekday and using the rest of his afternoons to work out and hoist shots. He said he is in regular communication with coaches and has talked to all of his future teammates.
“Everyone’s in good spirits, just waiting this out and doing what we have to do to get through this,” Zona said.
The 6-9, 220-pound Zona Philadelphia Imhotep Charter three-star forward Elijah Taylor were Notre Dame’s first two 2020 additions. The Irish since have added two more in Gulliver Prep (Fla.) wing Tony Sanders Jr. and Santa Clara transfer guard Trey Wertz. They’re at 11 scholarship players.
Notre Dame enters the season with fifth-year senior Juwan Durham as its projected starting center, but there are some areas left unresolved. Durham has not played more than 17.5 minutes per game in a season. Even with his workload expected to increase, it’s unlikely he’s going to become a steady 30-plus minute player each game. Zona, Taylor and little-used senior Nikola Djogo are Notre Dame’s options to be the backup five. If Notre Dame adds one more piece to its roster for next year, it is likely to be a transfer forward.
“Does one of them jump up as a freshman?” head coach Mike Brey told BlueandGold.com in March. “We may need that. Do we take a grad transfer big late here to add to our experience on the front line? That’s something we’ve really talked about. But maybe one of these young big guys emerges, is it going to be one of you or both of you? Do we redshirt one? We still looking at all of the options.”
If Notre Dame adds a graduate transfer, Brey said, “It’s gotta be a sure-fire grad transfer. It’s gotta be somebody who is going to be a starter on the front line.”
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