Recruiting Report: Zekiah Lovett (2018)
Photo courtesy of the Beach Reporter
The first thing Zekiah Lovett hears when someone finds out he’s the brother of current St. John’s guard Marcus Lovett is something to the tune of, ‘You play nothing like your brother.’
The older Lovett is considered one of the most viral mixtape players of his high school and club years. Marcus was click gold for anyone with a video camera due to his vicious crossovers, maddening dribble exhibitions and explosive scoring outputs.
Zekiah, a rising senior at Redondo Union, may not have a camera crew following him, but he’s now in a position to show that his game translates to the next level as the new leader of the Sea Hawks.
“I take a little bit from each top player I watch and try to put it into my game,” Lovett said after a strong performance at the Corona del Mar summer league. “I try to be as aggressive as I can because sometimes I can be too passive and too finesse. I like leaving all of my effort out on the court.”
Lovett is a high energy player on both ends of the floor. He can play both on and off the ball with his vision, passing ability and unselfishness, but he’s also an explosive athlete who gets to the basket and finishes above the rim and a prospect who can guard multiple positions at the high school level.
The 6-foot-2 combo guard said his recruitment is a bit slow at the moment, hearing most recently from Santa Clara and UC Irvine, and as his game continues to progress, he could be one of the biggest sleeper prospects out west and he’s completely fine with that.
“Oh yeah, for sure, but it’s all good. We’ll let them sleep,” he said of being under-the-radar. “When I go against the top players on the court, it will show on the court, so I’m not really worried.”
Lovett is prepping himself to go against top-level competition by playing some heated games of one-on-one with his older brother and there’s surely no love lost when they call it quits.
“We’re for sure competitive; we go at it,” he said. “We play one’s when he’s at home and he beats me, but I know I have the better jumper and better athleticism. He’s got me beat as a point guard, though, for right now.”
Lovett is well-aware of the weaknesses in his game and is working tirelessly to improve in those areas.
“I need to work on my leadership and talking more on the court,” he said. “I also need to work on my ball pressure, defensively. People think I’m satisfied with my defense, but I’m not, I can do way better.”