June 14, 2011
By Matt Winkeljohn
Sting Daily
Zachery Peacock is back at Georgia Tech and in class, but he feels like he went through a time warp while playing a season of basketball in Europe.
He said Tuesday it’s like he was away for longer than a year . . . a lot longer.
In roughly 12 months, the former Yellow Jacket forward’s major changed names – from business management to business administration – and that’s not all.
“I’m taking nine hours, and I’ll take nine more next summer,” he said. “I was supposed to finish this summer, but they changed the curriculum and added some hours.”
There have been other changes.
“[Returning to campus] shocked me,” said the 6-foot-8 native of Miami. “It made me feel like I was gone for more than one year. The coaching deal [his coach, Paul Hewitt, was fired and Brian Gregory was hired], and I feel like the whole atmosphere has changed.
“I just feel so much older than everybody. I guess I’m growing up fast.”
Peacock played like a veteran in Europe.
He signed with the Giessen (Germany) 46ers, and averaged 13.7 points on 56.4 percent shooting, grabbed 6.4 rebounds per game, and made 1-of-4 three-pointers.
Twice he scored 27 points in a game, and once grabbed 15 rebounds.
The season was odd. His first game was in early October, the last in the third week of April. That’s roughly equivalent in time to an NBA regular season, but the 46ers played just 34 games (NBA teams play 82).
That left Peacock with a lot of time, most often spent in Giessen, which is about a half an hour from Frankfurt, Germany. How to pass that time?
“Oh, man; sleep, get updated on all the movies online. When I got tired of using the internet, I’d just walk around the neighborhood,” he said. “There were a lot of nice people.
“We played about once a week so . . . I took some [German] lessons for about a month and a half, but it was just too tough. That’s one of the toughest things I’ve done.”
Peacock, who started nine games as a freshman at Tech in 2006-07 and averaged 8.3 points and 3.9 rebounds over his college career, is not yet signed for next season. He knows he wants to play ball, and he’s confident enough that he will to say that there is virtually no chance he’ll attend class in the fall.
“I feel like I had a pretty decent season. As of right now, I don’t know anything [about next season],” he said. “I’m praying that I can get to a good 13 or 14 years out of my body, and as far as the business degree, I don’t know exactly.
“I’ll probably go somewhere into the entrepreneurship realm. I’m not sure yet. I have a couple ideas, but nothing concrete.”
After the season, Peacock spent a few weeks with his family in Miami, and anticipates moving onto his next basketball destination soon after summer school ends in early August.
He said he stays in contact with Hewitt, and to a less-frequent degree his former teammates.
“Coach Hewitt and I spoke a lot through e-mail [while he was in Europe],” Peacock said. “I try to play with [current and former Jackets] every Wednesday. [Other former teammates], we talk every blue moon. Everybody is off trying to find his way through life.”
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