Brian Henry Zoubek was born April 6, 1988, in Philadelphia, and grew up in Haddonfield, New Jersey — a leafy South Jersey suburb across the Delaware River from Center City. He came from an athletic family with an Ivy League pedigree: his father Paul played baseball and football at Princeton, his mother Liza Cartmell rowed crew at Wellesley, and his older sister Sarah played basketball at Yale. The Zoubeks were competitors, but they also believed in being well-rounded. Brian scored a 1360 on his SATs and planned to major in history at whichever school he chose.
At Haddonfield Memorial High School, Zoubek transformed from an awkward kid who tripped over his own feet into a dominant force. He didn’t have an immediate passion for basketball — he was just tall, and people expected him to be good because of it. He hated shopping malls because strangers stared. But he put in the work. By sophomore year he was starting on a team that would go 110-10 over his four-year career, winning three consecutive New Jersey Group II state championships. As a senior, he averaged 24.7 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 4.2 blocks per game. In the state championship game, he put up 21 points, 20 rebounds, and 8 blocks. He was named New Jersey Player of the Year, a fourth-team Parade All-American, and a Jordan Brand All-American. More than 50 colleges recruited him.
He committed to Duke on May 19, 2005, choosing the Blue Devils over Stanford and Wake Forest. He was ranked 25th nationally by RSCI and 24th by Rivals.com — a top-tier recruit by any measure. He arrived in Durham in the fall of 2006 as a 7-foot-1, 260-pound teenager with soft hands, a nice touch out to 12 feet, and a belief that hard work could overcome anything.