Overview:
Luke Zuffelato continues to build on his career records at Santa Barbara High School which now stand at 2,639 points and 869 rebounds
Santa Barbara wasn’t always Luke Zuffelato’s destination of choice.
Fresno was Little Luke’s Paradise Lost when he bid goodbye to his second-grade buddies and left for the new family home on the coast in 2014.
“It was hard as a young kid to be moving,” Zuffelato explained, even when his new sandbox came with an entire ocean.
But fast forward a decade, and the fast senior forward of the Santa Barbara High School basketball team is making himself even more at home on the South Coast.
Zuffelato gets to be a Don for at least one more week with one last playoff run, and then he’ll move just nine miles up the freeway to UC Santa Barbara to become a Gaucho next season.
“I love Santa Barbara,” he told Noozhawk. “It’s an amazing place.”
Zuffelato, who committed to UCSB a month ago, will lead the Dons into Tuesday’s opening round of the Southern California Division 1 Regional Tournament with a home game against Mission Bay High of the CIF’s San Diego Section.
Santa Barbara, 26-6 this season, automatically qualified for the state event by upsetting third-seeded powerhouse Mater Dei in overtime, 75-70, in the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 quarterfinals.
Second-seeded Mira Costa defeated the Dons in the semifinals, 61-40.
“I hope we go up against Mira Costa again — not because of anything they did, but we should win that game,” Zuffelato said. “We didn’t shoot great, but I’m blessed that we have another opportunity.
“We had another opportunity last year but it just didn’t go our way.”
The Dons upset San Clemente 61-59 in last year’s CIF-SS 3A quarterfinals before losing to Bosco Tech, 59-57, in the semifinals.
They were then ousted from Southern California’s Division 3 Regionals with an 85-81 defeat at San Diego County’s San Marcos High to finish the season with a 24-9 record.
“I’m glad we got back to the same spot,” Zuffelato said. “I’m sure we’re going to capitalize at state.”
Don of an Era
He’s rewritten most of the record book at Santa Barbara High, a school rich in basketball tradition with such alumni as NBA stars Jamaal Wilkes and Don Ford.
Zuffelato, a 6-foot-6 wing forward, had already eclipsed several career marks by the end of last year.
His scoring record is at 2,639 points and counting. His rebound mark is up to 869. He’s second in career assists with 355.
His 27.7-point average last year erased Ford’s single-season record of 25.0. Zuffelato scored 885 points, which also eclipsed Paul Johnson’s mark of 864. He set school records for rebounds (303) and three-pointers (103) in a season, as well.
A well-brewed chemistry with such longtime classmates as Carter Battle, Diesel Lowe and D.J. Wilson has led to 50 victories so far the last two seasons.
His dad, Dons’ head coach Greg Zuffelato, began to develop that winning formula when he worked with their youth basketball club teams.
“It’s such a good group of guys, they’ve been so fun to coach,” the elder Zuffelato said.
“Spinning off that last game, a little bit … We were hoping to finish a little stronger.”
Luke has scored 24.1 points per game this season while facilitating the emergence of Battle and Lowe as double-digit scorers.
His assist average of 4.8 leads the team. He’s also pulling down a team-high 9.7 rebounds.
His father introduced him to UCSB’s Thunderdome soon after he and wife Kim, who’d trained in Santa Barbara during her playing days on the Association of Volleyball Professionals tour, moved back to town a decade ago.
“My wife and I lived here out of college,” said Greg, who met Kim McCann while playing basketball at Fresno Pacific University.
“We graduated and moved here for a couple of years, and then we left.”
They returned to Santa Barbara when their daughter, Emma, now a beach volleyball player at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, was entering fifth grade and Luke was in second.
“I have a picture of Luke at the end of his second-grade year, sitting in the stands and watching a Gaucho game,” Greg said. “We have another cool picture of him at UCSB’s camp when he was in third or fourth grade, holding a signed picture of Gabe Vincent.
“We’ve been going to their games ever since.”
Vincent, a 2018 graduate of UCSB, now plays for the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers.
“Gabe was my coach at that camp,” Luke said. “I think I got his signature because I was the MVP of something … I don’t really remember of what.”
Happy Camper
He grew fond of UCSB’s program during the basketball camps.
“I don’t think it dawned on me when I went to that first one that this could possibly be home in 10 years,” Zuffelato said. “But looking back at all those camps — of how much fun I had, and seeing all the Gaucho players working them — I figured their coaches were doing something right.
“They get players who love giving back to the community and love the area.
“Just seeing all that just sparked something in my head that, ‘This is a great place … and this is a great opportunity for me.’”
He became teammates with “Little Joe” — the son of Gaucho coach Joe Pasternack — when he went to his first club basketball practice in the seventh grade.
“I went to a Cal Poly-UCSB game that year and watched JaQuori McLaughlin hit a game-winner,” Zuffelato said, referring to a buzzer-beating shot that defeated the Mustangs on Senior Night of 2020. “He was obviously one of my favorite players.
“Miles Norris and Amadou Sow were on those teams, and I really liked them, too.”
McLaughlin, who made his NBA debut with the Dallas Mavericks in 2021, now plays in Indonesia.
Norris signed a two-way contract with the Atlanta Hawks after his graduation in 2023. Although he was later released, his strong play with the G League’s Memphis Hustle caught the attention of the Boston Celtics, who signed him to a two-way deal on Sunday.
Sow, UCSB Class of 2022, plays for Strasbourg in France’s top professional league.
“Obviously, Ajay Mitchell is a great player,” Zuffelato continued, referring to last year’s Gaucho star, who has since asserted himself as one of the NBA’s top rookies with the Oklahoma City Thunder. “Cole Anderson is also from the Fresno area, and I really like him, too.
“Coach P wants me to help fill Cole’s role, and that’s quite a compliment. I mean, he’s the No. 1 three-point shooter in the country.
“I also like the way Jason Fontenet plays, and I’m glad I get to play with him for a couple of years.”
Greg Zuffelato said UCSB checked all three of the boxes on his son’s list of criteria.
“Luke has really defined it down to the coaching staff, the skill development — the physical development and all that — and the opportunity to play,” he said. “UCSB hits those at the highest level with Coach P and Luke Storey, their strength coach, and what they do there.
“If he follows the plan, he has the chance to make an impact next year, which is really cool.”
Leap of Faith
His transformation from a lanky freshman into a strapping, athletic senior came during countless workout sessions — first at Platinum Performance Fitness, and then with Dr. Marcus Elliott’s basketball-specific training at the Peak Performance Project (P3).
P3’s clientele has included nearly two-thirds of the NBA’s rosters.
“They’ve made a huge difference with everything they do,” Zuffelato said. “They break down every single little mechanic.
“They can predict injuries. Before Zion (Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans) got here, they predicted that he was going to get hurt.
“They work through your weaknesses and build off your strengths. The trainers are amazing. That also helps.”
His work with trainer Nick Potthoff has added 10 pounds to his frame and from three-to-four inches to his vertical jump since last year.
“Marcus told me that he’s like an elite-college athlete now with his lateral quickness movements and things that matter to basketball,” Greg Zuffelato said. “His vertical and all that has become pretty elite.
“I’m sure that helped seal the deal for coach Pasternack, knowing that he has the physical ability to defend and compete at the college level.”
Pasternack got a head start on other recruiters, beating out such schools as Big West Conference leader UC San Diego, by watching Zuffelato play club basketball with his son.
“They’d go to these tournaments in L.A. and in (Las) Vegas when Luke was a freshman and sophomore, and coach Pasternack would be there to watch,” Greg Zuffelato said. “We had fun teams that played with the son of (former Gaucho assistant coach) Matt Stock, and it was this great coaching fraternity.
“He didn’t get early exposure to some of the big club scene because I thought he was still developing … And it’s worked out.
“Last year he was on one of the top club teams in the country, Dream Vision. And every big game we’ve had against the best talent, he’s always done extremely well.”
Much of Dream Vision’s offense last year was geared toward New Mexico commit Jaylen Perry and Texas A&M recruit Aaron Glass.
“They were two amazing scorers,” Zuffealto said, “so I was focusing on all the little things that would get me playing time in college, which is the rebounding and defense.”
Iona’s Offer
He caught the eye of Iona coach Tobin Anderson, the mastermind of Farleigh Dickinson’s historic upset of No. 1 Purdue in the 2023 NCAA Tournament, when the Dons played in the HoopHall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts, two months ago.
Zuffelato’s defense held 6-7 Peter Szpakowski to just 12 points in Santa Barbara’s 66-52 victory over Ridgefield, Connecticut.
He also scored 20 points with eight rebounds and five assists to earn Player of the Game honors … and an immediate visit from Anderson.
“He offered Luke a scholarship in the locker room right after the game,” Greg Zuffelato said. “He saw him for the first time live and was like, ‘Luke, I want you to play for me.’”
The offer was tempting, his son conceded. Iona, a mid-major in New Rochelle, New York, has earned eight NCAA Tournament bids since 2012.
“It was pretty cool — he’s an amazing, historic coach,” Luke said. “But I just felt like UCSB was the best opportunity for me.
“It wasn’t just because it’s Santa Barbara, but because of everything: the coaching, the community, the weightlifting, the players.”
He’s noticed the team camaraderie during the games and the workout he watched during his official visit.
“Seeing how everyone gels with each other and all the bench encouragement during the games made an impression,” Luke said. “There’s no sour person, no person who’s going to bring everyone down.
“Everyone was involved, no matter if they’re getting every minute of a game or getting no minutes. It was amazing to watch how everyone was together.
“All of that is what’s best for me right now.”
Family Affair
His grandfather agreed, giving his stamp of approval to Luke’s commitment to UCSB.
Bob Zuffelato spent three decades in the NBA as an assistant with the Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves.
He also served as the head coach at Boston College. He guided the Eagles to the 1974 NIT Final Four and the 1975 NCAA Regional Semifinals.
“He’s been a huge role model,” Luke said. “He text-messages me after every game just to run down everything that we did right and did wrong.
“All his feedback is amazing. And he likes coach P, so that was a big green flag for me.
“If grandpa likes you, then you’re doing something right.”
He admits that his grandfather didn’t know that Iona, located just 160 miles from his home in Rhode Island, had entered the picture until after he’d committed to UCSB.
Luke’s decision did bring great joy into the home of Kim and Greg Zuffelato.
“With Emma playing beach volleyball at Cal Poly, it’s just a dream situation for us, really, to have them both so close,” Greg said. “They would have pretty much gone anywhere in the country to play, but those places fit them both so well.
“We had a personal connection with Todd Rogers, which helped Emma feel comfortable about going to Cal Poly.
“And then with Luke, the history with UCSB, of course, makes that transition easier, too.”
It will make the transition easier for mom and dad, as well.
“We’ve both been so much a part of their lives and coaching,” Greg said. “My wife has trained with my daughter and has been part of everything she’s done.
“And then my being able to coach Luke in club and high school for years … This is just a dream for us.”
Paradise was found again for them all.
