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2016-17 Wake Forest Basketball Season

Pilchard said:
In the past, WF has played "secret" scrimmages against VCU and S. Carolina among others around this time. Any word on if, who and when WF will play secret scrimmages this October?
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Rumor is the "Real Deal Shockers" are wanting a super secret rematch, no refs in a run down old gym, like Apollo and Rocky at the end of Rocky III
 
RJKarl said:
Thanks, but take a look at his numbers before hitting the freshman wall. He was at 40.9% overall from three overall in his first 24 games.

Given that he was not only the PG but the #2 scorer, it is quite understandable that he ran out of gas physically and mentally late in the season. With experience and much more help with shooting, his numbers should improve in many aspects.
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I really don't want to quibble, because like I said you were mostly right, but I'm not sure if freshman wall is as accurate as forcing bad shots. Maybe they are the same or similar. When he was open, he hit above 40%, which is good to very good. When he was contested, or off the dribble especially, he was closer to 30%. I think focusing on the former, getting open looks, like you were originally saying (with spacing help from other good shooters on the floor at the same time like Woods, Arians, Dino, even lil Chil) is the key to him continuing to shoot well.
 
I also think taking other responsibilities from him will him to play with more freedom.
 
RJKarl said:
I also think taking other responsibilities from him will him to play with more freedom.
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Another issue that had impact on Bryant last season was the mid season adjustment to the return of Codi. BC had become used to running the team and doing everything from the PG position. Suddenly he had senior Codi taking some of the point guard duties, BC found himself as a part time 2 guard. He had to figure out roles again. How much did he continue to run the team? How much did he defer to Codi? That will not be a problem this year. He is the starting point guard and has no reason to look over his shoulder.
 
Crawford's outside shooting will be a huge key to our team's success this year. His overall 3p% last year of 35% was pretty solid and I think better of most of our expectations, considering his scouting report out of high school was that he needs to improve his shot. As RJ pointed out , he shot 42% from deep in his first 24 games, but just 21% over the last 8. The reason for his slump is unknown, but given the sample size of his first 24 games where he attempted over 4 threes a game, there's no way his hot shooting was a fluke. He also attempted a ridiculous 6.7 3's a game in their final 14 games. So I think by limiting some of his bad shots, contested pull-ups, heat-checks, etc. he can easily up his percentage a few points. Having more weapons around him certainly won't hurt either. He's probably a 37/38% three point shooter this year at the worst. And while he doesn't need to be over 40 to be a great player, this would elevate him to one of the top PGs in the league. There were only 6 players in the ACC last year who shot 42% or better from deep. I'm also interested in seeing how he shoots from the line this year. He shot 78% in OOC games last year and only 61% in conference games.
 
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The FT shooting stunned me. His form is solid.

I think playing against Brandon in practice will help. It will keep him focused.

I really hope Doral's figured it out. If he has, Bryant can be freer to be a ball hawk on D. He's really good at it. He was second in the ACC in steals/game.

Bryant is the only person returning who was in either the Top 5 in the ACC in assists or steals. He was in the Top 5 of both.
 
In my opinion, getting solid post play from some combination of Collins, Moore and SJM will be critical. Devin played a lot of minutes in the post last year so the fouling and stamina issues weren't so important. Now those three need to cover those 40 minutes. (Maybe more if JC plays the 4 as some have suggested.) If they don't, Danny will be scrambling lineups to get somebody else into the post. McClinton? Dinos? Go small with four guards? I don't think any of those options would work well for extended (5+minutes) periods of time.
 
Half of our ACC wins last year came without Devin playing even a minute, so we've got that going for us.
 
Tuesday night Coach Manning said that we would scrimmage Maryland(He and Turgeon were teammates at Kansas) someplace in Virginia for people who asked.
 
bcobbdeacs said:
Tuesday night Coach Manning said that we would scrimmage Maryland(He and Turgeon were teammates at Kansas) someplace in Virginia for people who asked.
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Good info. Funny that they would scrimmage at neutral site. Maybe in Richmond at either VCU or Richmond.
 
RJKarl said:
The FT shooting stunned me. His form is solid.

I think playing against Brandon in practice will help. It will keep him focused.

I really hope Doral's figured it out. If he has, Bryant can be freer to be a ball hawk on D. He's really good at it. He was second in the ACC in steals/game.

Bryant is the only person returning who was in either the Top 5 in the ACC in assists or steals. He was in the Top 5 of both.
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I don't understand the logic of how playing against Brandon in practice will help his free throw shooting percentage.
 
ACC Preseason KP Rankings

1. Duke
5. North Carolina
7. Virginia
9. Louisville
12. Syracuse
23. Clemson
24. Miami
36. NC State
39. Virginia Tech
40. Florida State
50. Notre Dame
51. Pittsburgh
76. Wake Forest
107. Georgia Tech
154. Boston College

A lot of teams ranked too high, imo.
 
7 acc teams in the top 25 and 12 in the top 51. acc does indeed look brutal this year.
 
TownieDeac said:
Strickland sent me some numbers, and I looked at some too, and rj is essentially right. Crawford is a middling shooter overall, but he's good when he's open and good when he's spotting up. His original analysis was definitely on point. My b, calling him out. I think it had to do with #eyetest.
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bmoney #eyetest never fails.
 
Clemson and Miami certainly pop on that list. Clemson obviously has Blossomgame but not sure the rest of the cast can make them top 25 worthy. Miami lost a ton of seniors last year, but has been recruiting well. Don't know if they are ready for that mark either.

A lot of VT hype this season. Interested to see if they live up to it.
 
What's curious is the great Ben Howland and all of his fantastic recruits are ranked 26 slots below Wake by the omniscient Ken Pomeroy.
 
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