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Wake Basketball Preseason Discussion

If Overton starts, we have big problems.
 
The battle for the other guard spot is the most intriguing for me. Would be awesome if Crab was good enough. I don't know if we'll throw Wilbekin out there as the primary ball handler on day 1.

Leonard/Dinos for the other spot is interesting to me as well. Leonard is probably better offensively. Think Dinos will prove to be the better rebounder and has the size advantage.
 
TheIshThatSaved WakeForest said:
The battle for the other guard spot is the most intriguing for me. Would be awesome if Crab was good enough. I don't know if we'll throw Wilbekin out there as the primary ball handler on day 1.

Leonard/Dinos for the other spot is interesting to me as well. Leonard is probably better offensively. Think Dinos will prove to be the better rebounder and has the size advantage.
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Along those lines, playing Dinos could allow Devin to play PF for some minutes.
 
TBDeac said:
If Overton starts, we have big problems.
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I would say we have even bigger problems if Wilbekin can't beat out Madison Jones for playing time. We can ill-afford to have him playing extensive minutes unless he has seriously improved his shooting touch in the off-season.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see how the back-court evolves and the degree to which CMM plays a hybrid PG with a shooter such as Crab or Miles flanking him. I'm not ready to dismiss Overton yet as his size and strength could be an asset if he can bring the defensive intensity and better shot selection. Regardless of who plays, defense will be the priority as scoring would seem to hinge on 3 guys. Of course, we don't even know who the 3rd and 4th options will be in this new offense. Hopefully Wilbekin will prove to be the best option to take some of the ball-handling load off CMM so he can create more off the catch and not have to initiate the offense as a PG.
 
PhDeac said:
I think many college athletes have to taught how to play hard. If Manning is going to get consistent effort from player to player, from game to game, from team to team, he's going to have to coach it.
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Sitting them if lazy is coaching.

Manning is really impressive. I loved the hire and everything he's doing and saying says winner. For some reason, I just don't see the same late season collapses with him as coach like I've seen with regularity for 30 years. He sort of brings this Mike Tomlin intense, in control, but cool vibe with him that is different from any coach we've had. IMO he's going to really redefine Wake bball.
 
This will likely be a very long season, but it could be a very interesting one. There are a lot of questions about players.

How will Greg play after sitting out? Has he developed a 3 point shot?

Can Dinos change from the soft Euro style to then banging of the ACC? Can his butt help him inside?

Will Hudson show us what excited Chill about him? How's his long range shot?

Can Mitchell give us some minutes and threes?

I hope Danny's quiet/Larry Bownish toughness will be seen on the court.
 
RJKarl said:
This will likely be a very long season, but it could be a very interesting one. There are a lot of questions about players.

How will Greg play after sitting out? Has he developed a 3 point shot?

Can Dinos change from the soft Euro style to then banging of the ACC? Can his butt help him inside?

Will Hudson show us what excited Chill about him? How's his long range shot?

Can Mitchell give us some minutes and threes?

I hope Danny's quiet/Larry Bownish toughness will be seen on the court.
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This is the first step on the road to jaybone.
 
Interesting quote from Mr. Thomas in the BB article by Scott Hamilton of the WSJ:

Wake Forest’s players have been working out for months, including a brutal two-week bootcamp, and Monday was its first “official” practice. Manning’s mellow pre-practice demeanor was all business once the session began and it was reflected by the team.
“Practices are more intense and I think we buy into what he says,” junior forward Devin Thomas said. “He’s a cool dude. He doesn’t do anything to make me nervous. I try my hardest not to disappoint him and get yelled at in practice. But he’s not that kind of dude. He’s the kind of coach that calms you down when you’re worked up. He knows you’re accountable. Still I haven’t seen him get worked up yet, so …”
Thomas drifted off into a sly grin.
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Not sure if this article was directly linked in the OP: http://www.journalnow.com/sports/columnists/scott_hamilton/hamilton-manning-comfortable-in-his-surroundings/article_d6383dc7-0cce-5e0e-bbd4-2cc2a10e8921.html
 
God Danny Manning is a breath of fresh air. Granted, 99% of coaches would look good following [Redacted], but Manning really seems like he gets it.
 
Pretty excited to see what he can do here for us. Seems to have all the intangibles in terms of demeanor, recruiting prowess and knowledge of the game. Now we just need to win consistently.

Excited to see what he can accomplish here moving forward.
 
I'm tacking this thread at the top.
 
I really love what we are hearing from the players, too. Sounds like Manning is really doing work in changing the culture (irony?) in our program and it seems like these guys are really buying in.

Regarding our lineup, I think we have to play to our strengths, mainly keeping the paint open for CMM, Greg, and Devin to operate. That's why I like the idea of using Miles, at least at first, as a screen shooter and spot up man in the corner. The same goes for Darius.

The more balanced we can keep our offense and the better we can get our best players involved in ways that play to their strengths, the better we can be this year.

One more point - If Mitchell Wilbekin doesn't set the world on fire, then I really wouldn't panic all that much. He seems like he has some work to do physically before he's capable of playing both guard spots, and he really has a skill set that could boost our second unit right now.
 
It seems like McClinton might be a really good fit for the fast break offense that Manning plans to run. As shown by the quote from Manning about McClinton, Manning keeps talking about how ridiculously athletic McClinton is. If he can get some easy baskets for this team, it'll really help take the pressure off of an unproven half court offense.
 
Interesting to see Green running around in the video. At least he is off the bicycles:)
 
So Green has been cleared to practice but not play? Guess he is cleared to practice with limitations?

So many unknown variables with this team. At the very least it will be intriguing (and hopefully fun) to see how it all unfolds.

I'm hopeful that Rountree can really get an expanded role where by he plays 15-20 mins alongside Thomas and G-Mac in which he plays off their athleticism and Devin's likely double-teams to get some easy buckets on the weak side. Or, with his passing ability, he might be a nice option to cut and flash at the elbow or the short corner for some diagonal passing to more athletic slashing players. We'll see if he has added enough strength to not be a huge liability on the boards and inside if we go small.
 
Strickland33 said:
I really love what we are hearing from the players, too. Sounds like Manning is really doing work in changing the culture (irony?) in our program and it seems like these guys are really buying in.

Regarding our lineup, I think we have to play to our strengths, mainly keeping the paint open for CMM, Greg, and Devin to operate. That's why I like the idea of using Miles, at least at first, as a screen shooter and spot up man in the corner. The same goes for Darius.

The more balanced we can keep our offense and the better we can get our best players involved in ways that play to their strengths, the better we can be this year.

One more point - If Mitchell Wilbekin doesn't set the world on fire, then I really wouldn't panic all that much. He seems like he has some work to do physically before he's capable of playing both guard spots, and he really has a skill set that could boost our second unit right now.
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Overton looks like Jerry Schellenberg at age 58. At least he did in the summer league. He has a nice stroke and good skills but has no athleticism at all. None.
 
IslandDeac said:
It seems like McClinton might be a really good fit for the fast break offense that Manning plans to run. As shown by the quote from Manning about McClinton, Manning keeps talking about how ridiculously athletic McClinton is. If he can get some easy baskets for this team, it'll really help take the pressure off of an unproven half court offense.
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Mclinton is a freak athlete. Can jump out of the gym and is a quick jumper. Also runs like a deer. You will see dunks better than you saw from LD, and Greg is a legit 6'6" barefoot. He is best on the break and as a slasher. But he can go straight up from under the rim to dunk it very quickly. Just a decent outside shooter at this point.
 
wfu22fan said:
Overton looks like Jerry Schellenberg at age 58. At least he did in the summer league. He has a nice stroke and good skills but has no athleticism at all. None.
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Maybe he can be a poor mans Will Graves.
 
Although I think Graves ended up being athletic by the end of his career.
 
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