Interesting note on Nat Dixon. He started in college on football scholarship at BC. After a year at BC he went JuCo to play BB and then went to UT-Chattanooga the last two years. So he is pretty well traveled and familiar with transferring. He will have attended four schools in five years. Apparently his true freshman season playing football at BC counted as a "redshirt" year for his basketball eligibility.
If we are being realistic there are two guys on this list who have a good chance to wind up in the Old Gold and Black next year. They are former Chattanooga shooting guard Nat Dixon and former Boston University combo guard Cheddi Mosely.
There is always a chance that somebody else could pop up, but Dixon is on his official visit to Wake Forest this weekend, while Mosely has narrowed it down to Wake Forest, St. Bonaventure, Rhode Island and Delaware.
Let’s take a look at these two guys:
Nat Dixon 6-4 SG (Chattanooga)
Dixon is 6-4 shooting guard who would likely step in and start at the 2-guard position for the 2018-19 season. We know that head coach Danny Manning likes to run three-guard lineups, so if Crawford comes back then there is a chance that Wake could once again go with a Childress, Crawford, Dixon lineup, but hopefully with the fresmen coming in he has learned his lesson from the small-ball failures of next year.
Interestingly enough, the transfer from Chattanooga who averaged nearly 14 points per game last year for the Mocs, was a football player at Boston College before he decided he would rather play basketball.
Dixon is a pretty highly touted transfer at this point in time, as you can see from the other schools going after him. I’ve heard that the visit to Winston-Salem this weekend went pretty well and the Deacs are in a good place to land Dixon.
He shot nearly 39% from behind the three-point line last year on 157 attempts for the 10-23 Chattanooga team. At 6-4, 180, he played a bit at the 1, 2, and 3 for the Mocs, and I think is a natural fit at the shooting guard position for Wake Forest.
His 106 offensive efficiency was a huge step up from his 98 rating during his first season in Chattanooga, and it is safe to project that he would take another pretty meaningful step as he heads into his final season of collegiate basketball.
Given the guys who are out there seriously considering Wake Forest I believe Dixon is our top priority and would be an awesome get to replace Keyshawn Woods.
Cheddi Mosely - 6-3 CG (Boston University)
The other option for Wake Forest is Boston Terriers combo guard Cheddi Mosely. He is a 6-3 guard who played both guard positions at Boston. There are more questions surrounding Mosely than Dixon, particularly surrounding the status of his health, as a knee injury that kept him out most of last season, playing in just the first two games of 2017-18.
In addition to the injury last season, Mosely also missed a good bit of 2016 due to an “internal matter” with Boston University. There aren’t a lot of details regarding that, but I am sure if Wake wound up taking him on that the situation would be looked at in-depth.
Mosely averaged 13 PPG as a sophomore, demonstrating an ability to get the ball in the basket in a variety of ways. As a freshman he shot 41% on threes on 129 attempts, but that dropped to 32% as a sophomore.
Aside from scoring Mosely doesn’t necessarily bring a lot to the table honestly. He has a mediocre assist and rebounding rate for a guard, and an above average shot usage.
Between Mosely and Dixon I think Dixon is clearly the better player, and unless Mosely is our only available option I’m not sure how good of a fit he is with what Wake Forest is trying to do moving forward.
That being said, N.C. State and Ohio State both expressed initial interest in Mosely, and Wake was considered on of the schools going after him the hardest. Ultimately I think the final four schools indicate what level Mosely should be playing on, and even with the open spots I would prefer those minutes next year go to younger players if we can’t get a guy who we have a strong idea will be a starting shooting guard for us for 2018-19.
Conclusion
While there is very little risk in reaching out to a lot of different types of graduate transfer players given the open scholarship numbers for Wake Forest, I think Nat Dixon is the best fit for the Deacs regardless of what type of team we have heading into next year.
