The Deacs v The Cuse Game Thread

[Doggus]

During the early 2nd half, Moore was fed the ball numerous times (7+) and the vast majority of the time, he could not get the handle. Although Moore tries hard, I believe Sarr will be a vast down low improvement. His foul shooting was suspect, be he proved himself during the last 3 minutes. Moore does not seem to be a rebounder in the same vain as J. Collins, and his shooting from anywhere other than dunk opportunities, is non existent.

You're joking right? I'd love to see Sarr a vast improvement to the guy shooting 83% for the season but this is the real world. Sarr is better out on the perimeter and shows glimpses of being a very nice asset some day. His real advantage this year is being able to play on the court with Moore at the same time. Moore is arguably our most important player though. If he plays his best and isn't in foul trouble, we are a very difficult out against anyone. We're only getting ~60% of him on most nights but that's up from the 25% he showed in the last 2 years.

 

[harmoniousmonk]

And it took DM an inordinate amount of time to realize that playing 4 small guards may not be ideal. He should have just asked RJ and NCAA hopes would still be alive.

To be fair, RJ wasn't wrong

 

[PhDeac]

I don’t think we had any four guard lineups yesterday. Some of that was because Woods was out.

 

[RJKarl]

And it took DM an inordinate amount of time to realize that playing 4 small guards may not be ideal. He should have just asked RJ and NCAA hopes would still be alive.

No they wouldn't. We lost almost 50% of our scoring; both starting PFs and solid,full-sized SF. It was always going to take a lot of things falling into place for us to have sniffed the NCAAT this year.

 

[jaybone]

You're joking right? I'd love to see Sarr a vast improvement to the guy shooting 83% for the season but this is the real world. Sarr is better out on the perimeter and shows glimpses of being a very nice asset some day. His real advantage this year is being able to play on the court with Moore at the same time. Moore is arguably our most important player though. If he plays his best and isn't in foul trouble, we are a very difficult out against anyone. We're only getting ~60% of him on most nights but that's up from the 25% he showed in the last 2 years.

This. Doral is causing opponents to totally reconsider going into the paint. Sarr is not.

 

[RJKarl]

This. Doral is causing opponents to totally reconsider going into the paint. Sarr is not.

I hope Sarr can start soon. With Doral in the middle, Sarr can be a top level help defender when he understands the position a little better.

 

[JuiceCrewAllStar]

Mitchell W. now at .475 from 3s which is third in the ACC. Good job and please keep it up at BC and beyond.

Wilbekin is one of the best pure shooters Wake has had in the last twenty years. I think he'd go down as a universally beloved player with a diminished role on a better team.

 

[CharlotteDeac1]

Wilbekin is one of the best pure shooters Wake has had in the last twenty years. I think he'd go down as a universally beloved player with a diminished role on a better team.

This. He’s so so efficient on O. #88 in ORtg on KenPom.

 

[advancedeac]

I have been impressed with Moore 's rebounding. He does not have JC's quickness & range, but he high points the ball & keeps it up. I thought he won a bunch of 50/50 defensive rebounds with their bigs.

 

[devi8]

One thing I've noticed is that we have few if any players with good hands. We're missing guys that catch the ball on contact instead of fumbling for control. I'm not sure it's a skill that can be taught but it definitely leads to poor rebounding & extra turnovers.

 

[lazydeac]

What an imbecilic statement. It's very telling.

Even after he had a really good game, hit multiple important shots and was the key to winning a conference game, people here have to attack him.

This horrific fanbase does love to eats its own.

Pathetic!

Read what I said - all I did was ask a question.

It seriously seems like he has a goal to create a highlight moment so that the whole world will see it go viral on YouTube “holy shit did you see that that Crawford dude did?”. I didn’t say that was a bad thing it just seems to be what is happening.

We take the good and bad with Crawford because the good is so good. Is he sabotaging his own NBA prospects? Maybe. Do I hope he comes back next year improved or not? 100% yes.

 

[ChrisL68]

Just because a player is one of your best does not give him a pass on making dumb mental errors. When Crawford hits a couple threes you can almost guarantee that the next time down the court hes gonna take a bad ill-advised shot that's not acceptable

 

[Deaconblue]

Crawford is so good at many things that the mistakes stand out more. Also some of his miscues are of the spectacular variety. The dunks off the back plate are the most obvious of these. Some of his errors are mental,bad decisions. Others are physical, just not executing a basketball move properly.

One could argue that some (maybe all) of the physical errors happen because he chose to make a harder move when an easier one would have gotten the job done.

He is still a really good player. But he will need to cleanup his game if he expects to get more than a cup of coffee in the NBA.

 

[jaybone]

I hope Sarr can start soon. With Doral in the middle, Sarr can be a top level help defender when he understands the position a little better.

This. I thought that Sarr showed that he is THE ideal person to mark a 3-point shooting big in a man-to-man D, particularly if there is a 2nd big that Doral can guard. I can't reasonably express how delighted I was in Sarr's 3-point defensive help in the final 3 minutes of the Cuse game. Just remarkable. He changed or denied at least 3 shots. With Doral doing similar work near the bucket, and with Childress and Brown's good 3-point line coverage - having Sarr guarding a stretch 4 makes us actually have no excuse for NOT playing fantastic top-15 in the country man-to-man defense.

That said, Brown and Sarr are freshman and will make mistakes.

 

[RJKarl]

Just because a player is one of your best does not give him a pass on making dumb mental errors. When Crawford hits a couple threes you can almost guarantee that the next time down the court hes gonna take a bad ill-advised shot that's not acceptable

There is far more vitriol about the mistakes than there is giving credit for the positive. The reality is I'd guess 90% of Craw posts are about his mistakes and attacking him. This is ridiculous.

 

[DCDeac]

Sarr is absolutely critical to this team being decent. Really highlights how damaging his injury was early on. In our 4 early losses he averaged 7 minutes and had 2 total shot attempts and 2 total rebounds. Looked lost and led to lots of 4 guard lineups, especially if Doral was in foul trouble.

Last 3 games he's averaging 20 minutes, has 16 boards and 17 points. Also the quality of the opponents makes the improvement much greater than just the stats indicate.

 

[deac29]

Have Sarr and Moore played together at all? Kinda reminds me of the arguments on here for Collins and Moore, where Manning obviously preferred to have one, but not both, on the court at all times.

 

[RJKarl]

Sarr is absolutely critical to this team being decent. Really highlights how damaging his injury was early on. In our 4 early losses he averaged 7 minutes and had 2 total shot attempts and 2 total rebounds. Looked lost and led to lots of 4 guard lineups, especially if Doral was in foul trouble.

Last 3 games he's averaging 20 minutes, has 16 boards and 17 points. Also the quality of the opponents makes the improvement much greater than just the stats indicate.

I'm really looking forward to Danny integrating Sarr into PnR or PnPop. He's a natural when his confidence is up to it. He has a really solid 12-18' stroke. Hitting 5-6 in the last minute should not be shocking. He has played at the top level of his age group internationally. This summer he hit 85% of his FTs at FIBA and was voted the best NBA prospect.

As several of us said, it was always going to take him some time to get used to the style and speed of U.S. college basketball. Each game he's getting better. He's still going to make some mistakes, but that's how you learn.

Other than the last minute FTs, my favorite play of his was the one that led to his missing the early FTs. There aren't many legitimate 7' players who can take it from about 10' on the left baseline, through the lane and come up for a reverse lay-up. We can add the needed strength over the next year. You can't add or teach the talent to know you can do that.

For young players, you have to overlook some misses to see how they got there.

Without question, Chaundee has been disappointing, but the three he made could be a huge positive. It showed he had confidence. He was open and didn't hesitate in spite missing his other two shots. I'm hoping he'll get 20-25 mpg while Key is down and will turn the corner.

 

[mebanedeac]

Have Sarr and Moore played together at all? Kinda reminds me of the arguments on here for Collins and Moore, where Manning obviously preferred to have one, but not both, on the court at all times.

Yes they have.

 

[PhDeac]

Yeah. Quite a bit. Sarr is the first sub off the bench for Moore and Thompson.