Senior Day vs Wake Forest

glandon1960

Jolly Good Fellow
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174
Something minor to consider in all of this... Brandon Alston was not honored as part of Senior Day, so pretty reasonable to assume his scholarship won't be opening up.
Alston graduated from Lehigh in 3 years (my head hurts just thinking someone can do that) and has another year left to play if he wishes. Not sure how far along he is towards getting his graduate degree. Everyone expects Justin Moore to transfer at end of year, CJP probably tries to sign best big grad transfer he can (unless a top level HS one becomes available and gettable). I expect Alston to be on the team next year - but minutes will be much less than this year .... probably play behind Jose/Okogie/Devoe/Phillips/Haywood .... I am not sure how ready to play at this level Khalid Moore will be (hope he surprises me) .... even if he were to move on I don't see us filling that roster spot.

He has really stepped up of late and very glad we got him.

Nice effort today, crowd was really good .... Thanks CJP for the CFA biscut!

I do like how the team is playing together right now .... think we have good shot at winning Tuesday ... not sure we have depth to win Wednesday or beyond.
 

CLM

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
292
Alston would just be nice to have so it can feel like we actually have some depth. I can’t see him leaving as he is not really that good to go somewhere else. With injuries now a days he is a solid player to come in for some good defense and role player on offense.
 

RamblinRed

Helluva Engineer
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5,901
Like DTM said, since Alston wasn't honored i am assuming he is coming back for his last year of eligibility.
He's played pretty well the last couple of games. In his post game interview JoshO mentioned he's been encouraging Alston to be more aggressive looking to score. He told him "if you miss ten in a row i have confidence you will hit #11. If you have an open shot take it".

Really nice game, especially in the 2nd half by Cole. Wish one of his threes went down - he hit a couple from those exact corner spots in warmups, but otherwise he got better as the game went on. Hit 2 important FT's late.

Probably one of the better coached games this year. Ben picking up 2 fouls in the first 90 seconds and then having 4 with 16 min left in the game was really managed well. The rotation was more probably what it should have been earlier in the year with AD backing up Ben. AD's first shot over Moore was beautiful. He had a couple of others that just rimmed out.

If Evan can gain some weight and strength this offseason and continue to work on his skills i could see him as the starting 4 next year, or at least as someone that could play 20+ mpg.

For a team with some legit talent, Wake looks really poorly coached. Ben has 4 fouls with 16 min to play and they barely look at Moore in the 2nd half.

I can understand Wake fans being upset with the charge call on Crawford - though many on their board just say that is typical Crawford and Wake. But the refs were really consistent about that call in this game both ways. If the defensive player moved their feet and stayed in front of the offensive player they called it a charge every single time. They got Tad on it right when GT was close to blowing it open with 4 min to play. He penetrated, passed to Josh who hit a three that would have given GT an 11 pt lead. Instead Wake gets the ball comes down, hits a three and the lead is 5. i tend to care less about how you call the game then if you call it consistently, refs were consistent today.

This was a pretty typical SR day game to me. Alot of times the SR do not have strong SR day games and it relies on the other teammates to help win the game.

Congrats to both Ben and Tad (and the 2 SR trainers) and good luck in Brooklyn.
 

RamblinRed

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One other thought. GT has played alot more man the last few games. i'm guessing this is due to lack of practice in the 1-3-1 zone for Evan and Moses. Even having to guard out of position those 2 play better in man right now than the zone.

Staff seemed to have settled into some changes with the current group of players. More man, first moving Josh O on the ball and then realizing that wasn't working so putting him back off the ball.
Today they played Wake's pick and roll completely different than they did in Winston-Salem.
 

ChasonBaller

on Pastner Polo watch
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3,534
Evan messed around and got a trip....uh double-double
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the guy next to me today kept saying "gritty play #3" and I couldn't stop laughing. It was like I was sitting next to Mel Kiper Jr #gymrat #highmotor. His 2nd three point attempt was in and out and the last one he rushed and pushed it. Needs to make his free throws and not like he doesn't know it, but I let him know (91% my junior year ;)) *humble brag alert* :whistle:
 

Ramblingon

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
565
Congrats and a tip of the hat to the whole team and CJP. when Lammers got 2 early I figured this wasn't going to happen, but the other guys played well. Kudos to Alston and especially to Cole (double double and 2 blocks). He can only get better. I would rather play Syracuse with the possibility of playing Miami, than Boston.
 

dtm1997

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He's listed as a junior. Why would he be honored on senior day?
He has a college degree. He's in a grad program that is a 12-month program. He was a viable candidate to potentially clear a spot as we seek to continue to upgrade talent.

If a decision had already been made for him to move on, it's conceivable that they'd have honored him as a grad student getting his degree.

He's really improved over the course of the season and been a contributor. He's likely a deeper bench player next season, but will be highly valuable for depth. That said, earlier in the season, I could have easily imagined a scenario where we parted ways for the sake of upgrading our talent.
 
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