Starting five for the ACC season

[orientalnc]

Here is my prediction for the starting five Saturday and throughout most of the ACC schedule:
Jose Alvarado, Michael Devoe, Evan Cole, Khalid Moore, James Banks

Three of those names are pretty much no-brainers. Moore and Cole give us a better flow and skill set on offense than Wright or Phillips. I expect Alston to get a lot of minutes behind Jose and Devoe. AD and Banks will take turns at the 5 with Banks getting a few more minutes except for foul situations. Haywood will alternate with Moore and could get almost as much time..

These guys are not as talented as we need, but I think they are a decent lineup and may be an occasional surprise against the middle of the ACC. Just so there is no misunderstanding, I am not saying we will go dancing. That would take 10 wins in the ACC. To do that we would have to win every game on our schedule against teams not currently ranked in the Top 25. That will not happen. I will be satisfied if we win 5 ACC games and don't get embarrassed more than a couple of times in the others.

 

[lv20gt]

Jose, Devoe, Moore, Wright, Banks.

 

[GTHomer]

Jose, Devoe, Moore, Wright, Banks.

I agree with this lineup given it has been in place recently. Wright does add value on defense. I do believe Wright will be on a shorter lease as Cole continues to improve.

 

[YlJacket]

I will be curious to see how Cole versus Wright pans out over the next couple of weeks. Cole was supposedly ahead of Wright before the injury so you would think if he is back to baseline he could/should move ahead. I do think Cole allows us to play the 4 out system CJP really wants to play. You can see them switching back and forth between a 3 out and 4 out set when Moses in on the floor.

For some matchups I can also see Haywood instead of Cole/Wright in the starting lineup. Without a doubt I expect us to use that lineup within games as the matchups dictate/allow.

 

[orientalnc]

There was a sharp contrast between Cole and Wright last night in both their minutes and production. Wright was sitting with one PF. Cole is ready to take on the starting role right now. He is way ahead of Wright on the offensive end.

 

[RamblinRed]

Quick comment before I have to disappear for a while.

i think the starting lineup for Wake will be Jose, Mike, Moore, Moses and Banks.
i think by the middle of ACC play there is a good chance Evan will replace Moses and Curtis could potentially replace Moore (who is showing alot of promise as a FR).

Cole's per min stats are the same or better than Wright's with the exception of Blocks and Fouls. He is a much better shooter at all 3 levels and is more dangerous on offense.

Curtis is sort of sneaky solid. Would love for his scoring to pick up a little more but the rest of his game is solid. Solid shooting across the board, high the best A:TO ratio on the team as well as the best asst per min number. Also gets steals at a pretty good clip. Moore is having a nice solid FR yr other than needing to be a much better rebounder.

I really like our FR and SO classes and can't wait for them to grow older. There is alot of potential in them. Unfortunately we have to get through this season first.

 

[lv20gt]

I will be curious to see how Cole versus Wright pans out over the next couple of weeks. Cole was supposedly ahead of Wright before the injury so you would think if he is back to baseline he could/should move ahead. I do think Cole allows us to play the 4 out system CJP really wants to play. You can see them switching back and forth between a 3 out and 4 out set when Moses in on the floor.

For some matchups I can also see Haywood instead of Cole/Wright in the starting lineup. Without a doubt I expect us to use that lineup within games as the matchups dictate/allow.

I agree with the Haywood part. We actually have a decent small ball lineup with Jose, Devoe, Moore, Haywood, and Banks. It actually wouldn't surprise me to see that line up starting this year at times, especially if Haywood finds his stroke on a more consistent level.

IMO Cole has always been talked up as the more ready of the two because people overvalue offense and undervalue defense. IMO right now Wright's advantage on the defensive side holds up against better competition better than Cole's advantage on the offensive side and will lead to him playing more. I think that is especially true since despite being better on the offensive side Cole still isn't a good 3 point shooter, 25% this year and 27% last year both on low volume and in general his mindset against taking risks limits his advantage to some degree because it has led to him being more passive than he should.

 

[orientalnc]

Quick comment before I have to disappear for a while.

i think the starting lineup for Wake will be Jose, Mike, Moore, Moses and Banks.
i think by the middle of ACC play there is a good chance Evan will replace Moses and Curtis could potentially replace Moore (who is showing a lot of promise as a FR).

Cole's per min stats are the same or better than Wright's with the exception of Blocks and Fouls. He is a much better shooter at all 3 levels and is more dangerous on offense.

Curtis is sort of sneaky solid. Would love for his scoring to pick up a little more but the rest of his game is solid. Solid shooting across the board, high the best A:TO ratio on the team as well as the best asst per min number. Also gets steals at a pretty good clip. Moore is having a nice solid FR yr other than needing to be a much better rebounder.

I really like our FR and SO classes and can't wait for them to grow older. There is a lot of potential in them. Unfortunately we have to get through this season first.

I think you and I agree about Cole and Wright except for the timing of Cole moving into the starting lineup. Wright does not look comfortable around the basket on offense and is a terrible shooter from the outside. He is shooting around 10% from the 3-point line since he arrived on campus. He's improved to 16% for this season, but he is hitting less than 50% of his FTs. I think he actually makes the other guys on the floor less effective by his presence. Because of his quickness and length he is a better defender. It seems CJP is faced with a decision about which is more important, Cole's offense or Wright's defense.

 

[ramblinjacket]

I think you and I agree about Cole and Wright except for the timing of Cole moving into the starting lineup. Wright does not look comfortable around the basket on offense and is a terrible shooter from the outside. He is shooting around 10% from the 3-point line since he arrived on campus. He's improved to 16% for this season, but he is hitting less than 50% of his FTs. I think he actually makes the other guys on the floor less effective by his presence. Because of his quickness and length he is a better defender. It seems CJP is faced with a decision about which is more important, Cole's offense or Wright's defense.

I think he values defense more than offense. At least based on the results over the first 3 years. Cole almost broke his ankles a couple of times last night as he tried to defend. The two of them are almost mirror opposites as far as strengths and weaknesses.

 

[GT_EE78]

I don't think you'll find much disagreement as to four of those. Can't blame you for putting cole over wright (that position seems to be our weakest link) but even if u consider haywood,alston,gueye,cole,wright as the fifth starter, the downside of them all is that (over the last 2 yr) none have played well versus better competition and good flashes mostly just occur in lower tier games. I'm nervous about them all.
CBS mid-season projection has dropped us from 13th to 14th. ugh https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...h-overrated-and-underrated-teams-at-mid-term/
my models still have 6 as our most likely number of wins with a standard deviation of 1.5 so anywhere from 3 to 9 would be in the 95% confidence range. If devoe and Jose average 15 pts/game getting 9 isnt impossible. WF,Pitt,BC,Clem,Loui,ND at home arent a big stretch (maybe winning all isnt likely) getting 3of5 on the road of (ND,Clem,Syr,Miami,NCState ) doeasnt seem likely but who knows ?

 

[orientalnc]

I don't think you'll find much disagreement as to four of those. Can't blame you for putting cole over wright (that position seems to be our weakest link) but even if u consider haywood,alston,gueye,cole,wright as the fifth starter, the downside of them all is that (over the last 2 yr) none have played well versus better competition and good flashes mostly just occur in lower tier games. I'm nervous about them all.
CBS mid-season projection has dropped us from 13th to 14th. ugh https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...h-overrated-and-underrated-teams-at-mid-term/
my models still have 6 as our most likely number of wins with a standard deviation of 1.5 so anywhere from 3 to 9 would be in the 95% confidence range. If devoe and Jose average 15 pts/game getting 9 isnt impossible. WF,Pitt,BC,Clem,Loui,ND at home arent a big stretch (maybe winning all isnt likely) getting 3of5 on the road of (ND,Clem,Syr,Miami,NCState ) doeasnt seem likely but who knows ?

I think you could be right and that would be great. I am not going to build my retirement portfolio around us winning 9 ACC games. I guess that means my conservative bonafides are intact. At least as an economist.