Just got back from the games tonight, so I'll type up my thoughts and give statistics in this article. We got a ton of good video footage that I'm working on getting into my computer now. When I get done with the recap I will get to work on that. Should be up here around 12-12:30ish.
The night started out slow with the first game and a half, but the last game (JTT vs. Chennault/Fischer) had a ton of fireworks, so it came out even at the end.
Click through for player ratings/recaps/statistics.
Game 1 (McKie/Desrosiers vs. HF's)
The Wake Forest team started out pretty strong behind Travis and took an early lead over the Holcomb-Faye team (once again, consisting of David Weaver, Chas McFarland, and LD Williams). LD Williams continued his Bizarro World shooting in the Summer League and lead the HF's in to a big halftime lead. Mckie had a pretty amazing first half with 14 points and 5 boards (of the 27 total team points). Carson Desrosiers played all 20 minutes and DID NOT REGISTER A SINGLE STATISTIC. It was the strangest thing by far that I had ever seen on a basketball court. To be fair to Carson, he was going up against two professional basketball players, and was seemingly conserving his energy because he was the only "big" man on the team. Still, it is nearly unfathomable to think that any player could play for 20 minutes and not show up in the box score at all. Congrats to CD for the 20 Trillion. He did have 3 would-be assists where teammates failed to make layups.
The 2nd half was a mere formality, but Travis did lead his team on a mini-run where they cut the lead to 10 before the HF's pulled away again. McKie had a great game overall, finishing with 23 points and 7 rebounds. Carson managed to come away with 2 points and 2 boards in 40 minutes, obviously not his best night.
Game 2 (Harris/Green/Keenan vs. Guilford College).
This was a pretty painful game to watch. The final score was 46-42 in favor of the Wake Forest team, but Guilford led almost the whole game. None of the Wake guys scored points in the first half aside from getting to the paint (Guilford fouled a ton because they were undersized). Green put together a pretty quietly successful night with 5 points and 8 rebounds. Although Green struggled from the field, he was very, very active, which is quite refreshing after some things I saw on the court last year. When the game got down to the wire CJ really picked the team up and put them on his back. On 3 straight possessions he hit a 3, got an and-1 (converted), and had a really nice pass inside for an easy layup to his teammate. After that the game was pretty much over except for the free throws, which Michael Grace and CJ both took full advantage of.
Sidenote: There was almost a fight in this game between two non-descript white guys that was baffling. There was a shove by a Guilford player and then he ran over the same guy after a made basket and somehow the defender got called for a foul. That caused the defender to get up and get in the face of the first guy. Odd all around.
Game 3 (JTT vs. Fischer/TC)
Easily the best game of the night (and although early, the Summer League). This was a high paced, high-possession game for both teams. Chennault nearly looked like a different player from Monday night at times, but tried to do a little too much in the 2nd half. For the 2nd straight game Fischer was extremely efficient (statistics to come in a few), and had a great sequence of a floater in the lane, followed by a steal on the in-bounds pass and another easy layup. He is still yet to miss a 2-pointer in the league so far, and managed to draw yet another foul on a 3-point shot (hit two of them).
JTT had his ups and downs. After an early word that he was not playing in the game because he was sick, he did in fact show up. He looked to pass a little more tonight, but still had some wild shots. JTT and TC both have a problem of getting in the air and not having a clue what they are going to do with the ball. That led to some poor passes and a few turnovers. He hit a couple of big threes to push his team out to a 10 point lead, and also had a huge tip dunk at the end of the first half.
Fischer and Chennault mounted another frantic comeback, but couldn't finish it off for the 2nd game in a row this week.
Evaluations and Ratings (scale of 1-10)
Chase Fischer (8)- Chase showed a lot more tonight in terms of his offense than he did on Monday night. He hit more threes on Monday, but tonight he demonstrated his court vision, as well as his ability to hit a floater in the lane. From what I have seen so far, Fischer has a very high basketball IQ. He is seemingly in the right place at the right time on nearly every possession. He worked hard to get open on offense, and stuck with his man on defense. A concern is that Chase had some trouble shaking his man in the 2nd half, but he still managed to get his shots (and makes in). JTT was on him for a few possessions, so that was entertaining. They both had some good and bad plays, and I really think they are going to push each other this year, not only in practice, but for playing time. I would not be surprised at all to see Fischer take a good amount of minutes from JTT when ACC play rolls around. Obviously it is still very early, but I love what I have seen out of him so far. He is not at all just a shooter, and has an impressive array of talents on the offensive end.
Daniel Green (7)- I paid careful attention to Green tonight for several reasons, and I came away quite impressed with his activity on the court. He is not the biggest or strongest guy on the blocks (rail thin, and that has to improve), but he gets after it with a tenacity that needs to be seen from every player on our team. He got pushed around inside by Stafford, who had great success posting him up and backing him down to the basket. The good thing that I saw was the positioning that Green had on most of the plays. When he gets his strength up, I honestly think that he can contribute significantly on defense and grab some boards. His offense is clearly the biggest question mark. He attacked the rim early and showed off a couple of nice baby hooks, but nothing fell for him (1-5 from the field). His shot could use a good bit more trajectory, and he has a somewhat "from the top of his head" shot (you can see this from the free throws that he shoots that will be on the highlights). I do believe that these things are correctable, and look forward to seeing what he can bring to the team as the year progresses.
Looking back on Monday, I probably rated him too high at a 6 because he much better tonight on the rebounding side than he was on Monday. A 5 was probably a fair assessment of him.
Tony Chennault (6)- I'm keeping Tony at a 6 still. He looked like a completely different player from Monday at times, hitting the open guy in the corner for a 3, knowing when to drive and kick (or when to take it to the rack), and being very active on defense. He also looked like he was the only player on the court at the same time by taking it to the rim against 2-3 big guys and getting blocked by them (or the rim). If he can learn how to finish his layups then he can be a very effective scorer. His decision-making was a little better tonight, but he has to stop settling for long twos. It was odd because he would have 2-3 great passes in a row and then get the ball, isolate, and chuck up an 18-footer. I want to see him tone down his game, play more under control and within himself, and let the offense run through him. He needs to get to the rim at times, which he is quite good at, but he has to finish when he gets there, otherwise it is a wasted possession.
Travis McKie (9)- The best player on the court tonight out of anybody aside from LD Williams who had somewhere between 25-30 points and 2 rim-rocking dunks. When you think of consistency in a player, Travis has to come to mind. He shows up every single night, puts his head down, gets his work in, and does what he needs to do. I respect that and it really shows for him in the box score. In addition to grabbing rebounds and getting to the rim a little better tonight, he also went 3-5 from 3's (missed a half-court shot at halftime). If he can raise his 3-pt shooting from what it was last year (around 30% I believe), then he could be a very dangerous player. He did have 3 turnovers tonight when he let a couple of balls go off of his hands.
Carson Desrosiers (2)- It is tremendously difficult to rate anybody higher than a 1 when they play 20 minutes and do not register a stat. That is damn near impossible to do, but Carson was very active on defense, and caused a lot of problems in the lane for McFarland. In his defense, Carson had 2-3 passes that should have been baskets, and also got his hands on several balls that he deflected to somebody else on his own team. He was also the only center on the team and registered all 40 minutes while playing against big guys who are more experienced, and simply better than he is. I have never seen a big man before that has a pass-first mentality, but that is exactly what Carson has, and while that is good at times because of how good he is at it, it hurt him a lot tonight because either his pass was off, or his teammates couldn't hold on to the ball/finish. He needs to develop any low post moves and play a little closer to the basket. We need him in there this year and cannot have what happened in the first half tonight.
JT Terrell (6)- JTT drastically improved his play from Monday night, but still has a lot of the same defects in his game that were there last year. I thought he looked for the pass a lot more tonight, and he is actually a pretty good passer when he decides to do that. He took a few wild shots, but he toned them down a bit tonight too. I will give him props for his defensive tenacity when he was matched up with Chase. I feel like he took it as a personal challenge to stop Chase, and that really boosted his intensity on both sides of the court. Although he was a little late on a few plays (including the play where he fouled Chase shooting 3), he was getting into passing lanes and not allowing his guy to go where he wants. Now it is up to JT to play that way all the time and not wait until he decides to do it at any given point. We need his 100% effort all the time, because when he decides to turn it on and play, the talent he has is glaring.
C.J. Harris (7)- Another 7 for CJ tonight. He was fairly quiet in the first half, but really made up for it in the 2nd half when his shot started falling. It was almost like he looked at the court and realized that he was the most talented player on the court (which he was by far). After that, he took over the game and led his team to victory. I admire C.J. for the hustle and drive that he shows game in and game out, even in a Triad Hoops Pro-Am. He seems much more confident in his game and is willing to take more risks, which is making him a much better player.
Final Stats 7/14
McKie- 23 pts, 7 boards, 4 asts, 3 tos, 2 stls, 1 block
Harris- 17 pts (7-8 ft), 2 asts, 2 steals, 1 tos
Chennault- 15 pts, 8 asts, 3 boards, 3 tos
Desrosiers- 2 pts, 2 boards, 1 ast, 2 tos, 1 block
Green- 5 points, 8 rebounds
Fischer- 19 pts, 3 asts, 3 boards, 2 tos, 1 steal
Terrell- 14 pts, 3 asts, 1 to, 2 steals
I'll throw up the statistics through 2 games at some point tomorrow morning so everybody can get a look at those. Overall tonight was a mediocre night.. Nearly everybody showed their upside, but they also showed things that they need to work on and fix that maybe should have already been fixed by now. That is a little concerning, but it is also just a summer league. Hopefully by the time the regular season rolls around they will be on their game and ready to go.
About to work on the highlight reel for tonight, which should be pretty lengthy and impressive. I'll detail in when I get it up, but there are more free throws tonight, so that will give a good look at the shooting form of everybody. There were also some nice dunks that we captured and will throw up there. That should take me at a minimum of an hour, but will post when I get done. Enjoy!