Triad Pro-Am 7/26 Recap

Travis Tip-Dunk (via deacsfan27)

After a fairly slow night on Monday in the Triad Pro-Am for the Wake guys, they came back with a vengeance tonight. The first game featured Travis McKie and his team versus an absolutely loaded team of Wake players (past and present). Thanks to McKie's heroics, they hung around until the end, but ultimately wound up falling 83-81.

The second game featured CMM, Rountree, Fischer and Green versus the Guilford College team, and that was an absolute massacre with the Wake Forest team winning by over 40 points.

There were tons of highlights throughout the two games, and the first game was probably one of the best I've seen in my four years of covering the league.

Click through the jump for game recaps.

Game 1 Modern Nissan (Travis McKie, Madison Jones, Andre Washington) vs. Grace, Tisdale and Clifton (C.J. Harris, Arnaud Adala Moto, Spencer Jennings, Devin Thomas, Chas McFarland and L.D. Williams)

In a game that should have seemingly been a blowout, Travis McKie, Andre Washington and Madison Jones kept the undermanned squad of Modern Nissan in the game until the end. Before the game I told Travis he might need to put up 40 to keep his team in it with the other team's roster looking like an NBA Summer League roster instead of a Triad Pro-Am roster. He laughed and said he would do his best. Turns out if he had hit 40 they would have won the game 85-83. Instead, the law firm of GT&C defeated Modern Nissan by a score of 83-81.

McKie showcased his very much improved perimeter shot and showed that he could not only catch and shoot, but dribble up and shoot over his man as well. Along with a slam dunk on a drive past LD Williams on the perimeter and an absolute MONSTROUS tip-dunk off of an Andre Washington missed shot inside, Travis proved what he can do even against stiffer competition when necessary. He has improved his game a lot from last year and will stretch a lot of defenses if he can continue to shoot as well as he has from behind the arc.

Andre was probably one of the most impressive players in this game. He played all 40 minutes of a high paced game, which is really hard to do, and played pretty well against Chas McFarland as well, limiting Devin and Chase to a combined 12 points and 6 rebounds (Andre himself had 13 and 12). 'Dre showed a nice touch on his jumpshots, as well as his free throws for a 7'1 big guy. He also battled hard on the boards and had some great plays against a big frontline in Chas and DT.

Madison Jones played his best game of the Summer League so far with 12 points and 4 rebounds. He also had a HUGE block on Chas McFarland when he trapped in on the glass but it was negated by a foul on another player underneath. Jones showed really good jumping ability for a guard and proves that we should have a pretty good rebounding backcourt with CMM, CJ and Jones.

On the other team Moto also played his best game of the Summer League by demonstrating his ability to hit the three-ball and midrange shot, as well as rebound the ball well. I still think his value is in slashing and rebounding, but it's nice to see the versatility of him as well.

Thomas continued to struggle a bit but had his moments as well. He is clearly a natural rebounder but needs to learn how to play within himself and not get too high or too low at any given point during the game.

C.J was hot early on, quiet in the middle, but had the biggest play of the game when he made Travis pass the ball with 3 seconds left to another teammate instead of allowing him to shoot it himself (CJ hedged the perimeter screen and got into Travis out deep). He also took a hard elbow from Travis in the first half that he did not take too kindly to at all. It was nice to see the fire but also makes me hope there's not a rift between the two.

Stats

Travis: 36 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, a TO, and a steal

‘Dre: 13 points, 12 rebounds, 2 TO’s, a steal and a block

Madison: 12 points, 4 rebounds, and a steal

Arnaud: 12 points, 9 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 assist, 1 turnover

CJ: 11 points, 3 assists, 1 rebound, 3 steals, 1 turnover

Spencer: 7 points, 2 assists, 1 turnover, 1 rebound

Devin: 6 points, 2 assists, 1 turnover, 5 rebounds

LD: 21 points

Chas: 6 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal

Game Two Triad Commercial Properties (Guilford College) vs. SalemSmiles (Codi Miller-McIntyre, Aaron Rountree, Daniel Green)

There is no reason to go into a ton of details about this game honestly. The Wake Forest team got out to 24-2 lead and absolutely destroyed the Guilford College team. Guilford didn't have their best player, but the Wake guys just took it to them.

Fischer had a hot night of shooting from beyond the arc, and also continued to display his ability to get to the basket and finish.

Rountree's passing game continues to impress, and wanted to make sure we knew it too by making sure we were keeping his assist totals midway through the second half. Tree is just a hustle player and a great guy to play on the court with. He is constantly diving for loose balls, crashing the boards, going for steals/blocks and getting up and down the court. He needs to work on his scoring, but if he can do all of the other things will be a great asset to the team for the next four years.

Green once again had a strong game and showed his maturation in ability to bang inside with bigger guys. He missed a handful of free throws which is hopefully not the start of a trend, but also had a couple of nice dunks/finishes around the basket. He will be a crucial guy for us inside this year and once again, it is difficult to put into words how much stronger/bolder he looks this year.

CMM had himself a night as well, demonstrating his passing ability once he gets inside the arc, as well as his athleticism with a couple of ridiculous dunks (and one failed tomahawk dunk off of a pass from Chase that would have brought the house down). He plays a little too fast at times, but is developing a great chemistry with Chase at this point. He meshes well with Rountree and Green as well and obviously figures to start from day one for us at the PG spot.

Stats

Chase with 22 points and 5 assists