Player Profile: C Andre Washington

Blogger So Dear wraps up the first week of a glance at each player on the Wake Forest basketball roster with junior Andre Washington. Dre comes into the season at 7-0, 240 pounds and is in the thick of things to start in the front court for the Deacs.

He played in 29 games last season, averaging 2.3 PPG, 1.8 RPG, and 1.2 BPG (ranking 10th in the ACC), while playing 7.9 minutes per game. He had a career high five blocks against Xavier in December.

Washington has primarily played limited minutes over his first two years at Wake Forest, and I would like to see him step up and take a bigger role on the team. He has the body to do it and has also been developing a post game that should continue to help him contribute on a regular basis.

Dre is one of the players that I think Coach Manning should be able to help out the most given that Manning knows exactly what Dre needs to do to be effective on the court as a big man.

Coming out of Hargrave Military Academy (VA), where he was coached by former Deac A.W. Hamilton, Washington chose Wake Forest over Virginia, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia.

I am pretty high on Washington contributing this season for the Deacs. There are a lot of factors in play that point to things clicking for him. Big men usually take longer to develop (Kyle Visser, Chas McFarland off the top of my head recently for the Deacs). He also has pretty good hands for a big man, which is something that cannot usually be taught.

When you combine those two things with the tutelage of Manning, as well as the intelligence of Washington (Honor Roll student), it puts together a nice picture of what Washington could be for the Deacs.