Wake Forest Basketball Player Profile: Doral Moore

Doral Moore is easy to spot when he steps onto the court. Moore has a massive frame at 7'1", 265 pounds. The freshman was a consensus top-100 recruit and played his senior season at Montverde Academy, where he helped the team win a national championship. What can we expect from him this season?

In Friday night's exhibition game, Moore only totaled nine minutes of action. In those nine minutes, he scored four points, grabbed one rebound, and had two blocked shots. I expect to see his minutes increase as the season goes along. Manning played some walk-ons a number of minutes, and I expect that those numbers will decrease. Devin Thomas and Dinos Mitoglou will see plenty of minutes, but I was still surprised to see Moore and John Collins combine for just 21 minutes.

It's obvious to see Moore's incredible potential. He has such length, and is very mobile for someone his size. He has better footwork than people give him credit for, and he can step out and knock down jumpers. That said, ideally he's hanging around the basket where he's ready to catch it in scoring position. With his athleticism, he's an excellent big to have in Manning's system. Manning wants the team to push transition opportunities whenever they present themselves, and Moore does a nice job of running the floor and finishing on the break.

Moore's biggest potential, however, is on the defensive end. While he will probably initially struggle due to learning the scheme and defending pick-and-roll situations, his length with disrupt and block shots around the basket. Jake and I agree that he has the potential to be a Willie Cauley-Stein type player. That's high praise, but with Manning's coaching, we believe he can really shine.

That said, we should temper our expectations for this season. This year, Moore has an excellent opportunity to backup Devin and Dinos, learn from them in practice, and then step into a starting role next season. Moore will probably play about 12-15 minutes per game this season. During that time I expect him to block shots, and get a few garbage points, but he probably won't create much offense on his own.

Still, Wake Forest fans should be very excited about Moore's future. I believe we will see him consistently get better throughout the season and throughout his career. For this year, he needs to provide energy and effort coming off of the bench.