John Collins to start over Doral Moore

Per the "My Take on Wake" Twitter feed (Dan Collins blog link), John Collins will start over Doral Moore tomorrow night against Notre Dame.

Manning: Despite breakout performance, Moore won't start https://t.co/4i0ZhoJPh8

— My Take On Wake (@MyTakeOnWakeWSJ) February 23, 2016

There are a few different ways to look at this from both sides, which I will attempt to do here.

First of all, there is absolutely no doubt that Doral Moore dominated the game against Boston College both offensively and defensively. He put up 19 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 blocks, along with 3 steals. It was an impressive game for anybody, much less a freshman making his first career start.

That being said, Wake Forest was superior to Boston College in almost every facet of the game, but especially inside. Dennis Clifford has been alright offensively, but he stood no chance against a MANIMAL with the length of Moore. The zone defense that Moore anchored worked perfectly against Boston College, who is a very poor 3-point shooting to begin with.

At first glance it would make absolutely no sense for a coach to ever bench somebody who has had a game like that, especially when team got its first win in almost two months, by over 25 points.

However, when you look ahead to Notre Dame tomorrow, there is a man by the name of Zach Auguste, who has a very similar game to Wake's Devin Thomas. John Collins has better mobility to start and defend Auguste instead of risking getting Moore into foul trouble early.

Moore can then come in at the under-16 and wreak some havoc on both ends of the court down low on a tired Auguste.

I am also guessing that when Devin went down, Manning talked to Moore and Collins and promised them each a chance to start and showcase their abilities. Moore naturally matched up well with Boston College, while Collins has more of a skill set to match up with Notre Dame well.

While there are many that will no doubt take this opportunity to bash Coach Manning in his decision-making, I actually think that starting Collins is the right thing to do for many reasons.

It gives both guys a shot at a start, plays more to a matchup game with Notre Dame, and will allow Moore to come in and attack once Notre Dame is worn down a bit.

There have been plenty of reasons to be down on Coach Manning and the team this season, but I do not believe that this is one that should be overly scrutinized.

Also, if you are upset about it, then remember---it really doesn't matter who starts. What is the most interesting thing to me is distribution of minutes as the game goes along. I'm eager to see how that is managed tomorrow night, and hope this is something that has developed as the season goes along.