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We continue our player recap series with a look at Konstantinos Mitoglou, a stretch big man who has been a starter since his freshman year for the Demon Deacons. He was one of seven players to averaged over 20 mpg (24.6 mpg) and was fourth in the team in scoring.
For the season, Mitoglou averaged 8.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.7 blocks, and 1.5 turnovers per game.
While his scoring numbers have slipped every year since he has been at Wake, Mitoglou’s role has ever evolved with his time in Winston Salem. With the surrounding talent around Mitoglou getting better and better, he has taken less shots and actually experienced an efficiency regression a bit. After shooting 38.5% from three as a freshman to be considered a stretch big, his numbers dipped to 31.8% and then rebounded slightly to 33.3% for this past year. Mitoglou served as the frontcourt mate of John Collins and ideologically was a great fit with JC due to his ability to stretch the floor.
While Mitoglou’s offensive role was reduced (7.3 FGA freshman year to 6.7 this season and 4.3 three point FGA to 2.6 three point FGA) over the years due to the quality of talent around him improving, his role was to make open shots created by the much improved guard play, in addition to stretching the floor with JC playing a pivotal role inside.
It’ll be interesting to see how the role of Mitoglou will further evolve. With John Collins presumably gone to the NBA, Manning has a choice to either pair Mitoglou with Doral Moore or perhaps go even smaller with the glut of guards that the Demon Deacons have. With Chaundee Brown coming to the Deacs next year, Manning may opt to go with a much smaller athletic lineup with Mitoglou serving as the lone true big. Or, he could try to go for a combination with Mitoglou and Moore, developing another inside-outside big man duo.
Regardless, Mitoglou will continue to fill whatever role is necessary for the Deacs. His track record of being a steady-eddy is one that Wake fans should be assured of.