Individual Player Recap: Doral Moore

Continuing in our series of individual season reviews, today I take a look at the sophomore season of backup center Doral Moore.

Doral Moore came into this season with high expectations from many fans, as he was the highest ranked big man coming out of high school that Wake Forest has had in several seasons. There was reason for optimism too, given the flashes of greatness we saw from him at the end of last season. But he was clearly the backup big man behind John Collins going into the season, and within a couple of games this proved to have been the obvious decision by Danny Manning.

Doral averaged 2.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.9 blocks in 8.4 minutes per game. But over those 8.4 minutes, he also averaged a whopping 2 fouls per game. In other words he commits a foul every four minutes he is on the court, which if he is to play significant minutes in the future must be remedied.

Moore still showed flashes of great potential on the defensive end, as he was able to use his 7-1, 265 pound body and long arms to alter many shots by smaller opposing bigs. He also showed signs of potential on offense with his ability to crash the boards and his thunderous dunks. Doral provided some great entertainment with his “Dorally-Oops” (credit to Jake who you should all follow @bloggersodear for that term).

He has also developed a nice looking hook-shot that he seemed to have a fair amount of success with where he turns over his shoulder and shoots a hook-shot over the defender.

But for all of the potential that he showed, he still has some major holes in his game, and areas that MUST be improved upon if he is to be a competitive big man in the ACC.

Moore still struggles with foul trouble, and many of them are what I would consider “dumb fouls”. At times he will go out to provide help-defense on a guard and get called for a bump 30+ feet from the basket when there was absolutely no need for him to be out there. He also STILL has not learned how to properly set a screen for a guard without moving his feet and being called for an illegal screen, which counts as an offensive foul. I can’t tell you how many times this year I saw tweets asking if he would ever learn how to set his feet.

His inability to stay out of foul trouble, mostly on “dumb fouls” limits his time on the court, and really doesn’t allow him to develop in game situations and showcase all of his talents.

But perhaps Doral’s biggest problem is a lack of confidence in himself. Every time he is on the court he seems to have this “hang-dog” look, and he automatically assumes that when a foul is called it is on him. He seems affected every time that he misses a shot and/or makes a bad defensive play, and never seems to be able to shake it. If he is called for a bad foul it affects him the entire rest of the game and he doesn’t seem to be himself.

In the game against Louisville at the beginning of March, Moore committed 4 fouls in only 5 minutes of play, and was essentially a none-factor. The last several games of the season he was seemingly benched in favor of backup freshman center Sam Japhet-Mathias. In an interview with Danny Manning, Winston-Salem Journal columnist Dan Collins asked Manning why Moore hadn’t seen much action in the last few games of the season.

Dan Collins: Doral Moore, why did he not play the last couple of games? And he played like five minutes the last two games he did play and he didn’t play the last two.

Danny Manning: Because I didn’t put him in.

DC: So it was that simple? He was available and everything?

DM: That’s right.

DC: So if Collins does leave, how important does Doral Moore become and what does he have to do to become a major contributor?

DM: It’s not all Doral. It’s all our big guys. We’ve got to absorb the production that John created for us across the board. And that’s what it is. And whoever gives us the best chance to replace that will more than likely get more minutes.

Doral supposedly has a lot of potential, and I would love to see him put in hard work over the summer and develop that potential into a well-rounded post game. I think he needs to work on his self-confidence and approach the game with more confidence in his own abilities. Obviously he has a lot of work to do, but I hope he is able to step up his game and play a major role going forward, especially if John Collins leaves for the NBA. His height can really be an asset for the Deacs going forward if he can further develop his game and become the player he knows how to be.

What would you all like to see from Doral going forward?