Football season is just beginning this coming week, and for that matter classes haven’t even started yet. But for me it’s never too early to start thinking about college basketball.
While the team is not allowed to hold official practices yet, I’m going to take a shot at how I think Danny Manning’s early-season rotation for Wake Forest basketball will look.
Point Guard:
Starter: Brandon Childress 30 minutes
Jamie Lewis 7 minutes
Sharone Wright Jr. 3 minutes
Shooting Guard:
Starter: Chaundee Brown 18 minutes
Torry Johnson 15 minutes
Sharone Wright Jr. 7 minutes
Small Forward:
Starter: Isaiah Mucius 18 minutes
Chaundee Brown 12 minutes
Melo Eggleston 7 minutes
Michael Wynn 3 minutes
Power Forward:
Starter: Jaylen Hoard 30 minutes
Ikenna Smart 5 minutes
Sunday Okeke 5 minutes
Center:
Starter: Olivier Sarr 28 minutes
Ikenna Smart 12 minutes
This team is very young, with Brandon Childress as the only player on the roster with more than one season of Atlantic Coast Conference experience.
In fact in this projected lineup I have freshmen playing 68 of a possible 200 minutes, or a whopping 34% of the total minutes for the team.
The two graduate transfers, Ikenna Smart and Torry Johnson, are projected to play 32 minutes.
So literally half of the possible minutes are being played by guys who have never played in the ACC. These guys have big shoes to fill with the losses of Bryant Crawford, Doral Moore, Mitchell Wilbekin, and Keyshawn Woods.
Obviously the lineup will likely shrink some once conference play begins, but we can reassess that once the season is in progress.
What do you think of this lineup prediction? Do you think Coach Manning will trust his freshmen as much as I have above? Comment below.