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Moore Merges Voice of Experience with Potential of Stardom
11/24/2021 9:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By Jim Sumner, GoDuke the Magazine
It's easy to forget how young Wendell Moore Jr. was when he first played for Duke. Moore turned 18 on September 18, 2019, a full month after beginning classes as a freshman. Moore was five months younger than classmate Vernon Carey Jr., Â seven months younger than classmate Matthew Hurt and a whopping 25 months younger than classmate Cassius Stanley.
So, it's no surprise that the McDonald's All-American had some growing pains, blending moments of brilliance — that game-winning tip-in at UNC was a play for the ages — with the kind of freshman mistakes that go with being, well, a freshman.
Moore started his sophomore season slowly last fall but showed a season-long improvement that was easy to miss in all the other story-lines of the covid-19 campaign. But across the course of the year, Moore improved over his freshman season in practically every metric. He shot better from the field, from the foul line and from beyond the arc, rebounded better, had more assists and fewer turnovers. And he closed the season on a roll, averaging  11.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists over Duke's final five games.
Carey, Hurt and Stanley are all gone to the pros and Moore is no longer a shaky freshman. Going into his junior season, Moore has notched 1,262 minutes in a Duke uniform, about twice as many as anyone else on this team; sophomore Jeremy Roach has 660, senior Joey Baker has 620.
Moore's importance as a veteran presence on another young team is obvious; he and Joey Baker were voted co-captains by their teammates.
But Moore is more than just a voice of experience. He seems poised to take his game to the next level, to go from complementary player to star.
Moore has always checked a lot of boxes. He's 6-5, 213 pounds, quick and strong. He can defend all three perimeter positions, even power forward on occasion. He can initiate the offense or play the role of finisher.
Most good college players his size are comfortable shooting from 3-point range. Â Moore was a woeful 4-for-19 as a freshman. He improved to 30 percent last year. He is a career 82 percent foul shooter at Duke, which suggests even better 3-point shooting is in Moore's future.
That's one of the things worked on all summer, along with ball-handling, passing and other ball skills.
But Moore says working on his body has been his top priority.
"It's been a constant grind here. I've been here since early June. I went to Miami for a couple of weeks of training, I went to L.A. for a couple of weeks to train. Really, it's been an improvement all summer for me. I wanted to get stronger, faster, really just learn the game a little bit more. This summer has been a productive one for me."
The head guy has noticed.
"Wendell has had a sensational summer and fall," Mike Krzyzewski said at Duke's preseason media day. "Not a good one, a sensational one."
How so?
"I think he has become that older leader we've had over the years. By going through the things you go through as a freshman and sophomore, learning how to be a player, learning how to be a Duke student, be a leader. He's benefited not just from the successes he's had but from the times he's been knocked back, the times people have criticized him. You don't get an app to be good. You have to earn being good. He's spent the spring changing his body and how he runs. He's taller, he's a much better athlete. I love my relationship with him. He's our leader. He's in a great place. I love where he's at. He's one of the keys to this team."
Duke associate head coach Chris Carrawell played at about the same size as Moore and had a comparable skill set. Carrawell also had one of the best single-season jumps in Duke history, going from third-team All-ACC as a junior to 2000 ACC Player of the Year as a senior.
In other words, he speaks with some authority on the subject.
"He's still really young," Carrawell says. "But you see the jump. You see the body. He looks better. He's jumping higher. He's faster. He's had an unbelievable summer. Every time you talk to him he's always in the gym, always working, work in the weight room, running, strength and conditioning. He's taken a big step. We imagine him being that leader and having a huge year for us."
Moore is from Charlotte and prepped at Cox Mill High School. Baker is from Fayetteville. The two have known each other from AAU ball for years.
Here's Baker's take on Moore:
"He's huge for us. He's somebody you can put all over the court. He can play the 1 and bring the ball up, he can play the 2, he can play the 3, he can play small-ball 4 if you want him to. He's always been a really good player but this year more than ever he's so vocal. He's become a really good leader for us. Just seeing that evolution over the past two or three years has been awesome."
Moore showed off some of that versatility in the Countdown to Craziness intra-squad game. In 24 minutes of action Moore hit 5 of 8 field goals, including his only 3-pointer, and made both foul shots, for 13 points. He added a rebound, a couple of assists and a couple of steals.
Krzyzewski has always prioritized versatile, athletic mid-sized players and certainly knows how to use them. Touted freshmen AJ Griffin and Trevor Keels join Moore to give Duke three players who fit that bill, and Baker is a veteran wing.
"We have really good depth on the perimeter," according to Krzyzewski. "We can even play four of them at one time."
But Moore is the key to that quartet, arguably the best combination of experience, skill and athleticism on the team, certainly the definition of key to the team.
He says he's ready and eager for that responsibility.
"Really just [be] an all-around leader, just anything the guys need me to do; point guard, wing, defend, anything the guys need. I think I'm ready for this. I don't see it as any pressure at all. I've got my guys behind me and we're just going to go out and do our thing this year."
Â
It's easy to forget how young Wendell Moore Jr. was when he first played for Duke. Moore turned 18 on September 18, 2019, a full month after beginning classes as a freshman. Moore was five months younger than classmate Vernon Carey Jr., Â seven months younger than classmate Matthew Hurt and a whopping 25 months younger than classmate Cassius Stanley.
So, it's no surprise that the McDonald's All-American had some growing pains, blending moments of brilliance — that game-winning tip-in at UNC was a play for the ages — with the kind of freshman mistakes that go with being, well, a freshman.
Moore started his sophomore season slowly last fall but showed a season-long improvement that was easy to miss in all the other story-lines of the covid-19 campaign. But across the course of the year, Moore improved over his freshman season in practically every metric. He shot better from the field, from the foul line and from beyond the arc, rebounded better, had more assists and fewer turnovers. And he closed the season on a roll, averaging  11.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists over Duke's final five games.
Carey, Hurt and Stanley are all gone to the pros and Moore is no longer a shaky freshman. Going into his junior season, Moore has notched 1,262 minutes in a Duke uniform, about twice as many as anyone else on this team; sophomore Jeremy Roach has 660, senior Joey Baker has 620.
Moore's importance as a veteran presence on another young team is obvious; he and Joey Baker were voted co-captains by their teammates.
But Moore is more than just a voice of experience. He seems poised to take his game to the next level, to go from complementary player to star.
Moore has always checked a lot of boxes. He's 6-5, 213 pounds, quick and strong. He can defend all three perimeter positions, even power forward on occasion. He can initiate the offense or play the role of finisher.
Most good college players his size are comfortable shooting from 3-point range. Â Moore was a woeful 4-for-19 as a freshman. He improved to 30 percent last year. He is a career 82 percent foul shooter at Duke, which suggests even better 3-point shooting is in Moore's future.
That's one of the things worked on all summer, along with ball-handling, passing and other ball skills.
But Moore says working on his body has been his top priority.
"It's been a constant grind here. I've been here since early June. I went to Miami for a couple of weeks of training, I went to L.A. for a couple of weeks to train. Really, it's been an improvement all summer for me. I wanted to get stronger, faster, really just learn the game a little bit more. This summer has been a productive one for me."
The head guy has noticed.
"Wendell has had a sensational summer and fall," Mike Krzyzewski said at Duke's preseason media day. "Not a good one, a sensational one."
How so?
"I think he has become that older leader we've had over the years. By going through the things you go through as a freshman and sophomore, learning how to be a player, learning how to be a Duke student, be a leader. He's benefited not just from the successes he's had but from the times he's been knocked back, the times people have criticized him. You don't get an app to be good. You have to earn being good. He's spent the spring changing his body and how he runs. He's taller, he's a much better athlete. I love my relationship with him. He's our leader. He's in a great place. I love where he's at. He's one of the keys to this team."
Duke associate head coach Chris Carrawell played at about the same size as Moore and had a comparable skill set. Carrawell also had one of the best single-season jumps in Duke history, going from third-team All-ACC as a junior to 2000 ACC Player of the Year as a senior.
In other words, he speaks with some authority on the subject.
"He's still really young," Carrawell says. "But you see the jump. You see the body. He looks better. He's jumping higher. He's faster. He's had an unbelievable summer. Every time you talk to him he's always in the gym, always working, work in the weight room, running, strength and conditioning. He's taken a big step. We imagine him being that leader and having a huge year for us."
Moore is from Charlotte and prepped at Cox Mill High School. Baker is from Fayetteville. The two have known each other from AAU ball for years.
Here's Baker's take on Moore:
"He's huge for us. He's somebody you can put all over the court. He can play the 1 and bring the ball up, he can play the 2, he can play the 3, he can play small-ball 4 if you want him to. He's always been a really good player but this year more than ever he's so vocal. He's become a really good leader for us. Just seeing that evolution over the past two or three years has been awesome."
Moore showed off some of that versatility in the Countdown to Craziness intra-squad game. In 24 minutes of action Moore hit 5 of 8 field goals, including his only 3-pointer, and made both foul shots, for 13 points. He added a rebound, a couple of assists and a couple of steals.
Krzyzewski has always prioritized versatile, athletic mid-sized players and certainly knows how to use them. Touted freshmen AJ Griffin and Trevor Keels join Moore to give Duke three players who fit that bill, and Baker is a veteran wing.
"We have really good depth on the perimeter," according to Krzyzewski. "We can even play four of them at one time."
But Moore is the key to that quartet, arguably the best combination of experience, skill and athleticism on the team, certainly the definition of key to the team.
He says he's ready and eager for that responsibility.
"Really just [be] an all-around leader, just anything the guys need me to do; point guard, wing, defend, anything the guys need. I think I'm ready for this. I don't see it as any pressure at all. I've got my guys behind me and we're just going to go out and do our thing this year."
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