Wendell Moore Jr.: Quickness Will Be Strength of Duke This Year

Players always take a big step forward from their freshman to sophomore years. Duke sophomore Wendell Moore Jr. sees an improvement in his approach this season.

“The biggest thing for me wasn’t so much anything physical. It was more mental, coming in with the confidence that I need to be able to play. Letting the game slow down in my mind. Just trying to be more in the moment instead of focusing on things I can’t control.”

On a young team, Moore will be expected to provide leadership in his second year.

“Normally, I’ve led more by example,” he said. “Now, since our team is so young, including myself, with seven new faces, it’s forced me to become more of a vocal leader. I’ve been around two years. I know what kind of things are going on. Any time I get a chance to help the younger guys—Pat (Tape) is an older guy, but he’s still young to the program—any time I get a chance to help them be better, I’m just doing anything I can to make their transition smooth.”

Moore is one of several talented wings on the team, which will help Duke play an up-tempo style.

“The strength of our team is our quickness,” he said. “Coach (Mike Krzyzewski) mentions this all the time. We’re not going to be the biggest team on the floor. There’s always going to be one or two guys on the other team bigger than us. So we’re going to have to use our quickness to our advantage, whether in transition or on the defensive end pick out mismatches. We have Matt Hurt at the five, there’s a chance he’s going to have a 6-11 center on him. If he’s able to stretch him out to the three-point line, I think we can pick apart our mismatches very easily.”