Wake Forest still lacks a headline men’s basketball recruit that would elevate the 2016 class into one of the best 25 in the nation. Seemingly every fan of the team who follows recruiting at all wants that player to be Harry Giles. The six-foot-nine, 230-pound power forward ranked the No. 1 overall recruit by ESPN. The high school senior and has even been dubbed by some as the “Mayor of Winston-Salem.”
Giles has set an official visit with Wake Forest on Sept. 19, and his four other official visits (North Carolina, Kansas, Kentucky and Duke) are all scheduled before this year’s early signing period, which begins on Nov. 11. Thus, fans will likely only have to wait for two months to know where Giles will attend college. Head coach Danny Manning is known to be a good recruiter, but Duke is considered the favorite by most pundits.
The Winston-Salem native used to play at Wesleyan Christian Academy with current 2016 commit Brandon Childress, but has transferred to Oak Hill Academy — a school that has graduated players such as Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony — for his senior season.
Last year, Wake Forest signed three four stars — center Doral Moore, point guard Bryant Crawford and power forward John Collins — according to ESPN. All three signed during the early signing period on Nov. 12, 2014.
Currently, the the 2016 class consists of six-foot point guard Childress — the son of Wake Forest basketball assistant coach Randolph Childress who won ACC Male Athlete of the Year his senior year at Wake Forest — and six-foot-five shooting guard Richard Washington from Walsingham Academy in Newport News, Va. Each player is a ranked a three-star recruit by major recruiting services such as ESPN, Rivals and 247Sports.
Unsurprisingly, Childress is know to play like a coach’s son. He combines natural leadership with the intelligence to facilitate the ball to teammates while operating the offense. Anyone who wants to get a glimpse of the future Deac can see him play for his high school, Wesleyan Christian Academy, which is less than 40 minutes away in High Point, N.C.
Childress’ future teammate in Washington has the length desired in a shooting guard at six-foot-five as well as the ability to stretch the floor due to his three-point shot. In that scenario, the Demon Deacons will still be left looking for two more players to fill out the maximum 13 scholarship players that a school can have on its roster.
One of those players could be four-star Canadian point guard Koby McEwen who named Wake Forest and Utah State his two leaders in the past month. He currently attends Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah, and McEwen combines athleticism with strength. The six-foot-three guard drives to the basket well and likely would shoot better as a freshman than current starting guard Codi Miller-McIntyre was when he came to Wake Forest — Miller-McIntyre is known for his ability to get in the lane. According to 247Sports, McEwen will be visiting campus Aug. 28.
And just before freshmen were arriving on campus, 2016 three-star power forward John Mooney visited on Aug. 21, according to Michael Jennings of 247Sports. Wake Forest also added sophomore guard transfer Keyshawn Woods over the summer. His 46.6 three-point shooting percentage will be welcome in a program that has shot over 35 percent on threes since the 2010-2011 season.
