Bringing in a new point guard is always a challenge. It is one that Steve Forbes has become accustomed to and has thrived on. Guys like Alondes Williams, Ty Appleby, and Hunter Sallis are ball-dominant guards who have flourished under Forbes-led offenses during his time at Wake Forest. However, in this new era of NIL and roster spending, fans are asking the question: Can Forbes bring in the next big name to lead the offense?
Well, at ACC Media Days, Coach Forbes had high praise for his new point guard:
"He's the Freshman of the Year and the Player of the Year in the league for the first time, I believe, in that league's history, and he's from Philly. He's Philly-tough."
He went even further when elaborating on Kennedy's toughness with the media when he said:
"He grew up on a playground. He didn't grow up with a trainer and some cones. I believe in bones over cones."
That statement, "bones over cones," shows us exactly what Steve Forbes thinks about his new point guard: that he's tough, gritty, and plays with relentless energy. This has certainly been visible in the limited opportunities we have seen Kennedy play with this team.
From fans' perspective, it will definitely be nice to see an injection of toughness after last season, when certain players went through inexplicable rough patches for parts of the season and seemed to be a little checked out.
Deep Dive on Kennedy at Merrimack
Kennedy comes to Wake Forest after spending his freshman year in the MAAC conference at Merrimack. He had a stellar freshman season that saw him make history as the only player in conference history to win MAAC Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the same season.
Kevair established himself as a ball-dominant lead guard for the Warriors. He was a score-first guard, averaging 18.4 points per game. He showed he could also distribute the ball, averaging 4.2 assists per game. In fact, he had many games where he dished out seven or eight assists, so that skill is certainly there. Wake will certainly be asking him to distribute more in addition to his scoring abilities. To do this, he will have to cut down on turnovers, where he averaged three per game last season.
Maybe the most impressive, despite scoring over 18 points a game, Kennedy was not an established three-point shooter, as he did his damage getting downhill to the rim. He took 432 shots last season and only attempted 40 three-point field goals. He shot 32.5% from three, which is not terrible, but will be a point of improvement this year with the Deacs.
This means just over 90% of his attempted field goals were inside the three-point arc. From the floor, Kevair shot 45.1% on average. This is actually pretty impressive while having to carry much of the offensive and shot-creation load for his team. I am sure he would love to get that efficiency even higher this year with Wake. The one thing fans can be assured of, though, is that Kennedy will be willing to put up and create shots for this offense.
Contributing to Winning Basketball
Arguably the most impressive accomplishment of Kennedy's freshman year at Merrimack was his ability to come in and heavily contribute to winning basketball. Merrimack had a 23-11 record last season, including a perfect 11-0 home record, and won the MAAC regular-season title before being defeated by Siena in the conference championship game.
During the final ten games of the regular season, Merrimack went a blazing 9-1. During this stretch, Kevair Kennedy shined, averaging 21.6 points per game and accumulating five or more assists six times. He also showed his ability to get rebounds even at his smaller stature, grabbing six or more in multiple games.
A lot of players can put up empty stats on bad basketball teams, but Kennedy's superb play actually contributed to a winning team that played meaningful basketball in March. If he's going to bring one thing to Wake Forest, I hope it is this relentless effort that sets the foundation for a winning culture. Deac fans should get excited to come see Kev and the rest of the squad at the Joel very shortly.
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