CAA Basketball: In-depth look at James Madison rising star Vado Morse

By Bryan Mauro | Sep 15, 2021

EMMITSBURG, MD - DECEMBER 17: Vado Morse #0 of the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers dribbles the ball during a college basketball game against the American University Eagles at the Knott Arena on December 17, 2019 in Emmitsburg, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

2 of 3

CAA Basketball Vado Morse Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

Why you should know Vaze Moore

The junior guard like so many other mid-major stars started his college career at another school. The guard began his career at Mount St. Mary’s and he was an extremely productive player while at the Mount. Morse averaged just a shade under 15 points per game and was named the Northeast Conference Rookie of the Year after his freshman season, he also led the team in three-pointers made with 58 that season. After his sophomore season in which he averaged just 11 points per game, he decided to transfer to James Madison.

As mentioned before when the guard arrived on campus at James Madison, he was going to be the second option behind CAA Player of the Year Lewis. Lewis is now off to the NBA and the offense is now going to run through Morse. The junior is going to be one of the best players in the league and the Dukes should have no trouble staying at the top of the league. That would be a great thing for James Madison as before last season they had been bad for so long.

The guard is a volume shooter and is not the most efficient player in the country. Often times with guys who are volume shooters they start to take a lot of bad shots. That isn’t the case with Morse, he doesn’t take bad shots but the offense of the Dukes requires him to take a lot of shots, and naturally, taking more shots it will keep his shooting percentages down.

Morse isn’t a great shooter from deep but is better than average as he shot 36% from deep last year. Morse isn’t shy and will shoot from anywhere on the floor and he took over 100 threes last year, in only 18 games so he will also shoot pretty frequently from deep.

The guard took a lot of threes last year because the Dukes didn’t need him to drive the lane and score as frequently as he is going to need to this year. Last year with Matt Lewis the Dukes could do a lot and Lewis really allowed the other players to play free and shoot when they were open.

Morse isn’t a great ball-handler and is going to play off the ball but expect him to get up more shots this year than last year but the volume of three-pointers may drop as a product of the offense but don’t expect Morse to not have the green light from anywhere on the floor. James Madison needs him to score to be successful.