IT'S GAMEDAY, #HOKIENATION!
#BeatWake #ThisIsHome pic.twitter.com/wB4M5fuvp4— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) January 13, 2016
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Who is ready for some late-night @VT_MBBall hoops tonight in Cassell?? #Hokies pic.twitter.com/kSO4e8fQum— HokieVision (@HokieVision) January 13, 2016
Hokies fans, we came back to earth a little bit at the hands of an excellent Duke team. We are now 2-1 in the ACC. Its still a great start after years of frustration in this conference and they have a chance to build on it tonight against another team on the rise in Wake Forest. We last saw the Demon Deacons as we eliminated them from the ACC tournament last year. Danny Manning has continued to do an excellent job in rebuilding that program. In his second year at the helm, they have victories against #13 Indiana, UCLA, Rutgers, Arkansas, and LSU. Their ACC victory came over NC State, so a similar opponent with a similar score and result. The losses this season come against #19 Vanderbilt, #6 Xavier, #14 Duke, #18 Louisville, and Richmond.
The biggest concern for the Hokies in this game will be the size/skill combination that Wake's big men possess. We saw how the Hokies struggled against Marshall Plumlee, while he is a senior, has never been a truly dominant big man but had a great day for Duke against us. The Demon Deacons are getting over half their points from players 6'9 or taller.
The first of two Tech really needs to be concerned with are Devin Thomas (#2), 6'9, 255 Lbs, Senior Forward, who is averaging 16.9 PPG, 10.3 RPG, and 2.2 APG.
The second is Konstantinos Mitoglou (#44), 6'10, 225 Lbs Sophomore Forward, who is averaging 11.9 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and an assist per game. Thomas shoots a scary 58.4% from the field, but a measly 60% from the charity stripe so quite the candidate for hack a Shaq late in a game. Mitoglou shoots only 45% from the field but is shooting 83% from the line.
These two are backed up by John Collins (#20), 6'10, 218 Lbs Freshmen Forward, averaging 8.6 PPG and 4.6 RPG. Collins is also close to 60% from the field and better than 71% from the line. There are times that Wake Forest runs all three of these players on the floor together. It makes playing around the rim extremely difficult for their opponents on both ends of the floor.
In terms of guards and wingers, Wake Forest relies on Bryant Crawford (#13), 6'3, 190 Lbs Freshman Guard from Gonzaga. He is having an amazing freshmen year, putting up 13.2 PPG, 2.9 RPG, and 4.9 APG. His ability to find open teammates, especially creating dunk opportunities for the big men makes him a difficult matchup because he shoots better than 41% from outside the arc. He draws defenders out to him and finds teammates in open space. He is also the most likely to drive to the hoop from the top of the key, having drawn the second most fouls of any Demon Deacons player.
After Crawford, Codi Miller-McIntyre, (#0), 6'3, 205 Lbs, Senior Guard is putting up 7.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 3.3 APG. Miller-McIntyre missed quite a few games earlier this year with a foot injury and hasn't quite gotten back to where he was last year, when he led the Demon Deacons in scoring and assists while being second in rebounding. As his play improves, so does the difficulty in beating this Wake Forest team. He seemingly makes strides forward in each game he plays so do not be surprised if he ends up in double figures against Tech.
Cornelius Hudson (#25) 6'6, 180 Lbs Sophomore Forward is contributing 8.8 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 1.9 APG. Hudson plays the primary slasher/winger type role to keep defenses honest. He is constantly on the move in the half-court offense working to create mismatches or open space against opponents.
Mitchell Wilbekin, (#10), 6'2, 165 Lbs, Sophomore Guard provides the Deacons 7.8 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1.5 APG. He started the season in more of a starting role with Miller-McIntyre out of the lineup. He provides high quality bench minutes for the guards as needed at this point, still getting on the floor over 20 minutes per game.
Tech is going to have their hands full. This is an extremely difficult roster for Buzz to try to match up against. If he goes with a big man team out there, he sacrifices quite a bit of offense and there is no guarantee that our big men can stay out of foul trouble in those circumstances. If he goes with a smaller lineup, with the return of Miller-McIntyre, Wake has all the necessary pieces to stay with Tech that way as well. Buzz will need to make sure that he has this team ready to go from the tip to avoid a quick let down like we saw in the Duke game.
It's a home game, and the Hokies have had several days to recover mentally and physically from the Duke game. Bibbs will need to have his shot locked in to force Wake to bring their defense out to cover the perimeter, which should open up space for Allen and Hudson to drive into the lane. Leday also cannot disappear for a half again for this team to remain competitive. He needs to come out from the gate with the chip on his shoulder he found for the second half of the Duke game. Blackshear may be the turning point in this game though, as his ability to stay on the court and deliver against a bigger lineup will be critical for us to create space in the lane for our guards to work. We cant afford for him to get ticky-tack fouls early in this contest, especially not bad over the back calls because he hesitated in the rebounding position effort. I also expect that Buzz will have some form of a surprise up his sleeve for this one where he creates a mismatch. One thing his coaching staff seems to be pretty excellent at is scouting weaknesses in an opponents roster.
Wake Forest will play predominantly in a man-to-man defense, high pressure, with high ball double pressure and his bigs are well versed in denying the baseline. Its very much like the UVA pack line defense in that measure. Manning wants his teams to force opponents into shooting jump shots so Tech has to find a way to break inside. They did an excellent job of this against UVA so lets hope tonight is no different.
When Wake has a smaller lineup on the floor, expect to see them try to create baskets in transition off of turnovers. Regardless of who is on the floor, still expect to see the Demon Deacons run a quick, efficient offense, usually under 20 seconds per possession. This team sets a lot of high ball screens to create space for guards to penetrate or find bigs open underneath. Its fast paced and creates confusion for opponents. I would not be surprised to see Buzz employ a 2-3 zone, with closest defender stretching to the ball handler, while the rest maintain their space on the court. It should slow down Wake on offense and force turnovers like we saw against UVA as we tipped many passes in the lane.
Tech wins this one close 79-76, having to make a couple of critical free throws with under 10 seconds to go to keep the game in control.
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