HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: WAKE FOREST (6-12, 3-12) AT #16 VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (14-5, 8-4) 4PM ACCN

HOKIES HOOPS CENTRAL: WAKE FOREST (6-12, 3-12) AT #16 VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES (14-5, 8-4) 4PM ACCN

It's gameday!#StoneByStone | #Hokies 🦃(» @GrandHomeFurn)— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 27, 2021

GAME INFORMATION
Date/Time: Feb 27 2021 4 PM
Opponent: Wake Forest
Site: Lawrence Cassell Coliseum
Jay Alter (play-by-play) and Malcolm Huckbay (analyst)
Virginia Tech Sports Network. Jon Laaser (play-by-play) and Mike Burnop (analyst)

Take Two on Wake

The Hokies are still trying to get their feet moving at the same speed as their heads and take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, who they struggled against earlier this season. The Hokies are 37-31 against Wake Forest going into their 69th meeting. The Hokies are now 14-5 and ranked #16 in the AP Poll.

The Hokies won the earlier matchup 64-60 with off night from both Aluma and Jalen Cone. Wake Forest had four players put up nine or more points, led by their forwards Mucius and Massoud, who combined for 22 points and ten rebounds.

This will be Senior Day so the Hokies will honor two players (Wabissa Bede, Cordell Pemsl) and three managers (Michael Shiner, Ryan Payne and Chris Forst).

Last, but not least, is our three senior managers who have gone above and beyond the last few years• Four-year manager @michael_shiner1 • Three-year manager @RyanPayne25 • Three-year manager @Cforstmoney Thank you!#StoneByStone | #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/kOnZSc9hpw— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 26, 2021

The Demon Deacons are coached by Steve Forbes. He is in his first season at Wake Forest. Prior to Wake Forest, he had stints at East Tennessee State, Northwest Florida State and Barton County Community College. He is 266-89 as a head coach.

The Deacs come in having lost four straight, most recently getting blasted by Clemson 60-39.
Coach Forbes's Demon Deacons really have had a challenging season with three stoppages due to Covid and a key player sidelined for the season in Center Tariq Ingraham. They did get good news since they played the Hokies last with the unexpected return from injury of Graduate transfer Point Guard Ian Dubose. Dubose averaged over 17 points a game the last two seasons for Houston Baptist and has scored in double figures in all but one game for Wake Forest.

There are however three more Deacs questionable for the game in Anthony Mathis Jr, Miles Lester and Grant Van Beveren. Mathis is in quarantine protocols and the other two are injured. None of these three play a major factor for the Deacs though.

They have struggled significantly in ACC play. They come in 6-12 with wins over Delaware State, Longwood and Catawba out of conference. They have wins over the other three teams at the bottom of the standings, Boston College, Miami, and Pitt. The rest are all losses.

That said, Wake seems to be very Jekyll and Hyde in the losses, half were competitive while there were also five losses by fifteen or more points. They aren't consistent either but are definitely worse on the road at 1-7 in ACC play.

We take on Wake Forest tomorrow in Cassell 👊#StoneByStone | #Hokies 🦃— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 26, 2021

Defensively, the Demon Deacons employ the Pack Line Defense which is designed to create extreme ball pressure. Another major facet is to keep the ball out of the middle of the court. His teams strive to force the offense to take contested jump shots "away from the box". Critical to this defense being successful requires that his teams develop excellent help defense and communicate clearly on defense. The Hokies experienced aspects of this defense against Louisville and will again against UVA. The two ends of the floor couldn't be more different, with the extreme structure of the pack line defense combined with an almost position-less scheme offensively.

Offensively, Wake Forest usually runs the 5-out offense which is, shockingly, all 5 guys out on the perimeter. The goal is pretty simple: keep the lane open for drivers and cutters. As Forbes explained while at East Tennessee, "Schematically, it opened up the court, it gave us a chance to drive the ball, to get to the basket, to drive and kick, it gave our big guys opportunities to shoot 3s..."

The most important part is the amount of movement in the offense. You don't see one guy dribbling the ball for 20 seconds while the other 4 guys just stand around and watch. When someone passes the ball, they immediately move to a different spot on the court, and another player moves to replace them. Even when guys are taking their man 1 on 1, the other 4 players are still moving to find open spots on the floor.

Two key statistics that give great insight into the Deacs season is that they are shooting 34% from outside on almost 26 attempts per game while on the opposite end opponents are shooting over 53% from the floor.

Demon Deacons Backcourt

Daivien Williamson
#4 JR G 6-2 170 lbs
Winston-Salem, NC Winston-Salem Prep
12.7 Pts, 2.4 Reb, 2.6 Ast
Shooting 45% from the floor, 36% from the perimeter, 77% from the line

Jonah Antonio
#20 SR G 6-5 195 lbs
Perth, WA Sunrise Christian Academy
6.8 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 1.0 Ast
Shooting 41% from the floor, 40% from the perimeter, 91% from the line

Jalen Johnson
#2 SR G 6-6 195 lbs
Durham, NC Wesleyan Christian Academy
5.5 Pts, 2.5 Reb, 0.7 Ast
Shooting 38% from the floor, 33% from the perimeter, 77% from the line

Ian Dubose
#11 SR G 6-4 225 lbs
Durham, NC Ravenscroft School
11.9 Pts, 4.7 Reb, 2.7 Ast
Shooting 44% from the floor, 35% from the perimeter, 62% from the line

Jahcobi Neath
#0 SO G 6-3 200 lbs
Toronto, Canada Crestwood Prep
4.0 Pts, 1.9 Reb, 1.8 Ast
Shooting 38% from the floor, 24% from the perimeter, 91% from the line

Carter Whitt
#35 FR G 6-4 180 lbs
Raleigh, NC Leesville Road HS
4.0 Pts, 2.3 Reb, 2.4 Ast
Shooting 32% from the floor, 31% from the perimeter, 75% from the line

Demon Deacons Frontcourt

Isaiah Mucius
#1 JR F 6-8 200 lbs
East Patchogue, NY Brewster Academy
92 (2018) 10.3 Pts, 5.1 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Shooting 45% from the floor, 36% from the perimeter, 71% from the line

Ismael Massoud
#25 SO F 6-8 220 lbs
East Harlem, NY MacDuffie School
8.2 Pts, 3.4 Reb, 0.4 Ast
Shooting 35% from the floor, 34% from the perimeter, 74% from the line

Ody Oguama
#33 SO F 6-9 225 lbs
Raleigh, NC Woodstock Academy
8.8 Pts, 5.4 Reb, 0.5 Ast
Shooting 51% from the floor, does not from the perimeter, 72% from the line

What to expect from Wake Forest?

Williamson, Mucius and Dubose come in averaging double digit points per game. Wake Forest goes deep on the bench for significant minutes or contributions, regularly playing ten players each game for ten or more minutes a contest.

For those that didn't catch this the first time round. Carter Whitt is a fascinating story that is definitely unique to our current environment. He graduated high school in December and was an early enrollee at Wake, and with this season not counting towards eligibility, Coach Forbes has thrust him directly into ACC play. He has consistently played 25 minutes or more since making his debut. It has definitely been a sharp learning curve as he struggles with turnovers and poor shot selection.

His production is definitely a large reason that Wake has struggled to be competitive. He creates only 9 points per game between shootig and assists in 25 minutes of play. That is an ugly .36 points per minute as the primary point guard. Unfortunately the Hokies know what this is like on the offensive end as well.

Opponents are averaging 73 points per game in ACC play. Opponents in ACC play are shooting 53% from the floor against the Demon Deacons. Wake does better on the perimeter, only allowing 37.6% from the perimeter. They still have been allowing ACC opponents a third of their points from the perimeter on 7.7 (23 points) allowed threes per game.

The Demon Deacons are committing 13.7 turnovers per game possessions or about 20% of their possessions. Every Wake starter is committing at least one turnover per game. Four players are committing at least 1.8 turnovers per game.

Wake Forest forces 10.9 turnovers per game and average nearly 12 points per contest off turnovers. Last time Wake had 17 points off 15 Hokies turnovers.

The Demon Deacons commit 16.4 fouls per game. Opponents have shot 17.7 free throw attempts per game so far this season. This accounts for 17% of opponent scoring. This will be a major factor in this contest as most of the Wake Forest opponents so far are not nearly as likely to get to the line as the Hokies have been this season. The Hokies average 19.3 attempts per game in ACC play.

As a team the Demon Deacons are shooting 34.3% from the perimeter on 23.8 attempts per game. Antonio shoots better than 39% from the perimeter while no one else is shooting better than 36%. Six different Wake players are averaging more than 3.3 attempts on the perimeter.

Ody Oguama and Ian Dubose are the most likely to get in foul trouble. Dubose has typically been paired with the opponents most dynamic guard and has had issues with reaching fouls as he continues to get back up to speed following his early season injury. Oguama is a step slow inside, so athletic bigs typically give him problems.

Wake Forest struggles rebounding as you might expect with their smaller roster with a -2-rebound differential per game. That said, they outrebounded the Hokies by seven in the first game. They have three players, Dubose, Mucius and Oguama, averaging more than 4.7 rebounds per game. Dubose is incredibly good at positioning on the backside to grab rebounds.

Williamson, Dubose and Whitt are the key distributors, averaging 2.4+ assists each. The Demon Deacons average 10 assists on 22 made baskets per game, roughly 45% of all shots are assisted. This shows you how much Wake Forest relies on creating their own shot. Their style of play offensively is more to isolate and allow the ball handler to create their own shot. Most of their assists are from guards driving into the lane and dropping the ball to a big inside if they can't reach the rim.

The Hokies
The two biggest things the Hokies must change from the last game against Wake are to cut down on allowing offensive rebounds and on offense, they must improve on their perimeter shooting. Wake had 16 offensive rebounds leading to 16 second chance points (26% of their scoring.) The Hokies then proceeded to shoot 22% from the perimeter on 4 of 18 shooting. Jalen Cone had a miserable night, going 0 for 4 and finishing with zero points.

It does not appear that Cone will be a factor in this game. When asked on Tuesday, Coach Mike Young said this on Jalen Cone's injured ankle: "It's too early to give you a definitive answer" and "It's going to be a bit more down the road than anticipated."

Tech's perimeter shooting will rely on Cattoor, Alleyne and Mutts going forward. 23.8 attempts per contest is the average. Wake is better defensively against the three but single focused shooters have been successful against the Demon Deacons, as Wake tends to sag off the perimeter to clog the lane.

The Hokies have to hope they have corrected the sloppy passing we saw against Georgia Tech or Hokies fans could be in for a long afternoon. The Hokies committed 19 turnovers leading to 19 points. That is something very few teams can overcome.

The other major point of emphasis will be what kind of game Aluma has. Last time the Deacs held Aluma a season low five points and forced him into four turnovers. The Hokies only managed a victory due to a big game from Radford and a startling performance by N'Guessan. One play late in the game that I think the Hokies need to use more was finding Radford at the elbow to shoot. It was open all game and is an area Wake struggles to defend.

Highlight of the Georgia Tech Game

Feels good to be back 👌#StoneByStone | #Hokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/dXzt7KvueV— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 23, 2021

We had basketball...

In Closing
The points of emphasis remain the same to beat Wake, Double digits: Preventing Wake from getting offensive rebounds, forced turnovers, offensive rebounds, made free throws, and four scorers. Lets throw in double digit fast break points off turnovers. If the Hokies check those boxes they cruise to a win. Otherwise, and they struggle against an up and down Wake team.

The Hokies just need to get Tuesday out of their head. Clean, crisp passes gets them open looks. Aluma is able to catch and shoot inside.

Hokies start to get their legs back under them and play a complete game. Still a bit ugly but should be a win with how Wake struggles on the road. Final 68-61.

Three Popcorns- The Hokies have to show me they have shaken loose of the cobwebs before I can go higher.

Confidence Factor: