Whatever happened between Sunday’s game against Queen and tonight’s game against Longwood, Wake Forest should make sure they don’t do it again. Tonight’s game was basically a huge comeback against Queens, and the Dicks were really lucky that they were able to come out of that game unscathed.
The Dickies shot 52 percent from 3-point range and knocked down 17 3-pointers in a 38-point victory over the Royals on Sunday. Tonight, we saw the other side of the coin, what happens when a team that relies so much on the 3-point shot only managed 5 points on 21% shooting the entire game. The results were as bad as we expected — 71 points against a KenPom-ranked 310th-ranked defense and a narrow win at home against a Q4 opponent Wake had hoped to beat by more than 20 points. To be honest, this game is very reminiscent of the games under the previous two coaching systems.
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I’m not really bothered by the return of 3-point shooting — the Deacs are clearly not going to shoot 50+% from beyond the arc every game. That being said, I’m a little confused by the game plan of shooting a bunch of 3s against a team that has one of the worst defenses in the country and doesn’t have a single player that’s more than a 6-8 contributor, instead of finding a way to get the ball into the paint to generate some easy baskets. The Dickies took a total of 30 shots in the first half, 18 of which came from beyond the arc. They scored just 30 points in the first half (the second-worst first half this season) and shot 33% from the field as Wake made just 4 of those 18 shots. At halftime, the Dicks trailed 30-34. At home. to Longwood.
After adjusting their game plan at halftime, the Dickies attempted only six 3-pointers the rest of the way and made just one. The new emphasis on attacking the paint worked well for the offense – Wake scored 41 points in the second half on 50% shooting, made 24 free throws and scored 18 points in the paint. Ukee Harris scored 11 of his team-high 19 points in the second half, seven of which came from the charity stripe. Wake’s three-pointer in the second half eventually became the watershed of the game. Myles Colvin hit a three-pointer with 49 seconds left in the game, giving Wake a 3-point lead. It’s unfortunate that this game was so close.
Shot selection wasn’t Deco’s only problem in this one. Maybe it’s their seventh home game of the season in the fourth quarter, but the team’s overall energy and focus simply wasn’t there tonight. The defense looked pretty lackluster and there was no buzz anywhere. In several key moments of the game, the Lancers were able to get second and third basket shots simply by rebounding harder. Longwood finished with 11 offensive rebounds, but 10 of them came in the second half. Wake also struggled guarding Longwood’s leading scorer, Red Thompson Jr., who seemed open throughout the second half. Thompson scored a game-high 22 points and made 6 of 12 three-pointers, including consecutive three-pointers with 2 minutes left to tie the score. After scoring 4 three-pointers in the second half, Wake still played a wonderful performance at the end of the game time to tie the score. The De’Archie team was thankful it didn’t go into overtime.
Yes, it was a poor performance for Deco, but they still came out victorious. Games like this are one of the reasons I’m so against playing so many fourth-quarter buy games early in the season – eventually, teams will start to slide after a series of blowouts, and someone will sneak up on them and either beat them or push them over the edge. Thankfully, this is the last buy-in game of the season and hopefully the last game of the fourth quarter of the season. Wake’s resume won’t take much of a hit since their win, but all the progress they’ve made in metric-based rankings was effectively wiped out by this game. It might have been foolish to worry too much about NET and KenPom before January, but after not playing in a tournament in a million years, the Deacs need to worry about pretty much everything in the selection process.
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Maybe a scare from their Big South rivals is just what the Deaks need to reenergize and refocus before the real games begin this Sunday. I guarantee you, if they play like they did tonight against Vanderbilt, things are going to get ugly real quick.
Go to Deax!
