GAMEDAY INFO: #BeatWakeLJVM Coliseum 6:30 PM @ESPNU https://t.co/1vIJeaIlf5 pic.twitter.com/txooQPxZPe— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) February 28, 2016
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IT'S GAMEDAY!#BeatWake pic.twitter.com/DcVVFISCja— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) February 28, 2016
Hokies fans, this will be our second time facing the Demon Deacons. When last we met, Tech sent Wake home with an 81-80 loss. Coming into that game, both these teams were at about the same spot in terms of overall record and conference play. It could be said that this game sent both teams in opposite directions. Tech has gone on to win four m ore conference games and still has a chance at a winning record in the ACC this year. Wake has gone on to lose eleven of their next twelve, with only a win over lowly Boston College mixed in. Wake comes in looking to play spoiler for everyone left on their schedule though so Tech cant afford to take this game lightly.
Another reason for concern is that Wake gets back arguably their best player in Devin Thomas (#2), 6'9, 255 Lbs, Senior Forward, who is averaging 15.8 PPG, 10.2 RPG, and 2.3 APG. Thomas was serving a two game suspension for an undisclosed violation of team rules.
The biggest concern for the Hokies in this game will be the size/skill combination that Wake's big men possess.
The second big man for Wake Forest is Konstantinos Mitoglou (#44), 6'10, 225 Lbs Sophomore Forward, who is averaging 9.7 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and an assist per game. Thomas shoots a scary 54% from the field, and is still shooting a measly 60% from the charity stripe so quite the candidate for hack a Shaq late in a game. Mitoglou shoots only 44% from the field but is shooting 77.5% from the line.
These two are backed up by John Collins (#20), 6'10, 218 Lbs Freshmen Forward, averaging 7.5 PPG and 3.9 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. He has had his minutes scaled back during conference play, probably to prevent hitting the freshmen wall so expect to see heavy doses of the other two unless they get in foul trouble.
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, scoring even higher in ACC play than he did in OOC, putting up 13.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG, and 4.3 APG. His ability to find open teammates, especially creating dunk opportunities for the big men makes him a difficult matchup even though we have seen a drop off to 36% 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. He does seem to have the achilles heel of turning the ball over too often, right now at 3.4 turnovers per game.
After Crawford, Codi Miller-McIntyre, (#0), 6'3, 205 Lbs, Senior Guard has never seemed to regain his form of where he was last season after suffering an injury. So far this year he is putting up 8.6 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 4.2 APG. Many expected Miller-McIntyre to get back to where he was by the time the team hit the ACC schedule since he led the Demon Deacons in scoring and assists while being second in rebounding last year but that never occurred, really reducing the difficulty in beating this Wake Forest team.
Cornelius Hudson (#25) 6'6, 180 Lbs Sophomore Forward is contributing 7.8 PPG, 3.3 RPG, and 1.4 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 PPG, 2 RPG, and 1.4 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.
Tech wins this one by doing what they do best in getting to the line and creating foul trouble for their opponents. 75-68, having to make a couple of critical free throws over the last two minutes to salt this one away.
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