Keys to the Game: Wake Forest Basketball at NC State
Wake Forest faces another daunting road test on Wednesday night, traveling to Raleigh to take on the NC State Wolfpack. The Deacs are coming off a tough loss to the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday, scoring 87 points and making 15 threes, but still falling by nine. Here’s what the Deacs need to do to pick up a key Quad 1 victory.
Get back to the free-throw line
Wake Forest lost by two last time out against NC State, but one of the things they did well was draw contact and get to the line. The Deacs went 18/22 from the charity stripe and drew a total of 21 team fouls on NC State. As a result, standout guards Casey Morsell and Terquavion Smith each finished with four fouls and had to spend key portions of the game on the bench.
It gets overshadowed by DJ Burns’ 31-point explosion, but Forbes’ group controlled a lot of the game the last time these two teams met. They took a six-point lead into halftime and extended that to 10 during the second half — the driving force behind the Deacs’ success was keeping NC State’s threats off the court.
Against Miami, Wake strayed from their bread and butter, drawing only nine total fouls and attempting eight free throws. The Deacs didn’t struggle to score, but they very much could have used a few minutes where Nijel Pack, Isaiah Wong or Norchad Omier were forced to take a seat due to foul trouble.
I think if Wake can mimic the success of the early stages of the last meeting and contain Burns, Forbes and co. should be in a good position to return home with a victory.
Take care of the ball
The one stain on an otherwise efficient offensive performance from the Miami game was — you guessed it — turnovers. The Deacs coughed it up 19 times en route to 34 Miami points, numbers that won’t cut it in any matchup, nonetheless on the road against a ranked opponent.
Tyree Appleby had a career-high 12 turnovers in the loss. Mistakes are inevitable with how much Appleby handles the ball, but giving it up a dozen times is unacceptable as the team’s point guard and floor general.
Appleby had an efficient game otherwise, scoring 15 points on 6/10 shooting and 3/6 from deep to go along with nine assists. However, against an elite offensive team like Miami, the turnovers were too much to overcome. In a game where both teams shot over 50% from the field and essentially scored at will, ball security was the difference.
NC State is the second-best offensive team in the ACC, putting up 78.6 points per game compared to Miami’s 79.5. They also hold the best turnover margin in the ACC at 3.93 and are third in turnovers per game at 9.7. Because of how adept the Wolfpack are at taking care of the ball, any mistake Wake makes with the ball holds a little extra weight. As a result, the formula for success will remain much the same. Limit your mistakes, don’t give up easy buckets and see where you are when the dust settles.
Contain DJ Burns
We all remember what DJ Burns did when NC State visited Winston-Salem — 31 points (23 in the second half) on 14/26 shooting. It was a career night for Burns, and Wake Forest had zero answers for him down the stretch. Matthew Marsh looked lost guarding Burns in the post, and was frequently out-muscled or out-maneuvered by the 6-9, 275-pound forward.
Burns is a skilled offensive player, but 31 points is the most he’s scored in a college game, and he’s only crested 20 one other time this season. This shows that the answers on how to defend Burns are out there, and Wake Forest needs to find them.
Clearly, the formula cannot remain the same. Wake had some success with Davion Bradford as Burns’ primary defender last time out — Burns only scored eight points in the first half and Bradford forced him into several tough shots. Forbes could also try fronting him in the post to make it tougher for him to get the ball, or even mixing things up by sticking Bobi Klintman on him. Whatever the case may be, something needs to change, or else the Deacs’ bubble hopes may be in jeopardy.
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