Keys to the Game: Wake Forest vs Notre Dame
Wake Forest returns to the Joel on Saturday evening after a two-game road trip, playing host to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Deacs beat the Irish 81-64 last time out in South Bend — here’s what they need to do to complete the season sweep.
Keep the energy up
Wake Forest’s at-large tournament hopes have essentially disappeared after losing on the road at NC State on Wednesday night. Furthermore, it was also just announced that Damari Monsanto will miss the remainder of the season due to a torn patella tendon suffered against the Wolfpack.
As a result, it would be easy for the morale around the program to take a dip and for the Deacs to come out flat and uninspired on Saturday night. The stretch run hasn’t gone according to plan — with four games remaining still in the regular season the level of focus will have to remain high heading into the ACC Tournament.
It’ll also be tougher for Wake to get up for this game because Notre Dame’s season has been such a trainwreck — the Irish are 10-18 and have lost their last six games. Realistically, it would take a disastrous performance for Wake to lose to this team, but they started slow last time out and it nearly cost them. A high-energy 40-minute performance against an inferior opponent is exactly what the doctor ordered for this Wake Forest squad.
Adjust to Damari Monsanto’s absence
As I mentioned earlier, Damari Monsanto’s season is over after suffering a serious knee injury near the end of the first half of the NC State game. Monsanto’s spark on both ends of the floor will be dearly missed — his 13 points and 24.1 minutes per game along with his team-leading 40.5% from three-point land will have to be made up elsewhere.
There will certainly be a learning curve for this team as they adjust to Monsanto being out of the lineup. Someone new will have to take his starting spot — I believe the most likely candidates are Bobi Klintman and Daivien Williamson. Fortunately, this seems like as good a chance as any to play through some of those growing pains against a struggling opponent like Notre Dame. Against the Irish last time, Monsanto went nuclear for 28 points. I expect Tyree Appleby and Cam Hildreth to get even more aggressive on offense without Monsanto's catch-and-shoot ability present.
Monsanto’s injury makes a relatively thin team even thinner. The Deacs’ rotation has now shrunk in a big way, and the bench players will all likely see expanded roles in the final four games to close out the regular season. Both Klintman and Williamson will likely see upticks in minutes — the team’s ability to find success down the stretch will be dependent on how well they can produce with a bigger sample size.
Take care of business
At the end of the day, Wake is still by far the better team in this matchup with or without Monsanto. Notre Dame scores nearly 10 points less per game than Wake on average and have lost 10 of their last 11 games. Their current six-game slide began when the Deacs traveled to South Bend in early February.
The key here is for Wake to avoid playing down to the level of their opponent the way they did against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets jumped on Wake early and nearly stole a win in Winston-Salem. Notre Dame still has four players scoring in double figures and are led by veteran leaders in Cormac Ryan and Dane Goodwin. The Deacs need to start fast and jump on the Irish early at home to prevent more of the same from occurring.
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