Wake Forest Welcomes Oklahoma to the Joel for the ACC/SEC Challenge
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The Wake Forest Demon Deacons will take their home court again on Tuesday night. They will host the Oklahoma Sooners as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge, where members of the respective conferences square off on Tuesday and Wednesday night. This game will take place at 7 pm and will be aired on the ACC Network.
So far this season, the Deacs are 6-2 with their losses coming at the hands of two ranked teams in Michigan and Texas Tech. They do have a buzzer-beating win over the Memphis Tigers, but this matchup is a good opportunity for the Deacs to pick up a solid win. Right now, Wake sits at 56 in the inaugural NET rankings, and they are 39th in KenPom. Let's preview this exciting matchup!
Opponent Preview
The Oklahoma Sooners enter this matchup fresh off making the NCAA Tournament a year ago, despite playing in the competitive SEC. Coming into this season, the team brought in an abundance of transfers to replace the production lost, namely Jeremiah Fears, who was a lottery pick.
So far, the Sooners are 5-2 with losses coming at the hands of Nebraska and Gonzaga. They are coming off a nice win over Marquette this past weekend. The predictive metrics are not too kind to the Sooners right now, as they are 64th in KenPom and 94th in the NET. This means the game currently falls as a Quad 3 for Wake Forest, but I expect this to change as the season goes on.
As mentioned, the Sooners are majority led by transfers. One of these guys is forward Tae Davis, who came to Oklahoma from Notre Dame. He scored 19 points against Marquette and was a perfect 8/8 from two-point field goals. He was the highest-rated major conference performer last week, according to Torvik. The Deacs frontcourt will need to focus on slowing him down.
The Sooners also have transfer guards Nijel Pack and Xzayvier Brown. Both are averaging double figures, and Pack is shooting over 50% from three. The Deacs must limit chances for these Sooner guards to get going.
Key to the Game: Win the 3-Point Shooting Battle
The Deacs have shown in their last couple of games that they are capable of converting at a high percentage from three. This was not as evident in the Bahamas when they were playing better competition. The Deacs need to continue to convert on open looks and win the three-point shooting battle against the Sooners.
Oklahoma is 282nd in opponent 3-point field goal percentage, allowing its opponents to shoot an average of about 36% from three. The Deacs, on the other hand, are very good at limiting opponents' 3-point field goal percentage, holding their average opponent to 29% from three. This should play into the Deacs' favor, as if they can continue to make it tough for opponents to convert on threes, they should be able to capitalize against a weaker Oklahoma defense.
So do not be surprised to see the Deacs firing up threes Tuesday night. This should be a great, high-scoring college basketball game. Let's hope the Deacs can defend their home court and pick up a big win!
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Justin is a student at Wake Forest University. He is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and aspiring finance major interested everything sports. In his freshman year, Justin completed an internship with the Wake Forest Ticketing Department where he gained some valuable insight into the sales and operations aspects of collegiate athletics. Before working with Wake Forest On SI, Justin was a contributing writer for Wake Forest’s student publication The Old Gold and Black. Currently, Justin serves as a student manager on the Wake Forest Men’s Tennis team. In his free time Justin enjoys spending time with his family and friends on the golf course and traveling.