Possible Duke vs. Wake Matchups

Driving guards have had some success against the Deacs if they have been able to attack the middle and use the floater—case in point Delaney last week. I think if the defense is able to rotate on their assignments and switch on screens they will be able to handle Smith with some success.

The other thing I am primarily concerned with is Duke’s ball pressure away from the hoop. They do a great job of spreading the floor. If they can get steals and turnovers, this will hurt the Deacs transition defense. WF needs to minimize their mistakes and a lot of that goes hand in hand with Teague and how he chooses to play. If he does not try to hard to force passes and he picks his spots to attack, we may see a repeat (especially with the rest of the Demon Deacon length) of Duke’s foul trouble from last year.

Solid assessment, Jake. I agree that James should be on Scheyer, his perimeter defense is really impressive, and forcing Scheyer to dribble drive against our length in the middle is advantage Wake Forest.

This is a strech, admittedly, but off the tip I would like to see Ish on the point on Smith, Teague on Scheyer, Aminu on Henderson, Johnson on Singler, and Chas on Zoubek. While that leaves L.D. out of the mix, I think it’d be a nice guy off the bench to counter what I consider a weak Duke bench athletically. Their bench is weaker than Wake’s. Offensively, L.D. would be the best off the bench on both teams. The main reason I think that this is the matchup lies on the addition of Ish. He shifts the lineup down a spot which gives the athletic advantage to the deacs. He is strong enough on D to limit Smith, and he won’t commit the gambles and get himself out of position like Teague will. Teague is a highlight reel type of player on both ends, and he will get steals, but will also get beat, forcing the other guys out of position. I don’t think Ish would take those risks, and while he might not force the TO’s that Teague would, he puts his team in a better position on D to possibly get the TO’s down low. Teague on Scheyer is a dream matchup IMO in that Teague is so athletic and could stay in front of Scheyer, limiting those 3s that Scheyer loves to knock down. Same with JJ on Henderson. JJ is the best athlete on the team IMO, as is Henderson for Duke, so I think thats the best way to neutralize him. Same with Aminu and Singler- Singler is long, skilled, and athletic on O, as is Aminu on D. Chas on Zoubek is a no brainer.

Again, just my opinion.

I really feel like LD should be on Scheyer. He can get in Scheyer’s head a little bit and body up on him (Scheyer can become invisible in physical games: see NC State this year). This would leave James to play on Henderson—who can shoot and drive and is definitely Duke’s most complete player (outside of maybe Singler).

But this would negate the advantage defensively that Johnson would have on Singler…and I do not see AFA playing out on Henderson. That begs the question of whether or not AFA can handle the assignment of Singler, but in the long run, I see the Deacs running a lot of switches and if they can react quickly on the switch this will pay dividends. If not, we will see Duke with some of the open looks that Virginia Tech got, and Duke hits those shots more often than not.