Wake Forest shot 31 percent on their way to a 79-52 loss.
The 52 points were the lowest output of the season. Wake Forest shot 20 three-pointers. Since Wake is a horrible shooting team from beyond the arc, they hit three of them for 15 percent on the night.
They turned the ball over all night, refused to call out picks on defense and let McClinton tear them apart to the tune of 32 points.
This Wake Forest team is not getting any scoring from the bench--as Harvey Hale, Gary Clark, Ish Smith, Tony Woods and David Weaver combined to score eight total points. Hale missed several wide open threes tonight.
L.D. Williams and Aminu have no business shooting the three and they know it, and yet the two keep shooting. James Johnson has done far less in the post, where he can dominate, and seems too content to take his guy one-on-one and jack up a jump shot.
So what do they need to do?
more after the jump...
First off they need to go back to what got them here. This all starts on the defensive end. They need to deny the three-point shot, rebound, and funnel teams into the middle where the big men can alter shots with their size. They have not done a good job of this at all in the last few games.
In addition to this, on offense they need to go inside. Chas McFarland, foul trouble or not, has not been nearly as effective. He can completely dominate inside and he needs to establish himself down low. Same for Aminu and Johnson. These three together are the core of this team and their success takes pressure off of Teague, who looks worn down since his incredible January.
Teams are using the zone to perfection against the Deacs. The Deacs could attack the middle and bother the zone with their size and yet they are fine with just throwing up prayers, which lead to long rebounds for the other team. This becomes fast break opportunties on the other end---and the Deacs can get set in their defense.
Something has to be done. I don't know if the players aren't listening to Dino or he isn't saying it at all, but this team is too talented for this. You don't lose back to back games to teams like this if you have shown you can beat Duke and UNC. You don't score about 30 points in the last 10 minutes of three games combined if you expect to make a late run in the NCAA Tournament.
The team that has been playing since Virginia Tech with the exception of the Duke game looks far too much like the Wake Forest team of the last three years. The team that has been on the floor doesn't look like a tournament team, much less the team that started the season by beating teams like Baylor, UTEP, BYU, UNC, BC and Clemson.
It's time for a good old fashioned "Come to Jesus" meeting. The football team used to have them and this team needs to get that football mentality. Taking games off and plays off has hurt them and they need to bring it for 40 minutes against BC to show the country and themselves that they can still be an elite team.
If not, this league will punish them. The ACC doesn't let teams with no heart and no pride off the hook.