The Deacs are taking their talents to South Beach this weekend to take on the Miami Hurricanes, who are 5-2 in their last seven games, including a huge win at Cameron Indoor. Between Durand Scott, Malcolm Grant, and Reggie Johnson, this team is very talented.
They now have a coach with Final Four experience in Jim Larranaga who has shown he can get his teams to play their best around this time of the season. The Deacs certainly have their hands full on Saturday, but there's always the chance they can pull a major upset.
Find out more after the jump about Wake's opponent, the Hurricanes, after the jump...
Conference only
Category Offense Defense D-I Avg
Adj. Efficiency
110.1 44
95.0 75
100.7
Adj. Tempo
64.6 263
66.4
Four Factors
Effective FG%:
50.0 131
47.1 91
49.0
Turnover %:
18.4 52
19.5 216
20.5
Off. Reb. %:
31.9 187
33.7 235
32.3
FTA/FGA:
34.7 219
32.8 95
36.4
Miscellaneous Components
3P%:
35.3 128
33.1 111
34.3
2P%:
48.4 146
45.8 93
47.8
FT%:
72.9 59
67.6 101
69.1
Block%:
10.1 235
10.0 123
9.3
Steal%:
9.7 179
9.6 173
9.7
Style Components
3PA/FGA:
36.6 90
33.6 200
32.9
A/FGM:
49.0 283
52.1 136
53.7
Defensive Fingerprint:
Inconclusive
Point Distribution (% of total points)
3-Pointers:
30.9 98
28.7 130
27.5
2-Pointers:
48.9 252
52.2 173
52.0
Free Throws:
20.2 189
19.1 232
20.4
Strength of Schedule
Components:
104.4 36
96.7 8
100.7
Overall:
.6876 15
.5000
Non-conference:
.5611 114
.5000
Personnel
Bench Minutes:
33.0% 120
30.9%
Experience:
1.79 yrs 135
1.66
Effective Height:
+2.7 24
0.0
Average Height:
77.2" 77
76.5"
Miami's Strengths
Discipline. This team just doesn't beat themselves. They play a very slow and methodical game. They only turn it over on 18.4% of their possessions, which is good for 52nd best in the nation. While Miami may not play that many possessions, they certainly make the most out of them. The Hurricanes average 110 points per every 100 possessions, which is good for 44th in the nation.
In addition to a very disciplined offense, Miami is also very solid on defense. They only allow .95 points per possession, which is good for 75th in the country. They also allow an effective field goal percentage that is 2 percent better than the national average. Continuing with their theme of discipline, Miami is very good about not fouling their opponents. Their opponents only get to the foul line 32.8 times for every 100 attempts, which is about four attempts better than the national average of 36.4.
Miami's Weaknesses
Miami really doesn't have many weaknesses. They do get blocked at a rate of 10.1 percent, which is below average. In addition to this, they aren't terrific at forcing turnovers or grabbing defensive rebounds.
Overall, Miami isn't great at any one particular thing, but they are good at pretty much everything. If Wake were an elite team, then I could certainly write about Miami's shortcomings, but the fact of the matter is that even where Miami is weakest, they are better than Wake.
How Wake Matches Up
Honestly, not well. Ty and Carson are going to have to block shots on the inside. We're also going to have to try and force the tempo a bit and get Miami to play out of their comfort zone. It's imperative that the Deacs get off to a hot start and knock down some threes. Chase Fischer is going to have to break out of his recent slump and hit a few jumpers.
Miami also has considerable depth, so we will need to hope that we stay out of foul trouble and also get Reggie Johnson in foul trouble. We simply have no answer for him. Coach Bzdelik must look at the gamefilm from last year and determine what it was that enabled us to be extremely competitive against the Hurricanes in the Joel.
| GAME STATISTICS | |||||||||||
| Player | GP | MIN | PPG | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | TPG | FG% | FT% | 3P% |
| Durand Scott | 24 | 34.2 | 12.7 | 5.0 | 3.3 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 1.9 | .431 | .802 | .306 |
| Kenny Kadji | 23 | 27.7 | 12.6 | 5.8 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 1.7 | .530 | .659 | .455 |
| Malcolm Grant | 22 | 31.0 | 11.7 | 2.4 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 1.8 | .336 | .778 | .303 |
| Reggie Johnson | 15 | 27.5 | 11.4 | 7.1 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 1.7 | .516 | .714 | .500 |
| Shane Larkin | 23 | 25.2 | 7.1 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 2.1 | .363 | .909 | .366 |
| Trey McKinney Jones | 24 | 24.8 | 7.0 | 3.9 | 1.6 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.5 | .436 | .850 | .358 |
| DeQuan Jones | 14 | 16.8 | 6.4 | 3.9 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.9 | .514 | .571 | .400 |
| Garrius Adams | 10 | 21.3 | 5.7 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.2 | .400 | .563 | .387 |
| Rion Brown | 22 | 17.8 | 5.5 | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.8 | .400 | .719 | .397 |
| Erik Swoope | 18 | 14.2 | 2.9 | 2.1 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | .512 | .500 | .000 |
| Raphael Akpejiori | 16 | 7.8 | 2.1 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 0.4 | .545 | .588 | .000 |
| Ryan Quigtar | 5 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Justin Heller | 4 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Totals | 24 | -- | 71 | 35 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 12 | .436 | .729 | .353 |
Projected Starters
Wake Forest
Nikkita Mescheriakov
Miami
Durand Scott
Reggie Johnson
Prediction
Miami 70 Wake 56
As always, comments are appreciated. We'll have the gamethread going tomorrow.