Wake Forest Basketball Season Recap

Basketball season is over, and its time to turn our focus to football. But before we do that, I'd like to take a look back at some of the things that worked really well for the Deacs this year, and some of the things that didn't work so well.

Transition

All year, Manning stressed that he wanted this team to play fast. I think it's pretty clear that this Wake Forest team played its best basketball when it could get out in transition and run. Codi Miller-McIntyre is unstoppable in transition and scores on just about anyone. When he got steals, rebounds, or outlet passes and immediately pushed the ball up the court and attacked, good things happened.

When you've got a guy like Miller-McIntyre that is so good in transition, opposing defenses are going to tend to fall back into the paint against the break. This is where the addition of Cornelius Hudson, Dinos Mitoglou, and Mitchell Wilbekin, 3 guys that can shoot from the 3-point line, really helped out this year. When the defense falls back into the paint, Codi, or whoever was leading the break, was able to find Hudson or Mitch on the wing for a wide open 3, or Mitoglou trailing the play for a top of the key three ball.

Rebounding

Despite the lack of size, the Deacs did a really good job this year on the boards, ranking 39th in the country in rebounding. Led by center Devin Thomas, the Deacs grabbed 40.6 rebounds per game including 11.7 offensive rebounds per game.

Pick and Pop

The pick and pop was successful pretty much all year. Defenses were so concerned with keeping guys like Codi out of the lane, that Dinos could just turn around and be wide open for a three. I'm really hoping that this will continue to be an integral part of the half court offense next year.

Now for some things that the Deacs will hopefully improve upon in the offseason.

Interior Defense

The Deacs struggled this year at defending other teams in the paint, and its not really a matter of them doing anything wrong. This team just didn't have the height or size to match up with other teams in the post. This is where I think the additions of Doral Moore(7-0, 220lbs.) and John Collins(6-9, 230lbs.) will have the biggest impact. These 2 guys will hopefully give some much needed depth to the interior defense so that other teams won't be able to score 50 points in the paint against us anymore.

Free Throws

The Deacs shot 64% from the free throw line this year as a team. That's awful.  But, the two players who were fouled the most, Codi and Devin, shot about 62% from the free throw line. This is something that can easily be improved on the offseason, and will help the Deacs be able to close out more games late.

ACC Road Games

Please win some next year.