Wake Forest vs Boston College: Key Matchup

Seeing that the Deacs have already played Boston College this season, I figured that instead of another Players to Watch article we could take a look at Wake Forest’s victory over the Eagles earlier this month and focus on what matchup the Deacs can exploit to pick up a season sweep. If you missed the Players to Watch article from the first BC game, you can view it here; most of the information still holds up, however the averages have probably changed a little (Robinson: 19.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3.2 apg, 1.7 spg | Bowman: 12.9 ppg 4.2 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.2 spg). With that out of the way, lets look at a matchup Wake Forest exploited in the first contest that they can use again to pick up the elusive ACC road win.

That matchup is Dinos Mitoglou vs. Connar Tava. Above, you can see that even though Tava is in perfect position and plays solid defense, Dinos still scores with ease. This is obviously due to the massive size advantage Dinos has over Tava. Mitoglou is listed at 6-10 255 lbs. while Tava is listed at 6-6 250 lbs (I’m having a hard time believing Tava weighs 250 but I guess I’ll take the official BC roster’s word for it). This was by far Dinos’s best conference game of the year so far, scoring 15 points on 6-8 shooting while adding 7 rebounds (2 offensive) and 2 assists in just 22 minutes.

As you can see, Tava is having a really tough time trying to keep Dinos from getting to where he wants to go on the floor. Dinos is able to push him around until he gets to his spot, catches the entry pass, and uses his height advantage to hit an easy 10 foot jump shot right over Tava’s outstretched hand. With the high release Dinos has on his shot and the height advantage he already has, there is pretty much no chance of Tava blocking him, or really even bothering him, when he faces up.

These are some of the best looks at the basket Dinos has gotten all season. I may even go so far to say that these are warmup jump shots. One player winning an individual matchup so efficiently puts a lot of pressure on the defense and typically forces them to either switch defenders or bring a second guy to help out in the post. I doubt the Eagles will be contempt to let Dinos have such easy shots this time around, and Tava is likely their best option as a defender here, so if and when they send help to defend in the post, Dinos will need to be ready to kick the ball out to the open man.

If Dinos can hit these shots with the same efficiecny as the first game, Wake Forest should be in great shape to pick up a win. This is an obvious mismatch that the Deacs should absolutely exploit again on Tuesday night in Chestnut Hill.