Playbook: Wake Forest vs Charlotte

I know this is a little late, but I wanted to get it in before the Deacs take on Army tonight. Wake Forest won its second game in blowout fashion on Tuesday night, beating the Charlotte 49ers by a score of 80-53. The Deacs managed to score 49 points in the first half to take a big 22 point lead and never looked back. One of the things that helped Wake win big in this one was ball movement; They passed the ball extremely well and picked up 12 first half assists (we were averaging around 12 per game), which gave them a lot of great looks at the basket.

On the very first play of the game, the Niners show a double team look on Doral Moore, who finds Bryant Crawford for an easy shot in the paint. Moore is probably going to see a double team quite frequently in the post, so if he can continue to find the open man for easy baskets, it should bode well for the Deacs.

Here is another great example of finding the open man. Brandon Childress drives and throws it back out to Olivier Sarr who is wide open at the 3-point line. I must admit, I had no idea Sarr had this kind of range, but he stepped into the deep ball without any hesitation and knocked it down. If Sarr can consistently hit 3s, it could allow him to play more alongside Doral Moore by playing a stretch 4 type role and helping to space the court.

This one is just a textbook drive and kick. Bryant Crawford gets into the paint, causing the defense to collapse, and finds Chaundee Brown wide open in the corner for an open 3. The Deacs are shooting almost 40% from 3 this season, so the more open 3’s we can get like this one, the better off we are going to be.

Here we have what I would consider to be the best pass the Deacs have made all year. Brown drives the baseline, looks right at Donovan Mitchell in the corner, causing Jon Davis to slide over to him, and then throws a laser no look pass to the wide open Mitchell Wilbekin at the wing. Incredible play by the freshman.

This is the last one I’ll show you. Two Niner defenders fail to communicate and both step out on Brown, leaving Crawford wide open. He realizes this and instantly cuts to the basket, and Keyshawn Woods makes a beautiful bounce pass to get him the ball for the easy layup.

This kind of ball movement is something that is always going to be conducive to winning. When the Deacs are finding the open guy for wide open 3’s or easy layups, the shooting percentage is going to skyrocket and the points are going to come in bunches. As we saw on Tuesday with 49 first half points, when we pass the ball well, scoring becomes very easy.