Playbook: Wake Forest vs Virginia Tech

The Deacs dropped to 1-3 in the ACC after losing last night to the Virginia Tech Hokies by a score of 83-75. The Hokies jumped out to a 45-30 lead, as the Wake Forest offense seemed lost in the first half, shooting 13-35 (37%), and even getting the rare back to back shot clock violations. What was particular frustrating was that the Deacs had a huge mismatch inside with Doral Moore and failed to take advantage of it for most of the game. Let’s take a look.

With Virginia Tech big man Kerry Blackshear Jr. in foul trouble for a good portion of the game, the Hokies had no one over 6-6 to cover Doral Moore. This was a massive mismatch that Wake should have abused all night. Moore was working his butt off in the post to get position on guys like Justin Robinson, and it seemed the ball rarely found its way into his hands.

Justin Robinson is 6-2, 190 lbs. Doral Moore is 7-1, 280 lbs. When you get that mismatch down low, you have to find a way to take advantage of it. Just throw it up there and let Doral go get it. There is literally no way Robinson can do anything to stop it, as seen below.

Here’s another example, this time with 6-5 Ahmed Hill trying to cover Doral in the post. This is all from the same possession, but I removed a few seconds of dribbling around the perimeter so it would all fit in one gif.

As you can see, the Deacs once again fail to take advantage of a huge mismatch down low. When you have a guy over half a foot taller than his defender, you need to get him the ball. When you do, good things typically happen.

Moore finished the game with 12 points on 6-11 shooting, but with the mismatches he had for a good portion of the game, the Deacs really should have made a more concerted effort to get him a touch down low on every possession.