Playbook: Wake Forest vs Miami

Well, Wake Forest dropped another ACC game, this time on the road to the Miami Hurricanes. I thought the Deacs did a pretty good job on both side of the court in the first half, which allowed them to go into the half with a 33-32 lead. But in the second half, the defense seemed to break down, and the Deacs gave up too many easy, open looks to the Canes to come away with the victory. Let’s take a look.

I have no idea what is going on here; Miami simply passes the ball around the perimeter 3 times and somehow ends up with a guy wide open in the corner for 3. This simply can’t happen if you want win ACC games on the road. Definitely not the way you want to start a half.

One major thing Wake has struggled with all year is defending the opponent’s bigs inside. Even against smaller teams like Valpo (Smits: 23 points), Houston Baptist (Hardt: 17 points), and Richmond (Golden: 24 points), the Deacs have really struggled in the interior.

Ebuka Izundu only finished the game with 11 points, but most of his shots were just wide open looks right in the middle of the paint.

Head coach Danny Manning said after the game that it is their goal to win every possession. I’m sure he would agree that allowing easy interior passes to guys standing wide open in the middle of the lane is certainly not going to win many possessions.

Once again, the Canes easily get the ball 2 feet from the basket, causing the defense to collapse. This, of course, results in a wide open 3. There’s really not much you can as a defense once the ball gets that deep on the inside. The Deacs have to do a better job being physical inside and not allowing these easy passes right into the middle of the defense.

To end on a positive note, the offense did a much better job moving the ball and not dribbling it to death as we have seen in previous games.

This a great example of how to attack a zone defense. By moving the ball quickly, the Deacs are able to shift the zone and get the ball inside to Chaundee Brown for an easy layup. Brown had a fantastic game, finishing with 22 points on 9-15 shooting. As a team, Wake finished with 11 assists, which is definitely an improvement from the 6 they had against Duke.