Playbook: Wake Forest vs Georgia Tech

It has been a while since I did one of these (you can probably guess why), but with conference play starting up, I figured I would try to get back into it. Anyways, the Deacs fell to Georgia Tech yesterday, giving up 92 points on 56% shooting to a team that was averaging the fewest points per game in the ACC with 71 on 45% shooting. Obviously, that is not a great way to start the season.

Wake did a solid job in the game of continuing to fight despite being down double digits several times throughout the game. With about 5 minutes to go, the Deacs went on a run and cut the lead to 5. A defensive stop and we’d be in business. So, of course, this happened.

A defensive miscue ends up in a wide open Michael Devoe 3-pointer. I’m certainly not an expert on matchup zones, but it looks like to me Torrey Johnson has to follow Devoe here, as he basically ends up guarding no one on the weak side elbow. Whether or not that is true, you can see both Johnson and Sharone Wright Jr. seems confused at the end of the play.

On the very next Tech possession, another miscue leads to an easy layup for Evan Cole, pushing the lead right back to double digits.

It appears Brandon Childress tells Wright to drop down and follow Cole on the cut. Obviously, that doesn’t happen and the result is 2 easy points. Again, another miscommunication and the play ends with Wright looking confused and Childress not being very happy.

The final play is a couple of Tech possessions later, when the Deacs have started pressing.

This one hurts. The press is effectively broken once Jose Alvarado gets the ball at the top of the key. Wake proceeds to leave the guy with the ball wide open, and Olivier Sarr gets stuck guarding 2 men. The result is an easy alley oop to James Banks. Alvarado literally stands there for like 3 seconds and not one Wake Forest defender even makes an attempt to go guard him.

All that being said, it was the first conference game for many of our players and we haven’t won in Atlanta since dinosaurs roamed the Earth. You never want to linger on a loss so let’s just move on to the next one (or skip that one and jump to the one after that).