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1st 5 Minutes Of The 2nd Half - Historical Perspective

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oldmandeac

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I have been watching and living and dying by Wake Forest basketball since Skip Brown and Rodney Griffin were our stars...

For as long as I have followed Wake, the first five minutes of the 2nd half never seem to be kind to the Deacons. Big leads vanish, close games become e blow outs.

We have different players, different coached, but the malady remains the same. We can't seem to score during those minutes nor prevent the other team from hitting everything they throw up.

Surely others have noticed this. Anybody have any idea why this transcends generations.
 
When it happened, it often happened for these reasons:

with Tacy it was lack of locker room motivational oratory

with Staak it was lack of talent

with Odom it was, see Tacy above

with Skip it was lack of defense

with Dinoo it was lack of coaching acumen

with Danny, it is probably see Tacy above

Please note, Rod Griffin actually yawned while standing at the midcourt circle and waiting for the jump ball to start the half against Marquette in the NCAA regional final.
 
oldmandeac said:
I have been watching and living and dying by Wake Forest basketball since Skip Brown and Rodney Griffin were our stars...

For as long as I have followed Wake, the first five minutes of the 2nd half never seem to be kind to the Deacons. Big leads vanish, close games become e blow outs.

We have different players, different coached, but the malady remains the same. We can't seem to score during those minutes nor prevent the other team from hitting everything they throw up.

Surely others have noticed this. Anybody have any idea why this transcends generations.
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Agree. It is bizarre how one Wake team after another seems to come out of the locker room flat, particularly when leading at halftime. On a group text query of halftime predictions, my response was a poor second half start.
 
You are not fully remembering, the opposite would happen with good Wake teams, Josh Howards senior year we always won the first 5 minutes of the second half, Randolph's senior year the same. Generally the more talented team starts the half more ready to play, the less talented team is looking around for someone to get them started and if no one surfaces you have what you had last night, no field goals for 5 minutes and a lead and game squandered. Same thing happens in football, look back to the last 5 years then compare to 06 to 09.
 
bcobbdeacs said:
You are not fully remembering, the opposite would happen with good Wake teams, Josh Howards senior year we always won the first 5 minutes of the second half, Randolph's senior year the same. Generally the more talented team starts the half more ready to play, the less talented team is looking around for someone to get them started and if no one surfaces you have what you had last night, no field goals for 5 minutes and a lead and game squandered. Same thing happens in football, look back to the last 5 years then compare to 06 to 09.
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No, there's been plenty of good Wake teams that have failed to show up after halftime or let the other team back in it after building a big lead.
 
Historical competitiveness.

What cost us last night was our second half effort on the boards and defense. That and Xavier's pack-line defense just abused us. So, pretty much everything.
 
deacz said:
Historical competitiveness.

What cost us last night was our second half effort on the boards and defense. That and Xavier's pack-line defense just abused us. So, pretty much everything.
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That is what was so disappointing. You can't control cold shooting, but you can control effort on the glass and on defense.
 
Also, Xavier is the best rebounding team in the nation, so that has a lot to do with it as well.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Also, Xavier is the best rebounding team in the nation, so that has a lot to do with it as well.
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It did. But one would hope we could have grabbed a few more with some effort. Our guys were painfully slow to the ball on the defensive boards in the second half. Maybe they were just shell-shocked.
 
deacz said:
It did. But one would hope we could have grabbed a few more with some effort. Our guys were painfully slow to the ball on the defensive boards in the second half. Maybe they were just shell-shocked.
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It was right in front of me in the second half. We had guys there jumping and trying to grab them with the Xavier guys. I would have to go back and watch to see if we boxed out, but it's not always about effort. We had the guys in there, we just didn't get the rebounds.
 
deacz said:
Historical competitiveness.

What cost us last night was our second half effort on the boards and defense. That and Xavier's pack-line defense just abused us. So, pretty much everything.
Click to expand...

We came out ice cold from the floor, which just exacerbated their run.
 
I think people are forgetting there are two teams playing. One that played a really good first half and one that played a really bad first half. We looked good when they were playing bad, and we looked bad when they were playing good. Not excusing the shit we took in the first 5 minutes of the second half, but you can't expect a wake team without a whole lot of talent to keep the best rebounding team in the nation off the boards the whole game.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
It was right in front of me in the second half. We had guys there jumping and trying to grab them with the Xavier guys. I would have to go back and watch to see if we boxed out, but it's not always about effort. We had the guys in there, we just didn't get the rebounds.
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It was about effort a lot of the time. Their guys just weaved through our guys to get to the ball.
 
Unless you're a fan of one of the super elite programs, I suspect every other fanbase feels the same thing happens to their team.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
It was right in front of me in the second half. We had guys there jumping and trying to grab them with the Xavier guys. I would have to go back and watch to see if we boxed out, but it's not always about effort. We had the guys in there, we just didn't get the rebounds.
Click to expand...

Watched the second half with a discerning eye on my DVR and we most definitely failed to box out pretty much the entire 20 mins. Well, DT did snag a few defensive rebs with good positioning and timing, but pretty much everyone else looked lost out there when it came to finding a body in the lane. JC had a couple of determined efforts on the offensive glass but for some reason he seems to have a hard time figuring out where to be on defense and whether to commit to blocking a shot when using his body and going straight up on his man might be a better option.
 
I was screaming for Danny to call a timeout after the lead was cut under 10. I know he was waiting for the tv timeout (I guess), but why wait. Our team was getting killed and they were shell shocked. Timeout and reorganize.
 
If Danny is as bad at telling the team what he needs to tell them as some of you think he is, then a timeout isn't going to do all that much.

We were up by 15 points over the No. 6 team in the country. Yes we came out flat. Yes they came out more focused. Yes it's annoying and frustrating that we lost.

Once again, Xavier is a very good team and they demonstrated that in the second half.

They have the 21st best offense, and the 10th best defense in the nation. I'm happy we had a chance to win at the under-four timeout. We can play with anybody in the nation, we just have to do it for 40 minutes.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
If Danny is as bad at telling the team what he needs to tell them as some of you think he is, then a timeout isn't going to do all that much.

We were up by 15 points over the No. 6 team in the country. Yes we came out flat. Yes they came out more focused. Yes it's annoying and frustrating that we lost.

Once again, Xavier is a very good team and they demonstrated that in the second half.

They have the 21st best offense, and the 10th best defense in the nation. I'm happy we had a chance to win at the under-four timeout. We can play with anybody in the nation, we just have to do it for 40 minutes.
Click to expand...

I wasn't saying Danny is bad at telling them what he needs to tell them. what i saw was an Xavier team that started playing defense in the second half and our guys didn't know how to respond. I'm not saying a timeout would have solved the issue, but at least stop and get the guys refocused.
 
We're cursed because we overturned the dancing ban
 
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