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Wake Forest Louisville Thread

I'm not one for moral victories, but aside from poor FT shooting (especially in the first half) and what seemed like some impatience (where we seemed to be getting away from the really nice half court sets that we were running) later in the second half, I'm not sure that this team can put a much better game together.
I felt like we forced a ton of tough shots (especially in the second half) but L'ville was making an inordinate amount of those tough shots
 
not having Tree available last night really hurt us with defending their high pick and roll defense. Tree is both quick enough and long enough to make it more difficult for the guard on the high screen. Tree would have been more effective than Dinos at forcing their guards to move laterally - give Louisville credit, their two guards made a TON of really tough mid-range jumpers.
 
bym051d said:
Jones is a Childress-esque ice cold assassin.
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Funny thing is that here in Louisville the fans have been really down on Chris Jones. He was even benched for most of the game against Long Beach St. this past Tuesday. He was definitely the difference maker for them down the stretch last night though.
 
Fun game. I think that was towards the high end of what we can expect from this team. We have limitations, but we looked like a competent team nonetheless. I was really impressed with the way we came out in the second half. I'm fine with Dinos and Mitch continuing to chuck the ball when open. We need outside shooting in order to win games and they are basically our only hope. Maybe sprinkle in a little Crab.

Would like to see even more McClinton. He has a knack that will be useful. I really like all the freshman. You can see a decent core forming.
 
TwentyONE said:
Fun game. I think that was towards the high end of what we can expect from this team. We have limitations, but we looked like a competent team nonetheless. I was really impressed with the way we came out in the second half. I'm fine with Dinos and Mitch continuing to chuck the ball when open. We need outside shooting in order to win games and they are basically our only hope. Maybe sprinkle in a little Crab.

Would like to see even more McClinton. He has a knack that will be useful. I really like all the freshman. You can see a decent core forming.
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McClinton had that one really terrible looking turnover on the inbounds in the first half that sparked the Louisville run to end the half. What I appreciate about Manning is turning these moments into teaching opportunities. Bz would just stand there and clap stupidly, Dino might pull him, but would hardly talk to the guy. Manning pulls players after mistakes and you always see either him or Chil or Woodberry talking to them. Visible stuff like that is so simple, but so encouraging.
 
DCDeac said:
My guess is Manning would absolutely love to start Dinos but his defense just isn't there yet. Despite his empty box scores Leonard does a good job helping Devin out inside. With Rountree out there's really nobody else with the size to play the 4 spot without putting Devin on an island even more so than he already is.

First time in a long time I've thought the whole was greater than the sum of its parts for us. The one play they consistently beat us on was the high pick and roll where Rozier and Jones kept hitting tough jumpers from just inside the 3 point line. Even though that's absolutely the shot you want them taking and I get why we played it the way we did - against good teams you simply have to be able to defend better than that. We consistently were getting squarely picked on those plays, whereas on offense we seem to really struggle to set a good pick. There was one play where I think McClinton humorously kept trying to set a pick further and further out until he was basically in front of Manning.

They're not a great 3 point shooting team so I would have liked to have seen our guards slipping under the picks against Jones until he hit a 3, especially since when a pick was good enough to force a switch it meant a layup for him.

Duke runs the same picks but they have guys who can shoot it, so we may be in for a long night Wednesday unless we improve our pick and roll coverage.

Outside of that though, that game offers big time hope. That was pretty clearly a less talented team playing great team basketball losing out to an extremely talented team hitting difficult shots. It's one thing to hang with a highly ranked team on an off night. But Louisville had great individual efforts and Wake put up a great team effort. I mean, Dinos/Leonard/Hudson combined to go 0 for 8 from deep and we missed 15 free throws. Give me those stats ahead of time and I would have bet any amount of money we'd have lost by 20+.

And just a monster effort from Devin. When he dives to the basket and our guards find him - he can be a force. His size limits him a bit with his back to the basket in traditional post situations - which earns him an unfair amount of criticism, but his quickness and his defensive positioning are pretty damn awesome. The 2nd half he put on Harrell last night was crazy good.
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I think Dinos is having growing pains in trying to change from the Euro style to American bball.

I love how Danny makes halftime and in game adjustments.
 
TownieDeac said:
McClinton had that one really terrible looking turnover on the inbounds in the first half that sparked the Louisville run to end the half. What I appreciate about Manning is turning these moments into teaching opportunities. Bz would just stand there and clap stupidly, Dino might pull him, but would hardly talk to the guy. Manning pulls players after mistakes and you always see either him or Chil or Woodberry talking to them. Visible stuff like that is so simple, but so encouraging.
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Well said. Seemed like Chas got away with a lot without Dino directly dealing with him, and don't get me started with Buzzdick.
 
TownieDeac said:
McClinton had that one really terrible looking turnover on the inbounds in the first half that sparked the Louisville run to end the half. What I appreciate about Manning is turning these moments into teaching opportunities. Bz would just stand there and clap stupidly, Dino might pull him, but would hardly talk to the guy. Manning pulls players after mistakes and you always see either him or Chil or Woodberry talking to them. Visible stuff like that is so simple, but so encouraging.
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I agree. I missed a few games over the break and was surprised by how much it seemed like McClinton had improved. He did have a few terrible plays, but he is also flashing. Love his instincts around the glass.
 
Also, I'm sure this was said in the thread but they hit a lot of contested shots, particularly down the stretch. This was one of our best defensive efforts so far. We will have more success against mid-tier acc teams with that effort.

Sidenote, not impressed with the Lville press. I mean we had a few terrible turnovers early but mostly on the in bounds pass. They should have been able able to trap us but instead just went for the in bounds steal and then fell back for the most part. We had more trouble with Del st. and (by far) Arkansas then this Lville press. Then again, maybe we are getting better.
 
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We aren't getting ourselves into trouble with the first pass or two against the press now. We've definitely improved that aspect of our game, which is nice to see.
 
deacvision7 said:
We aren't getting ourselves into trouble with the first pass or two against the press now. We've definitely improved that aspect of our game, which is nice to see.
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Crazy thing to watch is that our freshmen, esp. Wilbekin and Hudson, are the best at breaking the press.
 
Wilbekin deserves more shots than he is currently getting.
 
TownieDeac said:
McClinton had that one really terrible looking turnover on the inbounds in the first half that sparked the Louisville run to end the half. What I appreciate about Manning is turning these moments into teaching opportunities. Bz would just stand there and clap stupidly, Dino might pull him, but would hardly talk to the guy. Manning pulls players after mistakes and you always see either him or Chil or Woodberry talking to them. Visible stuff like that is so simple, but so encouraging.
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Definitely agree with this in regards to Manning. I was at the game last night sitting near the student section and several times during the game I was able to actually hear Manning calling out changes all the way from our bench. It's just so refreshing to have a coach that's not aspy as hell.
 
deaclite said:
Wilbekin deserves more shots than he is currently getting.
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I agree, but it is hard to get him looks. We're going to have to run more sets with him coming off screens. At this stage he is strictly a jumpshooter and can't do much off the dribble.

He played 33 mins yesterday and didn't have a turnover. Future is really bright for him. Glad Danny made the trade that I questioned big time when it happened.
 
Yeah he played the second most minutes last night. I think he does a good job of not forcing it. He did take one bad three out of sequence last night after he hit his first two. I loved his pull up three that went in and out on a fastbreak while we were up one. That was a good shot.
 
As someone noted last night, Wilbekin looked tired in the 2nd half. Many possessions in a row where he was just standing around on the perimeter. Tough to get him more shots when he's A.) too tired to come off screens and B.) short in stature to begin with. Gotta get his stamina up a bit.
 
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