Official Wake-UNCW game thread

We won.

But seriously, I couldn't watch the game and couldn't follow here. What happened? How did we look?

There's an 8 page thread about the game on the old board including a lot of the posters from here if you want to read it.

PhDeac said:

We won.

But seriously, I couldn't watch the game and couldn't follow here. What happened? How did we look?

Click to expand...

I thought we looked kind of spotty wtih some obvious encouraging signs and obvious weaknesses. Early on, we were getting killed on the glass--gave up a ton of O rebounds and Carson looked terrible. However, seemed to rebound much better as the game went on. They had a guy go off for about 34 pts (our usual modus operandi of letting someone have a career nite), but they were hot from 3 for a time (and had at least 2 banked in 3's). Blew 11 pt lead in 2d half, but rebounded to build the lead back up. Had 5 or 6 players in double figures. Carson looked much, much better in 2d half. Scored on nearly all of our last 18 possessions or so. Offense had trouble with zone early, seemed a bit better late. CJ is money with that pull up/fade away when he gets in the lane. Only 9 TO's or so, which is not bad considering we scored in the mid-80's.

But, it is Wilmington and we should be much bigger than them, so the fact that we were only about even on the boards with them is troubling, but as I said, that seemed to improve as the game went on. Someone else can give a better X & O's analysis. One encouragaing thing was when Wilmington got the lead mid-2d half, we did not fold and actually seemed to step it up on D a bit. We are really short on talent which probably explains why we cannot put teams away when we get them on the ropes. Still, as I said, the team seemed to suck it up and get the game back in hand when it looked like it was slipping away. Not sure last year's team wins this game, but we are a long way from good (obvious point, I know).

Thanks. Only glanced over there yesterday mostly for updates or board change progress. Still wouldn't hurt to see some discussion over here.

43 is a lot of free throws - were they just hacking or were we trying to push?

I tried to watch the replay after getting home last night and could barely stay awake. I'll try to post some quick things.

Nikita looked good early by hitting a few three's, but then proceeded to launch like 5 or 6 bricks throughout the rest of the game.

Travis struggled early offensively, but played good D and got boards.

Carson was a monster on the boards in the first half (8 or so I believe), but didn't look that great doing it.

Ty gives us good minutes defensively at the 5, but doesn't provide much O. To me it looks like he's just playing within himself.

Tony struggled with his shot (terrible 3pt brick and missed a layup), but did a nice job running the offense. 9-10 from the FT line.

Chase didn't have his best game.

CJ is CJ. Solid as hell.

I fell asleep in the second half and woke up to us tied after being up 7-9 most of what I saw. We then pulled away to keep a safe distance. It was just one of those games where I felt like we could have broken it wide open early in the second half, but couldn't, and they came back on us. Still a good win over a team that beat us last year, and I thought we looked decent.

They were playing pretty tight defense and fouled a lot. Refs had quick whistles.

I was at the game last night. Renfield's narrative is very accurate.

This team is growing on me. They are not the most talented bunch, but they seem (to me, at least) to play together and hustle much more than last year's team. Scoring was balanced, with 6 players in double figures, and we shot free throws very well, especially at the end of the game when we needed them the most. It was encouraging to see the team come back after giving up an 11 point lead in the second half.

We may only win 12-14 games this year (I think we can win 4-5 ACC games, against the likes of BC, Ga Tech, and Maryland), but I think that Deacs are on an upward trajectory.

Watched it on theACC.com. Nikita with a big game - esp early. Those FT's came from attacking the rim - TC with a lot of drives. Team seemed to move better w/o the ball - cuts and curls toward the basket.

We had early leads in the 7-11 pt range, but could not put them away when we had the chance. They came back and took 4 pt lead in the second half. We gutted out a win we would not have had last year. It was ugly, but something we could build on. The team is just learning to be competitive. Next step is learning how to win.

UNCW is a very bad team this season. Randolph continues to provide excellent insights. I would like to see Chase get some minutes at PG next week before the ACC schedule begins.

Bzz seems to prefer a short bench - Anthony Fields (1 minute), Daniel Green (2 minutes), Ty Walker (11 minutes). Why is he not mixing up the lineup more? Since rebounding is gonna be a major issue in ACC play, why aren't we playing Carson and Ty at the same time? I'm not sure he's using the talent (albeit limited) we have to its optimal use.

We are going to get pounded by the ACC teams that can exploit our lack of interior defense.

Travis had one of his worst games as a Deac, but CJ was MONTE and Nikita played well.

We went on a run when we played CJ-Chase-Nikita-Travis-Carson, which is our best lineup, imo. The offense runs so much smoother.

Chase is such a smart player -- always making quick and decisive passes and cuts, and he sees the floor so well. Also, Green was pretty impressive in the few minutes he played.

I love Chase. SO glad I was wrong on him.

deacphan said:

I love Chase. SO glad I was wrong on him.

Click to expand...

Same.

We had about a 11 minute span from the four minute mark of the first half to about the 13 minute mark of the second half where we played about as bad as we've played all year.

It was just horrific basketball, but it all turned out fine. That Alex Smith or Jones kid or whatever his name was just wouldn't miss. Some of it was bad D (as we continue to pack in man-to-man defense, but it could just be bad off the ball D by CJ and Tony) but a lot of it was he was just on fire.

It was a fine win, but UNCW wasn't very good

I don't understand why Fields isn't playing more. He played 1 minute last night and while he did have a bad game against G-W, part of the pre-conference season is to get guys minutes in live-game situations, particularly freshmen. Chennault has 0 points in the first half and Fields still only got in for one minute. I don't really understand why.

I really do think the key difference between last year and this year is turnovers and mental toughness. Last year, we made a few dumb turnovers and then we would just suck on defense for three or four minutes and we collectively sulked about it.

This year, very few dumb turnovers. Nobody over dribbles (see JT Terrell) and we have cut our turnovers way down.

I'm glad we got the win. They just need to keep improving. This team is still a long way from what Wake fans had come to expect.

Wakeforest22890 said:

I don't understand why Fields isn't playing more. He played 1 minute last night and while he did have a bad game against G-W, part of the pre-conference season is to get guys minutes in live-game situations, particularly freshmen. Chennault has 0 points in the first half and Fields still only got in for one minute. I don't really understand why.

Click to expand...

Tony had a really good game last night. After Smith went nuts it was Tony that slowed him down, and he'd been pressuring them all night setting the tone on defense. He blew one layup but had a clutch finish in crunch time and hit his free throws. His passing/vision is lacking, but he's superior in every other way to Fields. Much stronger, better handle, far better scorer, far better defender. Only 2 turnovers.

Chase had a nicer game than his stats indicate. Hit some huge 3's in clutch situations and really kept us in it. Played tough defense as well. His misses were all dead on - had 2 or 3 go around and out. He just needs to perfect his reverse finishes and get CJ to teach him that step-back elbow jumper and he'll be money.

We went with a CJ/Chase/Travis/Nikita/Carson lineup for a bit, but they immediately got trapped and beat up a bit. CJ's not quick enough to break the press and Chase is too small and doesn't quite have the handle. In came Tony and the press was worthless again.

McKie had a really off night. He only made one significant bucket really, and got abused a bit on defense. Gave up 2 score plus fouls, was out of position a few times, and struggled to rebound with only 3 defensive boards. Every player has off nights so no big deal, but the main thing is it was nice that we won without him. Going into the season I didn't think that was possible.

CJ is rock solid. His elbow step-back jumper is just brutal. One of our final possessions we ran the clock down to 6 seconds and he calmly drove and hit the game clincher. Seems to be finding his sweet spot.

Carson had a solid game as well. Played good defense, boxed out well but lost his legs a bit in the 2nd half. Hit a nice pop out jumper and a tough jumper out of a spin move. Still not strong enough with the ball, especially on rebounds. In the 2nd half he lost a lot of boards where he had position but just didn't fight hard enough. Still a big improvement over earlier in the year though, I think Ty being in is helping him.

Was buzz wearing a 1980's teenager's tie?

Do we keep giving up career nights as a function of weak perimeter defense, lack of depth to allow for more aggression, or a lack of size and athleticism on the wings?

Maybe it's a combination of all three.

It seems to happen far too often to be bad luck or a coincidence.