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2021-22 Wake Forest Basketball Season - 25-9 (13-7), KP#33

Resilient Deac said:
Harvey Hale.

We were down significantly in regulation, or at least it felt like we were at the time. I told my friends I was with that if we came back and win I would streak in a public area of their choice. At the time I was 19 and had a fake ID, so drinking at a bar and watching the game. Well, yeah, so I ended up streaking, almost got arrested, ducked into some woods and got away on foot from LEO. Was it worth it? Oh Hale yeah!
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nothing wrong with streaking, whether it's the quad or through the benson center during dinner
 
Deaconblue said:
Forbes has a whole lot of tools in his toolbox this year. The season-long core 6 can score, pass, rebound, handle the ball and defend at a very high level. How many teams have a 7 footer and a 6-10 guy who can bring the ball up court? Not many.
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I was think this as well. We have a team of player that can do the basics, run, catch, shoot, pass and play defense. We've had teams where we only wanted or PG to handle the ball. I had the same thought on Walton, not that I want him dribbling the ball up, but usually big guys look super uncomfortable doing that.

DownEastDeac said:
Nobody much follows college basketball until March anyway, so ranked or not, pretty easy to stay off the radar until the tournament. Auburn at #1 for the 1st time for example is a nice story, but it's not like they've got a Crimson Tide fb target on their back.
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Rankings always matter. As a top 25 team we would have had a clip on ESPN and get highlighted in any media's Top 25 recap. We are going to need to replace some key pieces next year, I'd rather not have to have Forbes find another Alondes to keep us on track. I'd rather them start finding us.
 
The Athletic (Eamonn Brennan) Bubble Watch

Work Left to Do

Wake Forest (17-4, 7-3; NET: 40, SOS: 114): Wake Forest is officially ahead of schedule. The Demon Deacons are better than anyone — maybe their second-year coach included — would have imagined, which is how you end up scheduling the 319th-best nonconference slate in the country. You see it time and again, when coaches don’t necessarily expect to be in the tournament hunt and just want to get some wins and build guys’ confidence. Wake’s season has gone so well that the nonconference schedule shouldn’t be enough to hold it back. At this point, we’d be surprised if this team doesn’t get into the field. The manner of Saturday’s win over UNC was the most impressive aspect of it. It wasn’t a narrow, borderline lucky win. It marked a total turnaround from the past decade of Wake hoops struggle. Then, Wake followed it up with an 87-57 win over Boston College Monday night, too, avoiding any hint of a letdown two days after Saturday’s symbolic breakthrough. There is something very real happening under Steve Forbes.
 
After our Miami game, we were #65 in Kenpom and had more or less been the same team from the start of the year to that point — pretty good on both ends but some inconsistencies that resulted in the close games with VMI/Charlotte (Jake was out for these), Oregon st, northwestern, loss to Louisville. Good trajectory but we hadn’t turned it up a notch yet.

In the 7 games starting with Florida St, we’ve been 16.9 points per 100 possessions better than our opponents in raw terms, which would be tops in ACC play. 5 were at home, so I’ll make the adjustment to each, and then I’ll adjust for opponent strength based on their Kenpom Adjusted Efficiency (what team’s overall rankings stem from). The result is:

Last 7: +25.61, which would be 9th in Kenpom, right between Kansas and Duke.
Last 4: +32.27, which would be #1.

Our defense has been consistently awesome, with an average PP100 of 89.9. Relative to what opponents had done on the season this has been great, ranging from +7 (Duke game) to +38, holding those 7 teams all below their season long adjusted offensive efficiency, and doing so by 19.8 points per 100 over that 7 game stretch.

The offense has been 7.9PP100 better on average than what those teams give up, with the first three averaging right at what our opponents give up and the three since Monsanto joined at 15.8 points better.
 
Haros said:
After our Miami game, we were #65 in Kenpom and had more or less been the same team from the start of the year to that point — pretty good on both ends but some inconsistencies that resulted in the close games with VMI/Charlotte (Jake was out for these), Oregon st, northwestern, loss to Louisville. Good trajectory but we hadn’t turned it up a notch yet.

In the 7 games starting with Florida St, we’ve been 16.9 points per 100 possessions better than our opponents in raw terms, which would be tops in ACC play. 5 were at home, so I’ll make the adjustment to each, and then I’ll adjust for opponent strength based on their Kenpom Adjusted Efficiency (what team’s overall rankings stem from). The result is:

Last 7: +25.61, which would be 9th in Kenpom, right between Kansas and Duke.
Last 4: +32.27, which would be #1.

Our defense has been consistently awesome, with an average PP100 of 89.9. Relative to what opponents had done on the season this has been great, ranging from +7 (Duke game) to +38, holding those 7 teams all below their season long adjusted offensive efficiency, and doing so by 19.8 points per 100 over that 7 game stretch.

The offense has been 7.9PP100 better on average than what those teams give up, with the first three averaging right at what our opponents give up and the three since Monsanto joined at 15.8 points better.
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That is the numbers. Very favorable to Wake.

Just looking, Wake gets a lot of easy baskets and wide open looks. Because of the defense, Wake's opponents don't get very many easy baskets or open looks. Even when opponents are shooting "close to the basket," they are still shooting over and around hands and arms of Wake defenders.
 
Deaconblue said:
That is the numbers. Very favorable to Wake.

Just looking, Wake gets a lot of easy baskets and wide open looks. Because of the defense, Wake's opponents don't get very many easy baskets or open looks. Even when opponents are shooting "close to the basket," they are still shooting over and around hands and arms of Wake defenders.
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That was definitely noticeable in the Carolina game. Jake was getting easy shots. Carolina was working hard for each bucket.
 
So, just hypothetically...if we ended the season where we are right now would we get a double bye in the ACCT? I honestly don't know the answer to that question. We have two more wins but one more loss in conference than Notre Dame.
 
It would be unreal to not have to play until Thursday and go back to only winning 3X to be the champ.
 
In the 15 years that I have been a Wake Forest fan we have won a grand total of 3, count ‘em 3, ACC tournament games. The mathematical likelihood of performing SO poorly over such a long period of time has to be very small.
 
It is especially since most of those games have been on Tuesday against fellow worst teams in the conference. Those are essentially 50/50 games.
 
SkyDivingDeacon said:
So, just hypothetically...if we ended the season where we are right now would we get a double bye in the ACCT? I honestly don't know the answer to that question. We have two more wins but one more loss in conference than Notre Dame.
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No. Wake is currently 5th by %. Miami & FSU [6-2, (.750)]>Notre Dame & Duke [5-2, (.714)> Wake [7-3 (.700)]. That loss to Loserville hurts right now.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
In the 15 years that I have been a Wake Forest fan we have won a grand total of 3, count ‘em 3, ACC tournament games. The mathematical likelihood of performing SO poorly over such a long period of time has to be very small.
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I feel the same way. I was a freshman in 08-09 and have only seen us win two conference tourney games, both of which were opening round games. Two wins in 13 years, and like Ph pointed out we've stunk for so long that almost all of those losses were against fellow cellar dwellers.
 
The loss @Louisville will only look bad if we don't paste them at the Joel. And if a 4 point loss @Louisville is our worst loss, then we've had a very good ACC season.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
In the 15 years that I have been a Wake Forest fan we have won a grand total of 3, count ‘em 3, ACC tournament games. The mathematical likelihood of performing SO poorly over such a long period of time has to be very small.
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Not when you throw Bzzboy and Dannyboy into the equation.
 
DeacsATS said:
The loss @Louisville will only look bad if we don't paste them at the Joel. And if a 4 point loss @Louisville is our worst loss, then we've had a very good ACC season.
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Yep. We get to avenge both of our road losses at home.
 
DeacsATS said:
The loss @Louisville will only look bad if we don't paste them at the Joel. And if a 4 point loss @Louisville is our worst loss, then we've had a very good ACC season.
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That was a "there is no f'ing way" game between the FT disparity calls and the Cards making some lol shots from 3. I expect we blow them out at home as they are folding now mid conference season.
 
WakeFanatic said:
ND has to have the easiest ACC schedule. They only play Duke, Wake, Miami, FSU and UNC once. Granted, the games against Wake, FSU and Miami all come on the road, but playing BC, Pitt and GT all twice will boost the record. Although they lost to BC by 16, which I’m not even sure how that’s possible based on what I just saw from that team.
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I thought about this on Saturday night when I realized they were 5-2. The only times I have watched them this season was the loss at BC and the game against Howard. Neither time were they impressive. Looked at their schedule, and I don’t know of a way it could have broken more easily.
 
Deac83 said:
I was think this as well. We have a team of player that can do the basics, run, catch, shoot, pass and play defense. We've had teams where we only wanted or PG to handle the ball. I had the same thought on Walton, not that I want him dribbling the ball up, but usually big guys look super uncomfortable doing that.



Rankings always matter. As a top 25 team we would have had a clip on ESPN and get highlighted in any media's Top 25 recap. We are going to need to replace some key pieces next year, I'd rather not have to have Forbes find another Alondes to keep us on track. I'd rather them start finding us.
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Wake needs to get ranked ASAP and stay ranked. Enough of this "hide under the radar" BS.

Get ranked. Get on Sports Center. Get in everybody's "Top 25 Roundup." Get better TV coverage. Profit.
 
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