Gotta love Forbes for how he handled. Wish we had the post game interview with Manning after the UVA debacle. I'm sure it is rich with quotes.....
Here's my game story from that night, with several quotes in it. Enjoy?
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Wake Forest has yet to put together 40 minutes of solid basketball in a game all season.
Tuesday night against No. 11 Virginia, the Deacs played well for 38-and-a-half minutes.
It wasn’t enough.
The Cavs scored 18 points in the final 1:16 of action to erase a 10-point Wake lead.
A banked in 3-pointer at the buzzer by Darius Thompson — his first points of the game — gave Virginia an improbable 72-71 victory.
"This is a very disappointing and tough L to take. They're all tough. To be in a situation where we have a lead for 35 minutes of a game and not come away with a win, it's just tough,” Wake coach Danny Manning said. “A lot of people will look at the last play of the game, but to me, throughout the last five to six minutes of the game, we didn't meet the basketball a couple of times, we didn't square up strong with the basketball.
“We had some opportunities to go to the free throw line and knock some free throws down and we didn't do that. They continued to battle and created some good fortune."
A dozen or so members of the Joel Coliseum security team had formed at the end zone near the Wake student section, in preparation for a potential rushing of the court. Instead the students looked to each other trying to figure out just how the Deacs managed to lose a game in which they once were in complete control.
There are plenty of variables that led to the collapse, but the most striking comes on the defensive end. Wake had limited the Cavs to just 43.2 percent shooting, with UVA only connecting on 1-of-11 attempts behind the arc for the first 37 minutes.
After missing 12 of its first 14 3-point attempts, UVA drained the last three — all in the final 14 seconds.
“As a whole, I think we’d thought we’d won it already,” Wake senior guard Codi Miller-McIntyre said. “Coach told us to finish the game and reminded us we hadn’t won yet. We just got too excited and made tiny mistakes — lack of attention to details.”
Thompson hit the game winner from the corner with Devin Thomas lunging at him. The shot banked in as the clock moved to 0:00 and the Deacs slumped off the court in disbelief.
“Miracle shot,” Wake forward Devin Thomas said. “Once in a lifetime shot, but it’s our fault for putting ourselves in that situation to begin with.”
The Deacs also left several points on the table with missed free throws. After starting 9-for-11 from the charity stripe, the Deacs were just 10-for-18 in the final 3:26. Hitting just one or two more drastically changes the complexion of the contest, as UVA began extending the game with an intentional foul on Cornelius Hudson at the 1:57 mark (he missed the front end of a bonus).
The loss puts a damper on what could have been considered the breakout performance for this team and the signature home win during coach Manning’s tenure (he’s yet to beat a ranked team at home).
"I thought we shared the ball well. The ball moved. In the first half, we were able to get the ball into the paint. I think almost all of our points in the first half resulted from getting the ball inside,” Manning said. “We were able to swing the ball and create some offense. I thought some guys made timely shots early on and then in the second half, but all of that doesn't matter. We lost the game."
Guards Bryant Crawford and Codi Miller-McIntyre had arguably their best game together since Miller-McIntyre’s return to the squad after preseason foot surgery.
Crawford shined driving to the bucket and connecting from long range, and was energetic throughout. He finished with 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting, going 3-for-5 behind the arc. Miller-McIntyre found creases in the Virginia man defense and created for his teammates. He finished with five points, four rebounds and eight assists.
Senior forward Devin Thomas had 14 points and six rebounds, but missed some of the second half after spraining his left ankle. He got treatment and returned to a huge ovation from the partisan Wake crowd after missing just a little over four minutes of action.
I've given my heart and soul to this school and this program. This just hurts, man. It really does," Thomas said.
His thunderous dunk (and one) over UVA’s Malcolm Brogdon with 1:23 left gave Wake a 10-point lead and seemed to seal the game.
"I hope they don't sleep tonight. I hope it burns. I hope they stay up all night tossing and turning. That's what I told them,” Manning said. “I don't think you lose the locker room after a loss like this because a lot of these mistakes you give Virginia credit. We talk about attention to detail a lot at practice and we have to continue to do that. We also have to get better."
Efforts to right the ship and stop what is now a five-game losing streak won’t come easy. The Deacs travel to No. 25 Notre Dame for a noon tipoff Sunday.
“This one hurt really bad. We just gave it away. Everybody is upset,” Miller-McIntyre said. “We have to do some self reflection and come in tomorrow with a positive attitude. If we don’t, it’s going to be a long week and a long season.”
“It hurts a lot. You have to fight through adversity — just keep fighting and fighting and hopefully something good with come out of it. We have to come in tomorrow with a great mindset and realize crazier things have happened. 1-7, but crazier things have happened. We can either let this continue to beat us and have a straight downhill year, or we can turn it around and be special.”