MBB: Duke v Wake Forest (Sat, 1/9, 12:00 pm, ACCN) Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[DavidBenAkiva]

After a lot of rust was knocked off, Duke came back strong to earn a needed win on Wednesday night. They also did something they haven't in a long while: closed out the first half strong and came out of the gate with a head of steam in the second half against Boston College. Thanks to a couple of clutch shots and just enough free throws, the Blue Devils are riding a 3-week/2-game ACC winning streak. They look to continue their run through the ACC as Wake Forest is scheduled to visit on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, Wake Forest and new head coach Steve Forbes are able to make the drive along I-40 for the weekend matchup.

To put it mildly, Wake Forest is not good this year. They are 3-2 on the season but are 0-2 in ACC play with their wins coming against very weak teams, including one outside of D1. The Demon Deacons lost SR G Brandon Childress to graduation, C Olivier Sarr to Kentucky and G Chaundee Brown to Michigan, among others, after former head coach Danny Manning was finally let go. Steve Forbres brought in a number of transfers to the current team to help fill the gap until his own players are on the roster.

Forbes is still feeling out his roster at Wake, but he has turned to a familiar face to keep things somewhat consistent. Daivien Williamson, a 6'2" JR G transferred from ETSU with Forbes and gets the most minutes at roughly 30 per game. He is a light scorer but a pesky defender. A lot of the Wake lineup could be described this way. In fact, Wake is among the leaders in steal rate and forcing turnovers. The leading scorer and rebounder on the team is 6'8" JR F Isaiah Mucius but at just 11.8 pts/5.2 rebs per game. As a team, Wake really spreads out the scoring and have a number of quality 3-point shooters, including 6'8" SO F Ismael Masooud and 6'3" SO G Jahcobi Neath. Both can make shots from the perimeter, as can a pair of transfers, 6'6" SR Jalen Johnson (formerly of TN but coincidently hailing from Durham, NC) and 6'5" SR Jonah Antonio by way of Mount St Mary's and UNLV. Antonio is almost exclusively a long-range gunner and leads the team in point attempts and makes. Mucius and Massoud are backed up by 6'9" SO C Ody Oguama, who missed the soft half of the schedule before ACC play began. He is a promising player with a developing game.

Forbes prefers to hang his hat on defense and uses a pressing and trapping approach. That approach worked early on against lesser competition but has been less effective in ACC play. On Wednesday night, Virginia coughed the ball up just 6 times and shot almost 70% from 2-point range. On offense, Wake has shot the ball well and take a lot of 3-point attempts. They do not have a go-to scorer per se and rely on contributions from everyone to get the job done. On the whole, the team is overmatched most nights. They got blown out against Georgia Tech but held their own against Virginia for a while and even led by 5 at halftime. Duke will have a serious talent advantage against Wake. Like BC, there are a lot of players on the roster but not a cohesive unit that can execute the game plan. There are a lot of new faces for Steve Forbes in his first year. As we have seen, though, Duke has had trouble asserting itself on offense all year. Will the Blue Devils be able to knock off the rust and play closer to their potential on Saturday?

[Tripping William]

Assuming it happens, isn’t the game on January 9th (tomorrow)?

[budwom]

Assuming it happens, isn’t the game on January 9th (tomorrow)?

ha ha, someone was looking at his or her 2020 calendar, evidently. I'm still having trouble dating my checks 2021...

[CameronDuke]

I am interested to see how Steve Forbes does at Wake Forest. Seemed like kind of a random hire but a needed one after Danny Manning’s tenure which didn’t produce many wins.

Our ACC brethren to the West at Wake Forest have really fallen on hard times. I still remember the Tim Duncan and Chris Paul eras at Wake and how formidable of a team the Deacs used to put out during those days. I still feel for the program having to deal with Coach Skip Prosser’s sudden death. I don’t think they have fully recovered almost 14 years later.

I pull for Wake Forest to get back to the level they were at. But of course, not when they play Duke

[DavidBenAkiva]

Coach K continues to test negative. If he tests negative tomorrow morning, he'll coach on Saturday (assuming Wake Forest shows up).

Steven Wiseman at the N&O was the first to report this.

[uh_no]

Coach K continues to test negative. If he tests negative tomorrow morning, he'll coach on Saturday (assuming Wake Forest shows up).

Steven Wiseman at the N&O was the first to report this.

great news.

[roywhite]

ha ha, someone was looking at his or her 2020 calendar, evidently. I'm still having trouble dating my checks 2021...

You write checks?

How Old School (me, too.)

[devildeac]

Any Duke players in foul trouble yet?

(kidding, mostly )

[budwom]

You write checks?

How Old School (me, too.)

I know that's truly an olde farte thing...but I've had situations where some businesses make it exceptionally hard to cancel service, subscriptions, etc, so I don't mind writing a few checks per month.

Maybe this habit started by watching a friend who had the power company just debit his bank account every month, and one month they charged him $10,000 instead of $100, thereby bouncifying a bunch of other checks.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Wow. Wake has played even fewer games than we have.

[DukieTiger]

Any Duke players in foul trouble yet?

(kidding, mostly )

I think Nick Horvath fouled out just from reviewing Wake’s game film, which is disappointing because I heard he looked good in pickup games last summer.

[BlueDevilStop]

Duke-WF game preview and what to watch for.

https://bluedevilstop.com/duke-wake-...-game-preview/

[AZLA]

I don’t care how bad an ACC team may be that we might be playing; I’d be thrilled if Duke can win two in a row then three then so on... Moore has an opportunity to continue to expand his game. Need him to stay confident and keep on a roll.

[Tripping William]

Looks like K’s gonna coach, per Adam Rowe at TDD.

[chrishoke]

Adam Rowe
@AdamRoweTDD
Coach K will be back on the bench today vs Wake Forest https://247sports.com/college/duke/A...ils-158877795/ via
@TheDevilsDen

[DavidBenAkiva]

Great news for Jon Scheyer; he holds the best winning percentage as head coach at Duke all time.

[Tripping William]

Great news for Jon Scheyer; he holds the best winning percentage as head coach at Duke all time.

Did Scheyer get credited with the BC win? Or did Duke decide (in advance) that that one would be K’s?

[DukeBlue666s]

Did Scheyer get credited with the BC win? Or did Duke decide (in advance) that that one would be K’s?

Doesn’t matter ... we as the people know Scheyer has a perfect winning percentage! 😂

Honestly, I’d be thrilled if Scheyer took over for K!! I listened to a show somewhere where they proclaimed Scheyer as Dukes ‘Brad Stevens’. I know that’s a tall order, but Scheyer has done A LOT behind the scenes and with recruiting. I think Duke would be just fine in his hands! I could be in the minority here, though.

[devildeac]

Great news for Jon Scheyer; he holds the best winning percentage as head coach at Duke all time.

Even more impressive than Marshall Plumlee's career 3 point shooting %age at Duke.

[MarkD83]

The game is in Durham and there is only 70 minutes before tip time...

Is the WF team at Cameron yet?

If so both teams could get a W vs Covid

so right now WF has a record of 3-2 (0-2 / 5-2) and Duke is 4-2 (2-0 / 6-3)