MBB: Duke @ Wake Forest (Tue 12/20, 6:30 pm, ACCN) Pre-Game and In-Game Thread

[DavidBenAkiva]

Amid a desert of 20 days with just one game on the schedule, the Blue Devils will travel to Winston-Salem to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons for the first true road game of the season. Head Coach Steve Forbes won the ACC Coach of the Year award last season following a surprise 5th place finish that had Wake Forest oh-so-close to an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. The Deacons settled for the NIT and went to the Quarterfinals behind the performance of ACC Player of the Year Alondes Williams and star wing Jake LaRavia. They, along with big man Dallas Walton, were surprise stars that Steve Forbes found in the transfer portal. This year's squad is looking to replicate the success of last year and may have found at least one new star transfer.

The name to know for Wake Forest is Tyree Appleby, the diminutive PG (6'1" 170 lbs) is leading the ACC in scoring this season at 19.1 pts and chips in 5.5 asts (2nd in the ACC) and 3.7 rebs for good measure. He was a big-time scorer at Cleveland State for two seasons before transferring to Florida and taking on a more complementary role for two seasons. Now in his last year in college, Appleby is scoring and dishing out assists again. He is making better than 44% of his 3-point shots on the season to date and has been as effective at all three levels. So far, the scoring guard is replicating the success of his predecessor, Alondes Williams. Behind Appleby, Forbes has a pair of other short guards, including a plus-shooting 6'1" SR G Daivien Williamson and 6'1" SO G Jao Ituka. Williamson began the year in the starting lineup but has moved to the bench lately in favor of more height and defense.

Forbes has found a pair of incumbents to help pick up the hole in the roster caused by the departure of LaRavia, a surprise NBA Draft pick last summer. A pair of wings, 6'4" SO G Cameron Hildreth and 6'6" JR G/F Damari Monsanto have moved into the starting lineup as the season has progressed. Hildreth has improved his all-around game after freshman season with few highlights. The British import is better known as a defender but is now the second-leading scorer on the team and is the leading rebounder at 6.7 rebs per game. Monsanto is a gunner. The former ETSU transfer suffered an Achilles Tendon tear in 2021 but was able to get back on the court well ahead of schedule last season. This year, his role has expanded and he is starting to consistently play 20+ minutes. Wake doesn't really have any other wings on the bench with Carr and Monsanto now in the starting lineup. They tend to go small with Williamson when they go to the bench. Lucas Taylor, a 6'5" SO G, was in the starting rotation before a foot injury in late November. I am unsure how long he will be out.

LaRavia played more a stretch-4 role for Wake Forest last season. To help fill the role, former Delaware 6'10" F Andrew Carr has come in and played valuable minutes. Carr looked like a stretch-4 after hitting better than 40% from 3 last season for the Blue Hens but has regressed in that department below 30% on higher volume this year. He is fairly mobile and effective when out there even if his shot isn't falling. Behind Carr is the intriguing 6'10" F Bobi Klintman, a Swede that played with Mark Mitchell at Sunrise Christian Academy last season. Klintman had originally committed to Maryland and Mark Turgeon before rethinking his future. He is long and athletic with flashes of great upside. He has yet to put it all together for the Deacons this year.

The Demon Deacons have not found as much success finding replacements for Walton in the frontcourt. The year began with big, mobile 7'1" SO C Mike Marsh, in the starting lineup. Marsh is from Barcelona. He moved to the bench and now 6'10" FR Zach Keller has started and played almost 15 mpg as the starting 5-man. Keller is not averaging much in the way of points, rebounds, assists, or blocks, so it remains to be seen how long he'll stay in the starting lineup. Behind Keller and Marsh is the Kansas State transfer, 7'0" 270 lbs JR C Davion Bradford. He is more of a plodding type of C but gives Forbes a little shot blocking and scoring around the rim when he's in.

Wake Forest plays a quick tempo under Forbes and does a good job scoring the ball. Without Williams, LaRavia, and Walton as well as SR Isaiah Mucius, this season's squad is not quite as offensively potent as last year's squad. They are younger, which has mostly shown up in the defense. Pairing the super-small Appleby with the similarly small Williamson was not getting the job done on that end. The offense has stalled somewhat in recent games against Clemson (77-57 L on the road) and LSU (72-70 L on a neutral court). Forbes has a home game against Appalachian State on 12/14 and a road game at Rutgers this weekend to continue to tinker with the rotations.

Appleby is clearly the engine that drives the offense for Wake Forest. Slowing him down will be key. Duke will hope that Jeremy Roach will be healthy enough to take on the task of slowing the Wake Forest PG. Jaylen Blakes could also be asked to step into the role of defending at the point of attack. Duke should have some advantages up front with Filipowski and Lively having height advantages over Carr and Keller. Young will most likely play against the much thicker Marsh and Bradford. This game could come down to the wings with Proctor, Whitehead, Mitchell, and Grandison having to outmatch Carr and Monsanto. The Wake Forest roster is fairly deep, but few players are capable of being All-ACC caliber types. Appleby has surprised so far and anything is possible in a road matchup. How rusty will Duke look following an extended layoff? This is an interesting game for an interesting Duke team that is searching for its true identity. What team will show up on the 20th?

[AGDukesky]

Good write-up as usual. More experienced Duke teams than this one have fallen flat in the first ACC road game enough times to make me worried. Wake is good enough to win but likely needs another shaky offensive game from Duke to do it. Our defense should match-up well and our typical balanced scoring should be able to succeed. This is a game where Young and Grandison will be needed to help the Frosh- especially if Roach is out or less than 100%. My prediction is without Roach we lose and with him healthy we win, but I wouldn’t bet money on either…

[roywhite]

Coach Scheyer with a 1.5 - 0 record vs Wake Forest?

Coach K did not travel to Winston-Salem last January due to a non-Covid illness; Scheyer stepped in to guide Duke to a 76-64 win. Then in the February rematch in Cameron, Coach K was not feeling well, left the bench at halftime. The Blue Devils led 42-33 at half, but the Deacs came on strong in the 2nd half. Mark Williams had a key followup dunk with 0.4 seconds left to give Duke a 2-point lead, but the drama was not over until a full-court inbounds pass from Wake bounced off the rim.

There have been some difficult nights at LJVM in Winston where the foul calls seem to come early and often vs the Blue Devils.

[budwom]

This is the time of year when some fail to remember how tough ACC road games can be, even against opponents who don't look great on paper.

[gumbomoop]

Amid a desert of 20 days with just one game on the schedule, the Blue Devils will travel to Winston-Salem to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons for the first true road game of the season... How rusty will Duke look following an extended layoff?

The difference between these teams’ schedules in the 10 days leading up to this one is striking, owing to different academic calendars. Wake plays 2 games this week, Duke none. Scheyer and staff will certainly have plenty of info on how Wake is playing right now, and an extra day or 2 to prepare for the game. Wake will have the advantage of being in rhythm of regular game-competition compared to Duke’s layoff.

The rhythm v. rust stuff could be telling, as could Duke frosh being unprepared for away ACC crowds. (No idea about Wake students and holiday break??)

Duke’s much the better team. Hope the defender never leaves Monsanto-the-shooter, and that we don’t fall in love with the 3, but attack, attack to the rim.

[MChambers]

Duke’s much the better team. Hope the defender never leaves Monsanto-the-shooter, and that we don’t fall in love with the 3, but attack, attack to the rim.

Although I agree that Duke should attack down low, it's worth noting that Wake thus far gives up an absurd number of threes: 46% of their opponents' shots, which is #346th (higher number means more 3s allowed) in Division 1.

[SkyBrickey]

This is a great first ACC road game for us. It will be a pumped up hostile crowd, but we’ve clearly got the talent advantage.

Yes, hopefully Jeremy is ready to play. His experience will be important to help keeping us settled.

[roywhite]

This is a great first ACC road game for us. It will be a pumped up hostile crowd, but we’ve clearly got the talent advantage.

Yes, hopefully Jeremy is ready to play. His experience will be important to help keeping us settled.

Doesn't have to be a hostile crowd; tickets available in the secondary market and also through the WF Ticket Office -- primarily upper level, but a chance for Triad residents and others to catch a Duke game on the road
https://godeacs.evenue.net/cgi-bin/n...&siteId=ev_wfu

[SavDukeGrad]

Coach Scheyer with a 1.5 - 0 record vs Wake Forest?

Coach K did not travel to Winston-Salem last January due to a non-Covid illness; Scheyer stepped in to guide Duke to a 76-64 win. Then in the February rematch in Cameron, Coach K was not feeling well, left the bench at halftime. The Blue Devils led 42-33 at half, but the Deacs came on strong in the 2nd half. Mark Williams had a key followup dunk with 0.4 seconds left to give Duke a 2-point lead, but the drama was not over until a full-court inbounds pass from Wake bounced off the rim.

There have been some difficult nights at LJVM in Winston where the foul calls seem to come early and often vs the Blue Devils.

I was at the game at Wake last year. It was the first game AJ started, and he had quite a coming out party. Paolo, as usual, dazzled with several spectacular plays. And, of course, I got to watch Scheyer coach one of his first games.

Wake had exams last week, so the students will be gone (unless, I guess, they live nearby). There are a lot of Wake grads in the Winston area and, although attendance really suffered during their recent lean years, they tend to turn out for the Duke game. There are also a lot of Duke fans in the area, and it is a really good chance to see a Duke game at less than Cameron prices if you live nearby. Last year, I would say the split was probably 60% Wake, 40% Duke fans. In prior years, it was probably closer to 50/50.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Wake Forest had a thrilling ending to its game against App State on Wednesday night. Andrew Carr nailed a catch-and-shoot fadeaway at the buzzer to win the game, 67-66. The thrilling ending, however, masked a couple of troubling developments for Wake Forest.

During the postgame presser, Head Coach Steve Forbes had this to say about his decision to bench Damari Monsanto:

“With Damari, it’s more about standard and expectations,” Forbes said. “I love him. I respect him. But there’s a standard, you’ve got to live with me every day at practice. And if you don’t do it, you don’t just automatically get to play. He knows that. God bless him, love him, but he knows how I operate. We had a really good practice yesterday. He wasn’t much a part of that. It will continue that way until that changes. He’ll fix it, or he won’t. But I’m not budging. We need him. But there’s just a certain level of expectations and standard that I have in practice. And he just didn't do it.”

Source: https://www.si.com/college/wake-fore...alachian-state

Perhaps more troubling for Wake is that star PG Tyree Appleby, who was nursing an injured ankle suffered earlier in the week, had to be helped off the court and to the locker room after App State hit a go-ahead 3 with less than 3 seconds remaining. Appleby's status is not known at this time. Losing him any stretch of time would be huge. Losing both him and Monsanto would be a really big blow.

Wake plays Rutgers on Saturday. We'll see if they are at full strength before next week's matchup with Duke.

[gumbomoop]

No idea whether Monsanto will play against Duke. But if he does, I’d nominate him as the embodiment of the fans’ wail, “Don’t leave the 3-point shooter!”

Monsanto has 88 FGAs this season. Exactly 75% of his FGAs — 66 — have been 3-pt tries (3P% of 37.9) He has attempted a grand total of 3 FTs this season.

Don’t leave the 3-bomber, if he plays.

[CasualObserver]

Wake did beat now #22 Wisconsin on the road on the strength of Appleby’s scoring, so apparently they can be capable of strong play. ESPN’s computer has it 60/40% right now. Their play (and roster) against Rutgers should allow for more up to date forecasting.

While the ‘on-the-road’ is negative feature, I am choosing to believe the dedicated practice time for this young group will be far more valuable than the ‘away from game time’ rust accumulation….especially for more efficient offensive sets.

[chrishoke]

FYI, Appleby started today against Rutgers and looks fine.

[budwom]

Appleby and Monsanto, eh? You guys are making up the names, right?

[DukieInBrasil]

Appleby and Monsanto, eh? You guys are making up the names, right?

You haven't heard about their other players Old McDonald, Steve Apple, Star Buck, Insta Graham, Jersey Mike, and Burger King?

[CasualObserver]

Appleby started but did not really produce…

https://www.si.com/college/wake-fore...-rutgers-81-57

Reads like defensive pressure works well against Wake.

[chrishoke]

Appleby started but did not really produce…

He scored 10 points in the 1st half but picked up 3 quick fouls early in the 2nd half and sat w/ 4 fouls.

[DavidBenAkiva]

Wake had their worst defensive performance of the season against Rutgers and ended up on the losing end of an 81-57 affair. Rutgers has the 125th-ranked Adjusted Offensive Efficiency according to KenPom. The Wake defense has fallen apart in the past few games. It wasn't like one guy got hot for Rutgers, either. The leading scorer for the Scarlet Knights was a bench player, Cam Spencer, with 15 points. Rutgers didn't shoot that well from 3, either, hitting 6 of 19 from downtown. It was domination around the rim, where Rutgers hit 18-20 FG attempts at the rim according to T-Rank. Steve Forbes must miss Dallas Walton this year. They can't stop teams from getting to or scoring at the rim.

[gumbomoop]

Do not double anyone, leaving Monsanto, ever.

He responded superbly today from his one-game DNP-CD. For the season, 76% of his shots are 3s. Shooting 39.7% on those 3s. He did double his season total FTAs today, from 3 to 6. But he’s a 3-bomber, almost exclusively.

Don’t leave him.

[MChambers]

Do not double anyone, leaving Monsanto, ever.

He responded superbly today from his one-game DNP-CD. For the season, 76% of his shots are 3s. Shooting 39.7% on those 3s. He did double his season total FTAs today, from 3 to 6. But he’s a 3-bomber, almost exclusively.

Don’t leave him.

This guy Monsanto sounds like a real pest.