Style Points in Scarce Supply
A question I wished I had asked Coach Dino Gaudio tonight was whether he was more concerned by the Deacons not scoring a field goal in the last 10 1/2 minutes or BC shooting 48.5 percent from the floor after halftime.
I have a hunch I know.
Defense is the first answer as to why the Deacons are 17-5 and 7-3 in the ACC. Ish Smith is having a lights out senior season and Al-Farouq Aminu is one of those wonderful talents that you feel lucky you get to watch play game after game. But that wouldn’t be enough to win seven of 10 games in the ACC without the less-stylish contributions, defense, rebounding and setting solid screens. If style points are your thing, this is not your team. The Deacons don’t blow anybody out, or at least they haven’t in ACC games (unless you define a 13-point win at Chapel Hill as a blowout). They’ve threatened to on repeated occasions, but have invariably found themselves on at least the cusp of concern by the long-awaited final horn. They’re not a great offensive team, the kind designed to blow other teams out, and it seems to always catch up to them somewhere along the way.
Last year was different. With Jeff Teague and James Johnson leading the attack, Wake won four ACC games by more than 15 points. This year, the 13-point win at UNC was the biggest, followed by the 12-point home win against Virginia. All the others have been inside 10 points, with two of them won in overtime. And it would take a brave man to argue that the conference is as good this season as last.
But the other thing that should be said about last year’s team was it slipped considerably on the defensive end in February and March. The final numbers were impressive. Wake ranked third in the ACC with a field-goal percentage defense of .398 and was second in ACC games only at .419. But the team that held North Carolina to 35 percent on Jan. 11 was not the same defensive team that was scorched by Clemson’s 51 percent on March 8. And that’s not just cherry-picking—only five of Wake’s first 18 opponents shot 40 percent or better, as compared to 11 of the final 13. And the two that didn’t shoot 40 percent shot 38 (FSU) and 39 (Maryland) percent.
That brings me back to the question I should have asked Dino. This year’s team has been holding steady on defense. Overall only eight of Wake’s 21 opponents have made at least 40 percent of their field goals, with Maryland astride the mark. But since the three-game sag during which Miami shot 46 percent, Maryland shot 40 and Duke shot 43, the Deacons, coming into tonight had allowed only one of its last five opponents to shoot 40 percent. So now, after BC’s 46 percent, it’s two of the last six. Most coaches could live with that, quite comfortably in fact.
Will Wake have to improve on offense to have a shot at post-season success? It obviously wouldn’t hurt. The Deacons looked mighty good scoring 75 points in 30 minutes tonight, and they should get all the credit in the world for making 17 of 22 free throws down the stretch to win the game. But they lost their range and missed their final eight field-goal attempts, which helped BC make the final score respectable. Maybe their offensive lapses will doom them at the most inopportune time this season, but, on the other hand, maybe the freshmen C.J. Harris and Ari Stewart will find even firmer footing down the stretch and maybe L.D. Williams will continue to be as assertive offensively as he was tonight and maybe Chas McFarland will build on his 14 points, 11 rebound performance. We’ll see, and we won’t have to wait long with games against Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech coming up in the next week.
Regardless of whether Wake jells offensively, the heartbeat of the team is its defense. The Deacons aren’t the 1981 Indiana Hoosiers defensively, but on their best days they will guard you. And if they keep guarding, they’ve got their best chance to keep playing.
And that, I’m pretty sure, is the answer to the question.