University of North Carolina Athletics
Wake Forest Game Guide
January 20, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
No. 24/23 North Carolina (12-6, 1-2) will try to even up its ACC record against Wake Forest (12-4, 2-2). Carolina lost its first home game this season to Georgia Tech on Saturday, 73-71. Carolina is 11-1 at home and 1-5 outside of Chapel Hill. Wake Forest lost 90-70 at Duke on Sunday night. The Deacons are 4-3 outside of Winston-Salem and 8-1 at home, but after starting 4-1 on the road, the Deacons have dropped two straight, both in ACC play. Carolina leads the all-time series with Wake, 151-64. Carolina is 70-18 at home in the series and 17-4 in the Smith Center. Wake Forest's last win in the Smith Center came in triple-overtime in December of 2003, Roy Williams' first ACC game.
Game Time: Wake Forest at North Carolina, 7:00 PM.
Last Time: No. 3 Carolina lost at No. 4 Wake Forest 92-89 on January 11, 2009. Carolina got within three twice in the final minute, including a Will Graves three-pointer that cut it to two with 4.7 seconds left, but Jeff Teague made 1-of-2 foul shots. Carolina shot just 35.1% for the game and committed 18 turnovers. Danny Green led Carolina with 22 points and added six rebounds and five steals. Tyler Hansbrough and Wayne Ellington had 17 each but combined to shoot just 7-of-25. Ty Lawson had nine points on 4-of-12 shooting, five assists and four turnovers. Jeff Teague led Wake with 34 points (13-of-15 free throws). Chas McFarland had 20 points and a team-high nine rebounds. Tyler Hansbrough led all players with 11 rebounds.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will begin at 6:00 PM.
Injury Report: Larry Drew II hyper-extended his knee against Georgia Tech, but is expected to play. Ed Davis sprained his ankle during that game and is a game-time decision. Tyler Zeller is out with a stress fracture.
Storylines
An early sense of urgency: Roy Williams has had to repeat himself quite a bit this season, and he has continued to say the same thing after each valiant comeback attempt Carolina has made - had 1-2 plays been different, earlier on, the comeback may not have fallen short. "We made 12 field goals the whole second half. We shot 35% and cut the lead from 19 to take the lead, and so I did like that," Williams said. "I like the fact that they were not willing to just give up. But I'm not real big on getting moral victories during a game because I tell them that my teams are supposed to come back. You're supposed to play until the very end." Will Graves, who has been a Carolina fan most of his life, wants his team to live up to the tradition. He knows that especially when Carolina seems vulnerable, teams will push hard to get what is still a marquee win. "It's just a matter of us wanting to beat someone instead of everyone else wanting to beat us," Graves said. "I just feel like we have to have that want-to to defend the tradition and defend what it is to be a Tar Heel basketball player. Instead of people wanting to say, `Oh, we beat Carolina,' we should be like, `We want to beat them.'"
In the first ten or so minutes of three ACC games (32 total), Carolina has been outscored 89-37 (an average of 17.3) and has 29 turnovers, nearly a turnover per minute. Carolina's three ACC opponents have attempted 35 more shots than Carolina in that span and Carolina has turned the ball over on nearly 40% of its possessions, committing more turnovers (29) than making field goals (14). Carolina's opponents made 38 field goals in that span while turning it over just eight times. But after that initial flat start in the first ten minutes, Carolina has outscored its opponents 176-131 (an average of 15 points) and committed 32 turnovers, dropping its loss of ball percentage to 17.3 percent. But as the numbers indicate, those numbers aren't enough to overcome the holes Carolina has put itself into based on that first ten minutes of each game. Roy Williams wants his team to average 0.85 points per possession or higher and limit opponents to 0.75 or below. In the final 30 minutes of each ACC game, his team is averaging 0.95 per possession and limiting opponents to 0.73. But in the bad stretches, Carolina has averaged 0.5 and opponents 1.01. Carolina has gotten progressively worse during that first stretch in each league game; it averaged 0.67 against Virginia Tech, 0.44 at Clemson and 0.39 against Georgia Tech. Carolina has also increased its loss of ball in that span from 33% against Virginia Tech to 40.7% against Clemson and 43.5% against Georgia Tech.
Carolina thrived on "garbage" (second-chance points and points off turnovers) early on, converting 31 offensive boards and opponent turnovers into points 54.2% of the time pre-ACC play. Opponents got just 29.7 "garbage" chances and converted 42.2% of them into scores. ACC opponents have had 33.3 garbage possessions and turned them into 30.7 points, scoring on 43 percent. Those baskets have accounted for over 41% of the points Carolina has allowed in league play while the Tar Heels have had 26.7 garbage opportunities and scored on just 35%, averaging 19.3 points. Carolina is giving its opponents too many opportunities, either through turnovers or missed box-outs, to score. And Carolina can't just expect ACC opponents to return the favor. "You can't expect things to be given to you. In the ACC, people don't give you wins. In the ACC, you have to play and you have to take the wins. You have to compete and you have to compete with your brain," Williams said.
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports network at the game: The in-stadium frequency in the Smith Center will be FM 92.7. That station will have a non-delayed feed of WCHL 1360, the local affiliate.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
ESPN coverage: The game will be available on ESPN. In an announcer switch, normal NBA announcers Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson and Mike Breen will have the call.
Names To Know
Will Graves: Carolina is 2-4 when Graves attempts 10 or more field goals, but it's certainly no fault of Graves. In those two wins he has made 11-of-21 shots and 5-of-13 three's compared to 14-of-46 and 13-of-30 three's in the losses. But in his last six games, he has hit 20-of-38 three's (52.6%) compared to 28.6% in the first 11. In ACC games, he is Carolina's leading scorer (15.3 points) and second-leading rebounder (5.7). He leads the team in ACC field-goal attempts (34), made field goals (13) and free-throw attempts and makes (10-of-13). His career-high 24 points against Georgia Tech nearly won Carolina the game, but his role Wednesday might be a little different. As Carolina faces a lack of post depth with Ed Davis' potential absence, he might have to slide down and play the four-spot. "I'm always ready to step in wherever. I do some in practice. It might be a little awkward running a couple plays, but I could just about play any position just by paying attention to what's going on in practice," Graves said.
Deon Thompson: Carolina's most experienced post player, becomes so much more important if Ed Davis cannot play. He is first among Carolina's starters in ACC field-goal percentage (52.6%) but he has taken just 19 shots. He is averaging just five rebounds in league play compared to 7.4 pre-ACC. He has attempted 9.3 shots in six losses to 11.8 in 12 wins; Carolina has a 2-3 record when Thompson attempts fewer than ten field goals and 0-2 when he scores below ten points. Williams used to want Tyler Hansbrough to get at least 20 "touches" per contest (free-throw attempts and field-goal attempts). Obviously, that's too much to ask of Thompson alone. But in Carolina's six losses, he and Davis have combined for 29 touches per game and 24.5 points; in 12 wins, they had 31.2 touches and 31.8 points. Thompson has averaged 17 touches and 16.8 points in 12 Carolina wins compared to 13.3 touches and 11 points in six losses. In ACC play, Thompson has turned 30 "touches" into 29 points, but just ten touches per game are not going to be enough. Carolina will need him to be more aggressive and it will have to be a team effort to make Carolina's inside game work in a halfcourt offense.
Al-Farouq Aminu: Wake Forest's talented 6-9 sophomore forward has been fantastic this season, averaging 17.6 points (fifth in the league) and 11.6 rebounds (first). He also leads the league in offensive rebounds with 4.5 per game; Carolina has already faced three of the top ten offensive rebounders in the league and allowed them to pull down a combined 12, including seven by Victor Davila of Virginia Tech. He also leads the league in defensive rebounds with 7.1 per game. He's been instrumental in Wake's league wins, shooting 56.3% and averaging 21 points and 13 rebounds compared to 33.3% shooting, 15 points and 11 rebounds in two league losses. He also has pulled down 20 of Wake's 67 offensive rebounds in four ACC games, including 12 of their 35 offensive boards in two wins. Last year against Carolina, he struggled with foul trouble, eventually fouling out in 30 minutes but scoring nine points on 3-of-8 shooting to go with six rebounds, four assists, a steal and three blocked shots.
Ishmael Smith: The senior point guard has been through quite a bit in his career at Wake Forest, but this year he is leading a young team to exceed expectations so far. He has improved immensely, ranking 17th in the league in scoring (12.6 points per game), fourth in assists (5.9), third in steals (1.9) and fourth in assist-turnover ratio (2.1). He also leads the league in minutes played. He's still not a great shooter, shooting 42.3% from the floor, 21.9% from beyond the arc and 44.2% from the foul line. In ACC play alone, he has averaged 11 points, 6.5 assists and two steals with a 2.6 assist-to-turnover ratio. Smith has always been one of the fastest point guards in the league and perhaps the nation; he is now finally able to harness that speed. Carolina's ability to get back in transition will be huge in this game.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
