University of North Carolina Athletics
Wake Forest Game Guide
February 27, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
The Basics
North Carolina (14-14, 3-10) will try to win its second true road game this year at Wake Forest (18-7, 8-5). Both teams are trying to snap losing streaks; Wake Forest has lost two in a row and Carolina has lost three straight and seven of eight. The Tar Heels are coming off of a 77-67 loss to Florida State at home on Wednesday night. Wake Forest is Carolina's third straight opponent with a week off. Last Saturday, the Deacons lost at NC State, 68-54. Carolina leads the all-time series with Wake Forest, 151-65. The Tar Heels have won four of the last six meetings, but Wake Forest has won the last two. Carolina is 54-30 at Wake Forest and 10-9 in Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum. Carolina has lost two of its last four trips to Winston-Salem, winning there in 2006 and 2007 but losing in 2005 and 2009. Carolina has more wins against Wake Forest than any other team but the two old rivals have played each other just seven times since expansion in 2005.
Game Time: North Carolina at Wake Forest, 2:00 PM.
Last Time: Wake Forest handed Carolina its second home loss of the season at that time, 82-69, on January 20. Carolina shot just 36.6% from the floor, including 34.3% in the second half. Wake Forest shot 50% for the game and 53.6% in the second half. Carolina had just nine turnovers but simply could not seem to score and could not stop Wake Forest. Will Graves led Carolina with 16 points but he shot just 5-of-13 from the floor. He did have a team-high eight rebounds. Deon Thompson and Travis Wear each added 13 points. Ish Smith led Wake Forest with 20 points. Freshman C.J. Harris also had 20 points on 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. Al-Farouq Aminu finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman Ari Stewart added 11 points, including 3-of-4 three's.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage will began at 1:00 PM.
Storylines
Finding consistency: The good stretches Carolina has had this season have made the bad ones stand out, if for no other reason than how maddening it can be to see this group play well and then completely lose it. Whether it's from game to game or, more often than not, within a game, it's been the story of this year. "I think we've continued to show tiny glimpses of the times when we seem to have it together but can't seem to drag it out long enough for us to do anything to get things going for us," Marcus Ginyard said. It's somewhat telling that Carolina have had three of its top six performances in defensive points per possession in losses. In all three - Kentucky, Georgia Tech and Florida State - Carolina has gotten itself into such a big hole that it was too difficult to climb out of, and had Carolina played that kind of defense the whole game, it might not be in that situation. All three of those teams had top seven offensive points per possession performances against Carolina in the first half. The 1.23 points per possession Carolina allowed to the offensively-challenged Seminoles were the most it has allowed all season in a first half. And the most points per possession Carolina has allowed in the first half in a win is 0.97 in the first NC State win, largely because Carolina scored 0.97 as well.
In the first half against Kentucky, Carolina had its third-worst points per possession performance and allowed the second-worst. Carolina had its worst first-half performance at Georgia Tech (an awful 0.38) and allowed the 7th-most. But what set apart the Florida State game slightly is that Carolina had 0.89 points per possession in the first half, a figure that was its best in a first half since that first NC State game. It was Carolina's 24% loss of ball that killed the Tar Heels' chances. "We put ourselves in too deep of a hole - just silly turnovers, and they were making shots. I seem to say that every week," John Henson said. "The second half we played like we should, but we were so far behind that it's tough to get out of the hole." Henson alluded to something that the Tar Heels have often been mentioning after each game, how a player has come seemingly out of nowhere to drop a career high on the Tar Heels. This is not the first year this has happened, and it won't be the last, but the difference is that this group seems almost shocked while it's happening and can't respond whereas past Carolina teams would end up winning those games. Carolina beat BC at BC despite Tyrese Rice scoring over 40 points, and beat them by double digits The Tar Heels simply have to be tough enough to respond when teams bring their best effort against them. Teams are no longer scared or intimidated by them, for obvious reasons. Wake Forest's freshmen certainly weren't, and they definitely won't be in their own gym.
And it doesn't matter that the Deacons have shot 25.8% in the eight games since the first meeting with Carolina, just as it didn't matter that Maryland has made just 19-of-56 three's in four games since unleashing 12-of-23 on Carolina. It doesn't matter that FSU had made 19-of-60 three's in its last three games and 28.3% in ACC play prior to making 11-of-24 against Carolina. It didn't matter that Wake Forest had made 15-of-49 three's in its first four ACC games before making 9-of-16 against Carolina. The Deacons haven't made nine threes in their last three games combined; Wake Forest is actually in a bit of a slump shooting the ball. They shot 0-of-12 against NC State, the first time the Deacons had gone without a three since 1992, and have made just 3-of-27 in their last two games. But even if a player is not supposed to be a shooter, it's easier to make three's when Carolina's defense isn't closing on the shooters quickly enough. Wake's confident freshmen, never shy to shoot three's, combined to make 7-of-11 at Carolina and have made a combined 15-of-61 in eight games since. It wasn't just a fluke; Carolina gave up perhaps the most open looks from three it has given up all season against Wake Forest. So Carolina has to do what it can to fix it and play aggressive, disrupting defense on the perimeter rather than worrying about which ACC guard will be next to have a hot day. "It's the `woe is me' kind of thing, everybody does things against us. The other thing is, we've got to play better defense. We've got to get there and challenge them more," Williams said.
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 invariably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
CBS coverage: The game will be shown on CBS. Dan Bonner and Kevin Harlan will have the call.
Names To Know
John Henson: The freshman has had a remarkable transformation this year, pulling down 42 rebounds in the last six games after nabbing just 49 in his first 22 games. Even after his switch to the four against Virginia Tech, a game where he shot 5-of-6, he went on to shoot just 8-of-23 in the next three contests. He has shot 14-of-27 (51.9%) in the last three, averaging 11.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and two blocks. And after going through a three-game stretch where he shot 3-of-16 from the foul line, he made 4-of-6 against Florida State after days of hard work at the line. The only negative number Henson has had compared to the start of ACC play is turnovers. He had ten in his first ten ACC games and has eight in the last three. Like this team, Henson has shown flashes of the kind of player he can be, and it feels like he is so close to putting together a 20-point, 10-rebound, five-block type of game. Wake Forest has the types of big bodies that could give him trouble, but Henson did fine against the prolific Georgia Tech front line (11 points, ten rebounds) and the lengthy Seminoles (12 points, five rebounds). Roy Williams has pointed out recently that at times, Henson forgets that he needs to stay down low on rebounds and to keep the Deacons off the backboards, he will certainly need to do that.
Marcus Ginyard: Before the Duke game, the fifth-year senior said he wanted to start leaving it all out on the court. He seems to have done that, for the most part, in these last few games. His recent performances have been retro Ginyard. In the last two games, he has averaged 8.5 points, 7.0 rebounds (two offensive), 1.5 assists, 1.5 steals and he has not committed a turnover. His ten rebounds against Florida State tied a career high. Ginyard struggled with his shot against Wake Forest in the first meeting, making just 2-of-9 shots, but he also did not commit a turnover in that game and had a steal and a block. He also had four rebounds (three offensive) and four assists. Those are the types of numbers Carolina needs from Ginyard; while his scoring would be nice, they need those types of energy and hustle plays that he can give Carolina. He helped spark a late-game effort at a comeback against Florida State, throwing his body around to try to make something happen. He may spend some time guarding Ishmael Smith and if he can slow down the penetration of the speedy point guard, Carolina will put itself in a better position to win the game.
Ishmael Smith: Perhaps no player is treated more unfairly by a box score than Wake Forest's senior point guard. Nothing about his statistics stand out especially, save maybe his assists (6.2) and steals (1.8). He is averaging 13.2 points and shooting just 42.7% from the floor. But the speedster can seemingly get into the paint at will, runs a flawless fast break and dissected the Carolina defense any way he wanted to in the first meeting. Smith had 20 points on 9-of-17 shooting and added seven rebounds, six assists and four turnovers. During Wake's recent four-game winning streak, Smith averaged 11.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 7.5 assists, two steals and 2.5 turnovers. In the last two games, both losses, he has averaged 15 points but just 6.5 assists, 0.5 steals and 4.0 turnovers. He has shot just 38.3% in the last six games but he is still a threat to make some. "You have to be concerned about Ish scoring points, but you have to be more concerned about what he gets from other people and how quickly he gets them," Williams said. The shots that he usually gets for other people are either wide-open three's or dunks. He makes just enough throughout the course of the game that you have to guard him honestly."
Al-Farouq Aminu: The versatile sophomore forward is absolutely beastly on the backboards; his 10.7 per game average in ACC games is 1.5 ahead of second-place Gani Lawal. His 4.6 offensive rebounds per game are first in the league and 1.2 ahead of the next-closest player. He has at least eight rebounds in every ACC game this year and ten or more in ten of 13 games. And the recent two-game Wake Forest skid hasn't been extended to Aminu; he has averaged 20 points, 12.5 rebounds (8.0 offensive) and two blocks in that span, shooting 51.9% from the floor. Carolina held hi relatively in check; he had just 13 points but added 11 rebounds (six offensive) and still shot 5-of-10 from the floor. Carolina will need to go at Wake's most skilled big man early and often, get him into foul trouble and then capitalize on it. He has picked up three or more fouls in five of Wake's seven losses and has averaged 3.4 fouls in Wake's five ACC losses.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
