University of North Carolina Athletics
Know Your Opponent: Wake Forest
January 20, 2015 | Men's Basketball
Wake Forest (WakeForestSports.com)
Rankings: No. 105 KenPom, NR AP
Location: Winston-Salem, N.C.
2014-15 Record: 9-9, 1-4 ACC
Carolina Series History (Last Meeting): Carolina leads 156-66 (UNC 105, Wake Forest 72, Feb. 22, 2014, Chapel Hill)
Carolina has played five consecutive sub-70-possession games to open the ACC schedule, the longest such streak for the Tar Heels since the 2011-12 season. That streak figures to come to a merciful end Wednesday when UNC visits Wake Forest, the only other ACC team to rank among the top 25 in the country in adjusted tempo on KenPom.com.
Wake's first season under Triad basketball legend Danny Manning has been a series of near misses, highlighted by conference losses to NC State, Louisville, Duke and Syracuse. The Deacs played well in stretches in all four games and were a bit unlucky to not finish at least one of the four, any of which would stand as their best win of the season. As is, Wake is just 1-4 in the ACC, its lone win a 76-69 home victory over Georgia Tech.
The Deacs enter Wednesday having not played since Jan. 13, a seemingly endless layoff in the new normal of ACC scheduling. Starting with Carolina, however, Wake will play five times over the next two weeks before another 8-day layoff in late February.
Offense has been hard to come by in Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons are just 158th nationally in KenPom's offensive efficiency, and they rank outside the top 150 in both 2-point percentage and 3-point percentage. They are No. 246 in offensive turnover percentage, No. 342 in opponents' steal percentage and an even No. 300 in free throw percentage.
A pair of juniors dominate the offense—leading scorer Codi Miller-McIntyre averages 13.3 points and dishes out nearly four assists per game, while Devin Thomas is close to a double-double (12.9 points, 9.7 rebounds) per outing. Thomas is also great at getting fouled and getting to the line, but both men struggle once they get there to the tune of sub-60 percentages. Mitchell Wilbekin is the team's most dangerous outside threat, as the freshman makes nearly 42 percent of his 3s and almost never turns the ball over. Off the bench, Dinos Mitoglou can be a matchup problem, as the 6-10 freshman is comfortable stepping back to shoot from the perimeter and is coming off a career-best 26 points at Syracuse.
Wake hasn't been great on the defensive end, either, but they do excel at limiting second-chance opportunities. That is due in large part to Thomas, who ranks sixth nationally in defensive rebound percentage and has tallied 130 of his 175 rebounds on the defensive end. In conference play, the Deacs are allowing 1.09 points per possession according to John Gasaway, which ranks in the bottom half of the league.
Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum has been a tricky venue for Carolina, with the Tar Heels holding a slim 12-10 all-time advantage in the building. Wake played one of its best games of the season in a 73-67 win there last season, and the Deacons knocked off UNC in Winston in both the 2005 and 2009 national championship seasons. A win for the hosts Wednesday night would be the first signature win of the Danny Manning era.
