Taking Another (Very Careful) Look At Wake Forest

Scouting Report / Game Plan
Season Stats (pdf)
Schedule
Roster

Wake Forest Offense 06-07

Four Factors	Percent	Nat'l Rank
eFG%	51.7	105
Turnover Rate	22.2	215
Off Reb Rate	32.9	188
FTM/FGA	28.8	68

Wake Forest Defense 06-07

Four Factors	Percent	Nat'l Rank
eFG%	52.9	282
Turnover Rate	20.9	194
Off Reb Rate	32.4	114
FTA/FGA	37.1	183

-- With memory of the Ralph Mims Incident still fresh, I'm adopting a strict mock-free diet for this post. No jokes at the other team's expense, no kidding about certain individuals' poor numbers. Probably. This is harder than quitting smoking (not that I would know about that; hi, Mom!). The timing couldn't be worse, either.

-- The Deacons have the least efficient offense in the ACC, and by a comfortable margin, which you can see illustrated in Big Ten Wonk's handy visual aid. What makes them so bad? In addition to being the most turnover prone team in the conference, the Deacs are also 11th in eFG% and 10th in offensive rebounding percentage. Can't shoot, can't grab your misses--this is a problem better known as Chronic Brick Fatigue Syndrome.

In seven conference road games, the offense has been nothing short of terrible: 0.89 points/possession, including a delightful 0.62 pts/poss effort in Durham.

What I'm not going to tell you for fear of the consequences is that Wake Forest hasn't managed to score better than a point per possession in any road conference game this season. I'm definitely not pointing that out.

-- Fellas, we're gonna hafta have a chat. In conference games:

                      FGA/40   %Shots   eFG%    PPWS    ORtg
1.) Anthony Gurley     16.8     30.5    48.8    1.00    86.7
2.) Harvey Hale        15.7     28.6    42.6    0.97    99.1
3.) Kyle Visser        13.8     25.1    54.2    1.17    110.6

This isn't the Anthony Gurley Show. Maybe if you passed a little more often you'd be getting more than 15 minutes a game.

-- Ishmael Smith is 30-70 (.429) from the line this season, 8-23 (.348) in conference play--his field goal percentage is higher than those numbers.

Smith continues his trial by fire in ACC play, and it hasn't been easy for him:

ORtg   eFG%   PPWS    TO%
78.1   41.2   0.83   32.2

Lots of turnovers, but he's feeding his teammates a lot, too. He maintains an assist rate that's among the best in the nation and better than any other ACC point guard's.

-- Pomeroy has the Wolfpack winning 79-73, I've got 77-75.