BTO’s Wake Forest postgame report

#1

bleedingTNorange

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#1
1. Great win...I don’t care what WF’s numbers end up being, it’s a road win at an ACC school, that is going to look very good on the resume come March.

2. Jordan Bowden is quickly cementing himself among the nations best perimeter shooters...came in shooting 57% from deep and people begging him to look more for his shot, those chants won’t quiet down as he was 5-5 from deep today. While I do agree he needs a few more shots and should maybe be a bit more selfish, part of why he’s such a great shooter is that he takes VERY good shots.

3. Maybe I am overstating this, but personally I thought the 2nd half was the best half of basketball I have seen from Jordan Bone. 17mins 10pts 5-8fg 4ast, he played very good defense, ran the offense and used his speed better than I’ve ever seen him do before, if he just turned a corner watch out.

4. I thought Kyle Alexander also had a pretty strong game, would’ve liked to have seen a few more rebounds but he played well. Speaking of rebounds, Lamonte Turner was 2nd on the team again with 5 rebounds, for those wondering why he plays so much that is your answer, he’s one of our best rebounders on the entire team.

5. I want to credit Jalen Johnson, Derek Walker and Yves Pons...they didn’t do anything great but those guys were relied upon in the first half due to foul trouble and they kept the game close, hopefully that gives those guys some valuable experience and confidence.

6. The cnchris stat...Wake Forest shot 38% from the field, we are now 9-0 when we hold opponents under 40% from the field for a game.

7. I’m close to pulling the plug on Fulkerson, he’s not even showing glimpses and right now all he’s doing is getting us closer to the bonus in record time. Darrington also is struggling a little bit, but I expected that, JUCO’s guy often take a year to catch up to the speed. Walker didn’t look too bad and I think should be considered to get Fulk’s minutes, Jalen Johnson and Yves are still a ways out obviously. I am curious if Rick starts to cut down rotation heading into league play, there is a clear drop off with some of the guys right now.

8. Tennessee is 9-2 and has officially exceeded any expectations set for them, so let’s look ahead and somewhat reset...the goal was to make the dance, barring a collapse that should happen, however the opening of the SEC schedule is brutal and I wouldn’t be surprised by a poor start. Our first 8 games before the Big12/SEC game against Iowa State we are underdogs in 5 of them according to Sagarin’s predictor so 3-5 wouldn’t be a complete shock through the first 8. To me it might sound crazy but I think 4-4 to start league play would be considered a success, our schedule is very front heavy...just something to keep in mind as people start abandoning ship when Tennessee loses a couple games.
 
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#2
#2
If Bone plays like that every day, then lookout. Need another guard to step up to go along with Bowden
 
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#3
#3
Btw, Wake's leading scorer, Crawford was held to single digits, 6 points, for the first time in 37 games
 
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#4
#4
-As BTO mentioned, we once again held our opponent to below 40%, and remain undefeated in doing so. We've done it in every one of our wins, and failed to do it in both losses.

-Bone and Daniel are the best true PGs we have. Turner and Darrington are guys trying to play PG at times, but they don't have the natural ability and instinct for the position that Bone and Daniel do.

-Alexander played, maybe his best games as a Vol today. He was nearly flawless outside of one defensive breakdown that I can recall. 11 pts on 5-6 shooting, 4 rebs, 3 asst, 2 blks, 0 TOs and only 1 foul in 23 minutes.

-Jordan Bone's ball-handling and calm demeanor with the ball is severely underrated. He can get to the rim almost at will, and probably should more often. Even when he doesn't get a shot off on the drive, he often finds an open shooter to dish to.

-We played our worst first half of basketball down our two leading scorers for over half of it, and still beat a middle of the road ACC team on the road by 19. That's pretty impressive and a sign of improvement and team maturity.
 
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#5
#5
3. This was probably Bone's best game since he torched Candy at Candy last year.

4. Turner is a good rebounder, but that's a double edged sword. If a team gets a run out then he's not back to try and stop an easy bucket like Bone or Daniel so it goes both ways. Turner's decision making is still mind boggling at times. He just forces things at times that don't need to be forced and takes a lot of ill advised shots. If he had the unselfishness of Bowden, we'd be a lot better team.
 
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#6
#6
As I said elsewhere... the coaches see them practice every day and the posters don't see it at all. I trust they know what they're doing when giving Fulkerson a handful of minutes. TN needs the depth over the long haul. He's probably making contributions that aren't showing up in the box score... affecting shots, getting "turnover and rebound assists", playing better help defense than others.
 
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#7
#7
Agree on Fulkerson. He just makes some dumb plays, but I want to, I REALLY want to attribute that to his lack of experience. He does need to start producing in his opportunities though, or they are going to start vanishing.
 
#9
#9
-As BTO mentioned, we once again held our opponent to below 40%, and remain undefeated in doing so. We've done it in every one of our wins, and failed to do it in both losses.

-Bone and Daniel are the best true PGs we have. Turner and Darrington are guys trying to play PG at times, but they don't have the natural ability and instinct for the position that Bone and Daniel do.

-Alexander played, maybe his best games as a Vol today. He was nearly flawless outside of one defensive breakdown that I can recall. 11 pts on 5-6 shooting, 4 rebs, 3 asst, 2 blks, 0 TOs and only 1 foul in 23 minutes.

-Jordan Bone's ball-handling and calm demeanor with the ball is severely underrated. He can get to the rim almost at will, and probably should more often. Even when he doesn't get a shot off on the drive, he often finds an open shooter to dish to.

-We played our worst first half of basketball down our two leading scorers for over half of it, and still beat a middle of the road ACC team on the road by 19. That's pretty impressive and a sign of improvement and team maturity.

The point guard position is begging for someone to take ahold of it. I was hoping pre-season it was going to be him, because he can break a defense down and get to the rim better than anyone. I don't know if it's a confidence thing, not getting into the flow of the game or what, but when he's engaged then we're tough to beat.
 
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#10
#10
Agree on Fulkerson. He just makes some dumb plays, but I want to, I REALLY want to attribute that to his lack of experience. He does need to start producing in his opportunities though, or they are going to start vanishing.

Plus, he's getting a rep as a fouler and he's likely not to get many calls. I like his aggressiveness, but he's still learning how to play the game at this level obviously.
 
#11
#11
Listen, if I don't get any credit for the 20+ shots of bourbon, and pulling this team thru, I'm done with these post game reports. MVP = OJJ

I'm done with you all! Y'all can't hang with OJJ
 
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#13
#13
Barnes is good at pointing out positives along with areas need to address. If Pruitt can coach and develop like Barnes, we're going to be in good shape. I'd suspect they'll work on turnovers in coming practices. Defense always travels well. We took them out of their game. I've not seen it, but I'd bet we're holding teams well below their season averages.

SEC slate going to be tough this year, and not a lot of cupcakes, but like our teams make up.
 
#14
#14
I think people need to lay off Fulkerson. I think once he starts to regain that confidence he had last year we will see a completely different guy on the court.
 
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#15
#15
I think Fulkerson can be a solid contributor. I wouldn't get too down on him yet. I expect him to turn a corner and start making more of a difference soon.
 
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#16
#16
I think people need to lay off Fulkerson. I think once he starts to regain that confidence he had last year we will see a completely different guy on the court.

Yep. Barnes getting him in to get rust knocked off, but bringing along slowly. If he can come along by mid-late season, our already excellent depth will be even better for the SEC - Dance runs. That's where I think we'll shine. I think we'll do OK in early SEC run, but as season drags on, we're going to be a lot fresher than other teams, w/ our depth.
 
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#17
#17
Agree on Fulkerson. He just makes some dumb plays, but I want to, I REALLY want to attribute that to his lack of experience. He does need to start producing in his opportunities though, or they are going to start vanishing.

Nothing wrong with Fulkerson. He is athletic and hustles. He is coming off a one year lay off. He is just trying to catch up a little. He has a lot of upside.
 
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#19
#19
Worried about Turner finding his shot.


Extremely pleased with Bone. 100% stand by my post last week that he is an elite Pg in the making.
 
#20
#20
I love this team. Only got to watch the second half due to the time, but it was pretty awesome. Bome played freakin amazing, loved that hesitation move. Deadly stuff.

On your Bowden point, I want Bowden to shoot so much his percentage goes down to 45%. We need a bit more volume from him, even at the cost of some efficiency.
 
#21
#21
I've seen defense win games before, but rarely more than this game. It helps when you shoot at a good percentage. Bone's ability to drive the ball reminds me of whatsisname - Ramar Smith? With one exception - Ramar turned it over half the times he did. One other comment - GW is a man.
 
#23
#23
the second half was one of the best I have seen this year. The first half was so foul plagued that we couldn't get any kind of flow going. The refs were horrible, imo.
 
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