How big of a week is it for Wake Forest?
Wake Forest currently sits 13-5 (5-2) with wins over Wisconsin and Duke, but their NET Ranking sits at 76. They have looked like an NCAA team at various points in the season, but with just three Q1/Q2 wins, they need quality wins starting now. This week gives Wake Forest a tremendous opportunity as they host league-leading and #19 Clemson, and #10 Virginia. If Wake Forest can get a split, that would be an acceptable result, but if they get a sweep? Wake Forest goes from bubble to being in a great position for the NCAAs going into the last week of January. Wake Forest better not even be thinking about losing both.
What’s wrong with Miami?
Miami’s overall resume is fine. They have victories over Providence, UCF, Rutgers, and a win over Virginia. What seems to be peaking through that’s keeping Miami from being a truly elite team is their struggles on the road. There’s no shame in losing at NC State, but that was after an inexplicable loss at Georgia Tech. Then Monday there was a shakey performance against Syracuse at home. Miami is a skilled offensive basketball team, but they are 186th in scoring defense. They just struggle to get stops which put tons of pressure on their offense. Honestly, I think the loss to a team as bad as Georgia Tech shook their confidence. Now they head to Duke Saturday.
Will Duke figure out how to shoot from the outside?
I went to the Duke\Clemson game this past weekend, and the thing that struck me about Duke is that they seemed to do everything well. They defend, they hit the glass, and they pass it pretty well, but they just can’t shoot. This is a team that is 305th in the nation in 3-point shooting. Duke gets so many good looks from 3, but they miss, miss, and miss some more. When Jeremy Roach returns that could help as he’s a capable 3-point shooter, but he hasn’t consistently shown it. If he comes around that helps Duke ceiling, but it’s their biggest question mark.
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