Wake Forest (#4, Midwest, Miami pod)

vs. Cleveland St. (#13)
Friday, 3/20 at 9:40pm.

Vegas Line: Wake Forest -6

Thanks to Vegas Watch for providing these graphs that measure the moving average of a team’s spread (moving avg.) over time vs. the spread for each individual game (indiv).  If a team’s moving average is higher than zero, then Vegas currently has a higher opinion of them than Pomeroy, and vice versa.

General Profile

Location: Winston-Salem, NC
Conference: ACC, at-large
Coach: Dino Gaudio, hired 2007.  Record at WFU = 41-19.
08-09 Record: 24-6 (11-6)
Last 12 Games: 7-5
Best Win: vs. UNC, 92-89, on 1/11
Worst Loss: @ Miami,  52-79, on 2/4.
Off. Efficiency Rating: 111.8 (14)
Def. Efficiency Rating: 89.4 (40)

Nuts ‘n Bolts
Star Player(s): Jeff Teague, 19/3/4 assts/2 stls on 49/45/82% shooting; James Johnson, 15/9 on 53% shooting.
Unsung Hero: Chas McFarland – 9/6 on 53% shooting.
Potential NBA Draft Pick: Teague, #12 (2009), Johnson, #29 (2009), Al-Farouq Aminu, #9 (2009).
Key Injuries: None.
Depth: 29.6% mins (204th nationally).
Achilles Heel: Three-point shooting.  Wake shoots 31.7% from behind the arc, 275th best in the nation.
Will Make a Deep Run if…: They play with focus and aggression.  This team has a tendency to only get up for the “big” games.
Will Make an Early Exit if…: They play unfocused and get caught up in a three-point shooting contest.

NCAA History
Last Year Invited: 2005; lost to West Virginia in the Second Round.
Streak: 1.
Best NCAA Finish: Final Four in 1963.
Historical Performance vs. Seed (1985-present): -0.40

Other
Distance to First Round Site: 810 miles
School’s Claim to Fame: Producing NBA All-Stars without making the Final Four (T. Duncan, J. Howard, C. Paul).
School Wishes It Could Forget: Mike Gansey, Jamal Mashburn, the Stanford frontline, Butler.
Prediction: If Wake gets by Cleveland St., a big “if,” they have enough NBA-quality talent to beat anybody in the field.  The problem is focus and chemistry, and we’re not convinced that they have each other’s best interests in mind.  Another WFU flameout like their forebears is in the cards.

Preview written by Rush The Court.

rtmsf (3998 Posts)

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 3:38 am by rtmsf and is filed under 2009 Tourney Preview. Tagged: 2009 Tourney Preview, al-farouq aminu, dino gaudio, james johnson, james teague, wake forest. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.