Monday Morning Shootaround

Wake Forest 92, North Carolina 89: What an impressive win by the Demon Deacons. You knew they were good just by looking at their roster, but did you know they were this good? Jeff Teague is going to start getting recognition as ACC player of the year and a first team all-american, and deservedly so. He took over that game against UNC, finished with 34 points, 6 boards, and 4 assists. He is a phenomenal athlete, and was able to get into the lane any time he wanted off the bounce. UNC tried Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, and Danny Green on him before Roy Williams finally switched to a zone.

One quick note about that zone. Throughout the game, it seemed like Roy Williams was getting out coached by Dino Gaudio. For example, Danny Green had 22 points, 6 boards, and 5 dimes on 6-9 shooting, but the rest of the UNC starters were 14-50 from the floor. Green kept getting open looks, and it looked like the Deacs were specifically helping off of him and daring Green to beat them.

I'll give you another example. Williams used that little junk, match-up zone defense to try and throw off Wake. He switched to it with just over 9:00 left and UNC down seven, and it was obvious that the zone was giving Wake problems as the Heels were able to get the lead down to three at 75-72. Gaudio called a timeout, and when the cameras zoomed in on the huddle, you could see Gaudio drawing up a play.

Wake ran the play, and ran it to perfection. It was a simple play - they got the ball to a guard in the corner, and had Al-Farouq Aminu set a cross screen on Hansbrough in the middle of the zone. Chas McFarland came across the lane free and got a lay-up. On the next possession for Wake, the ball got knocked out of bounds underneath. Knowing old Roy goes man on out of bounds plays, he drew up this play:



In case you couldn't tell, that one worked out pretty well too.

Wake is going to be so tough all season on the defensive end because they are incredibly long and athletic. Jeff Teague is 6'2", LD Williams is 6'4", Aminu and James Johnson are 6'8" and Chas McFarland rotates with Tony Woods, who are both 7'0". They harassed UNC into a 35% shooting night, blocking at least two jump shots, and made everyone other than Danny Green look lost out there.

Two more posts coming today about Wake and UNC.

The rest of Sunday's games:

• Michigan 64, Iowa 49: The Wolverines got 18 from Manny Harris and 16 from DeShawn Sims as they jumped to a 15-4 lead and never looked back.
• Pitt 90, St. John's 67: Pitt was up just five at halftime, but used a 17-4 run early in the second half to put the Johnnie's away. DeJuan Blair finished with 23 and 15 while Jermaine Dixon added 17. If Dixon can become a legitimate scoring threat from the wing, he makes the Panthers so much more dangerous.
• Xavier 86, Fordham 60
• Alabama 65, LSU 59: The Tigers have yet to win a game away from home as they are now 0-3 on the road. Senario Hillman led Alabama with 24 points.
• Purdue 65, Wisconsin 52: Huge win for the Boilermakers as they avoid an 0-3 start to the Big Ten season. Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer both played after missing the loss to Penn State, but both came off the bench. JaJuan Johnson had 20 and 10 for Purdue, the ninth time in ten games he's hit double figures in points.
• Minnesota 79, Penn State 59: The Gophers shot 62.5% from the field as they rolled over the Nittany Lions. Devron Bostick led Minnesota with 19.
• Siena 68, Manhattan 64
• St. Mary's 66, San Francisco 54
• UCLA 64, USC 60: The Bruins just out-executed the Trojans down the stretch. USC fought hard, going up by six at one point early in the second half after going on a 12-0 run. Collison had 18 and 6 dimes for UCLA while Nikola Dragovic, who made his first start of the season over James Keefe, added 14 points.