Wake Forest vs. Presbyterian: Final Thoughts, 70-58
Posted by Zach Smith
on January 3, 2008 at 12:33 PM
A win is a win.
That's really the only way to look at last night's game against the Presbyterian Blue Hose. Although the Deacs came out strong for the first ten minutes of the game and jumped out to a 16 point lead, all the fire suddenly disappeared and for the next twenty minutes of basketball the Deacs looked as bad or worse than they have all season long. Some energy seemed to return for the final ten minutes, perhaps when the team realized they were actually in danger of losing a game to a team they had no business losing to.
But still, a win is a win.
Watching a basketball game on ACC Select is not the easiest thing to do. It's great because you are getting a live representation of the game, but its awful because you really don't get to watch a basketball game the way I like to watch a basketball game. It's impossible to see what's happening on the floor and really analyze the play, so you're really stuck with watching the score and the emotions of the players on the floor.
Other than LD Williams I don't think you could say there was any emotion from the Wake side of things. That's not entirely surprising considering the opponent and what seemed to be one of the worst crowds I've ever seen at the Joel (also not surprising). The Deacs just weren't up for this game, and it showed in their performance. I saw what looked like plenty of lazy defensive plays and sloppy offensive decisions. And then I saw the same lazy defensive mistakes and the same sloppy offensive decisions. The Deacs were asleep at the wheel.
Thankfully something changed with about ten minutes left and the Deacs went on a little bit of a run. The defensive intensity picked up a little bit and guys seemed to make sure to take good shots on the offensive end. In the end, a 12 point victory in this game isn't going to make any difference. It was a game we were supposed to win, and when anyone who cares towards the end of the season (which will hopefully be the NCAA selection committee)looks at this game they won't pause on a 12 point win over Presbyterian. I guess you could say "No harm, no foul."
No one had overly impressive stat lines last night, although James Johnson scored 18 points and Ishmael Smith had an interesting 7 rebounds, 11 assists, 0 points and 0 turnovers night. Other than that I think I've talked all I need to about this game. We won, it's over, and we'll start focusing on BYU.
Funny how a game like this one brings out all of my basketball clichés. Oh well.
