Wake Forest Basketball has yet another Saturday ACC matchup coming as the Deacs head to Blacksburg, VA to face off against the Virginia Tech Hokies at 2 P.M., airing on ACC Network. It’s the final of a series of games the Deacs needed to win to keep their tournament hopes alive, before a gauntlet of opportunities in the coming weeks.
Wake Forest sits at 13-4 and 5-1 in ACC play for the first time since the 1996-97 season after taking down Stanford at the Joel on Wednesday 80-67, behind yet another dominant performance from Hunter Sallis with 30 points, and a double-double from Tre’Von Spillers.
The Deacs trail the all-time matchup 39-34, with the most recent installation being a loss last season in the Cassell Coliseum behind a 50-point second half from the Hokies and 26 points from Hunter Cattoor.
This year, Mike Young’s squad has struggled, sitting at 8-9 overall and 3-3 in ACC play. They have had their opportunities with a decent non-conference schedule, but in Quad I and II games, the Hokies sit at 0-8. They have won two straight with a victory on the road against California, and a home win where they erased a 15-point deficit to beat NC State.
Tech is led by VCU transfer forward Tobi Lawal, who leads the team averaging 12.6 points and 6.2 rebounds a game. Lawal is a hyper-athletic big man that can also shoot it quite well from behind the arc, at 46.4% from three this year, admittedly with only 28 attempts. “I’ve never had one that jumped like that. He’s the best athlete I’ve had the opportunity to coach,” said Mike Young.
Senior forward Mylyjael Poteat is the other half of the Hokies’ impressive frontcourt, averaging 10.5 points and 3.8 rebounds a game, including a 25 point effort in the win over Miami. On the outside, Jaden Schutt is the sharpshooter for Mike Young’s offense. Schutt only averages 8.2 points a game, but just ask NC State what happens when he gets hot. Schutt hit some clutch key shots to down the Pack.
You’ll see the Hokies emphasize ball movement a lot more rather than trying to create shots for certain players. This team shares the wealth a lot. Their offense is all about drawing the attention of the defense and getting the ball to the next guy. It ends up with a lot of different players scoring as Tech runs a nine-man rotation, and they are second in the ACC in points from their bench. They’ve had seven different players lead the team in points this year, and ten players have double-digits multiple times this season.
But with that, comes the death of this Virginia Tech team: turnovers. The Hokies are dead last in the ACC in turnovers with 232 and second-to-last in turnover margin. Tobi Lowal, Brandon Rechsteiner, Ben Hammond, and Tyler Johnson have all had issues with it this year. Ty-Laur Johnson, Parker Friedrichsen, and Hunter Sallis bringing their A-game defensively could lead to some fast breaks for the Deacs in this game.
No ACC road game is easy, but this is a pretty important game for Wake Forest to win going into the gauntlet.