The Ups
Doral Moore. 20 minutes. 19 points. 7 rebounds. 3 sick blocks. 7-8 shooting and 5-8 from the line. That performance was the single most dominating performance I've seen from a Wake big man since arriving on campus in August 2005. As much as it was a fantastic team effort (and it was that), Doral unquestionably got the tempo started and set the tone early. Doral's dominance inside clearly terrified Boston College and it turned the Eagles into a jump shooting team. We saw how well that worked out for them.
Team Effort. I already talked about Doral, but let's go over some other lines. Codi Miller-McIntyre finished with 14 points (5-8 shooting, 2-2 from deep, 2-2 from the line), 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 turnovers. Bryant Crawford finished with 12 points (5-13 shooting, 2-5 from deep), 6 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and only 2 turnovers. Mitchell Willbekin had 11 points (4-8 shooting, 3-5 from deep), 4 rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a turnover. John Collins had 11 points (4-8 shooting, 3-5 from the line), 5 rebounds, an assist, a steal, a block, and 2 turnovers. Konstantinos Mitoglou and Greg McClintondidn't have great stat lines, but they were unquestionably hustling, going after loose balls, playing hard defense, all the sorts of things we haven't been seeing in recent games. Just a truly amazing effort all around. I love this team.
Not Letting Up. When a team is up 37-4, it's very easy for that team to get complacent and lose part of the lead or, in extremely rare cases, actually lose the game. We even saw a game wherein Wake Forest lost a game despite all statistical models indicating the win being secure going by the numbers. And sure, BC made their runs. They started hitting shots. They had some impressive dunks. But that was bound to happen. Runs happen. The important thing to remember is that Boston College never got closer than 21 points despite those runs. 21 points. Not only did we destroy BC, we did so throughout, counter-punching every time they made a run.
The Downs
I honestly don't know. Like, there were things here and there. There were dumb turnovers. There were defensive breakdowns. There were shots that were taken too early in the shot clock when we already had a massive lead. But there wasn't anything that I would consider glaring enough to have a Down section in the traditional format. That was probably the best game we played all year, to a man. And as bad as BC is, Wake also played excellent basketball. We did have 15 turnovers, which is very bad. Against a better team, that may have come back to bite us. That's probably the most glaring flaw, but plenty of those were dead ball turnovers, which I'm significantly more forgiving towards. If anyone wants to be more negative than me or register their disapproval on this article of mine, feel free to do so in the comments, but after last night's performance finding three negatives felt like doing it just for the sake of it, which feels silly to me.
The Bottom Line
Awesome. Well done all. Players, coaches, the fans who were there, everyone was on fire last night. BC might be bad, but the takeaway is that we were unquestionably NOT bad last night. Last night was a glimpse into the future, and if it was anything close to what the coaches and players alike are capable of, we'll be driving on the bright side of the road eventually. Would anyone disagree? I'm honestly curious.
Get it, Big Doral. Well done, Deacs. Let's go on a roll to end the season shall we? On to the next. Go Deacs.
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