ACC Basketball: Duke tops power rankings despite loss
13. Wake Forest
Wake Forest seems to be back on track after a disastrous start to the season. The Demon Deacons were expected to take a step back after losing John Collins to the NBA and losing key contributors Dinos Mitoglu and Austin Arians, but taking three sub-100 losses in their first three games was absolutely shocking.
Wake Forest dropped two buy games to start the season (Liberty and Georgia Southern) and then lost to Drake in the Paradise Jam opening round. Even though Wake has rattled off 5 straight wins since Paradise Jam, they have dug themselves an enormous hole. Their best win has come against Illinois (100th in KenPom), so their resume has no quality wins and three horrible losses.
This should be a major disappointment, given some of the extremely talented players on the roster. 7’1’’ center Doral Moore has made a huge jump and filled in admirably for Collins. He is averaging 11.1ppg, 7.7rpg, and 1.7bpg which is up from 2.6ppg, 2.2rpg, and 0.9bpg last season. Keyshawn Woods has also improved his production to a team-leading 16.2ppg.
However, Bryant Crawford, their star player, has seen his numbers decrease from last season. Crawford’s scoring has slightly decreased, but more importantly, his assists are down and his turnovers are up.
If Wake Forest can retain their core for next season, they could find themselves back in the NCAA Tournament, but this season does not look promising. The Demon Deacons have enough talent to pull off an upset or two in ACC play, but they have a lot of work to do, even to make the NIT.