Heading to Charleston, WV for this one, and maybe for the first time in my life, I wish I was in Charleston. I know that if I was living there still that I would have made my way over to the Civic Center, but a 10 hour drive for this one seems a bit much.
A small pet peeve before we get into the recap; whoever set the rims up in this game needs to be fired, or at least needs to get a stern talking to. The rims were loose, and I don’t mean that we didn’t shoot well (even though we didn’t.) I mean that they RATTLED with every shot. It was distracting to the highest degree. I couldn’t even celebrate or jeer with each attempt because all I could think about was the sound barrier shattering clank of the rims.
It’s Jimmy V Week, so it’s kind of hard to not think about lost loved ones. I didn’t lose you to cancer, but the pain hurts all the same. Five minutes into the game one of the commentators on ESPN2 went into a heartfelt message to a friend of his who has Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and I have been in tears ever since. I usually say it at the end, but I miss you Dad. I wish you were here to shoot the shit with me.
My biggest worry in this game was Juke Harris (sick basketball name btw.) He’s a sophomore guard out of North Carolina who can really do it all. On the year he averages 20 points and 7 rebounds a game, all while shooting 51% from the field and 36.5% from 3. If we’re going to have trouble with anyone, it’s going to be him.
Thankfully, we put him in foul trouble early and he sat a lot of the first half. Bad news? We can’t hit shit from deep. Carrying over from our last game, we started the game 0–11 from 3 and while I may sound like a broken record I will continue to say it; we might get away with that against Wake Forest but we can’t get away with that against Kansas. I think our biggest problem in that venture is the fact that teams are just selling out to guard Honor Huff. He can still hit them, sure, but when he gets a look the other teams make him make tough shots. Our other guys just aren’t consistent enough to be considered a threat from out there, so the game plan is simple: Shut down Honor Huff.
Wake Forest is really similar to us in how we play the game: force turn overs, hit the offensive glass, and swing the rock. Half way through the first they forced us into 8 turnovers, had 3 offensive rebounds, and they were winning the assist battle.
Thankfully for my mental health, water started to find its level with four minutes left in the first half. After we started 0–11 from 3, Honor Huff found his rhythm and hit two heat checks to bring us back within 4 points. Honor has the ultimate green light in this Ross Hodges offense, and if it wasn’t for him, we might not be in this game at all. He finished the half with 12 points, although he did go 3/10 from deep.
As for the whole team in the first half, it’s tied 34–34. We have some things to tighten up for sure: we’re shooting 34% from the field, 22% from 3, and honestly it’s a miracle we’re even in this game at all. We can thank our rebounding effort for that because we beat Wake Forest 26–12 in that field, along with 14 offensive rebounds. If we cut down on our turnovers and force them into more, and I think we’ll be in good shape for this game.
Seems like a theme as of late, but I wish I had something good to say about the second half. Three, yes just three, minutes into the game Wake Forest goes on a 11–2 run fueled by the play of the aforementioned Juke Harris. The kid is one special talent. I think he’ll end up being a real solid pro one day. I don’t think the NBA is in his future, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we look up in 15 years and he had a 12 year career in Europe somewhere.
We fall to Wake Forest 75–66, and the second half was yet again our downfall. We gave it a good run with about 8 minutes left in the game, but it just wasn’t enough. Every time we thought we had an answer they asked a different question. We hit a big 3 to cut the deficit to 9 and they get an offensive rebound and putback to stop all of the momentum. A valiant effort from our guys, but it just wasn’t our night. We lost the turnover battle, we lost the 3 point shooting game, and we didn’t move the ball enough; the disaster scenario for any team trying to win a basketball game.
Despite the loss… again… The Roundball Big 3 of the Game:
Honor Huff: 24 points, 5 3s
Chance Moore: 16 points, 8 rebounds, 6/11 FG
Jackson Fields: 7 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block
Our next game is Tuesday when we play Little Rock at home and I SWEAR TO GOD IF WE SOMEHOW LET THEM MAKE THAT GAME COMPETITIVE I WILL LOSE MY SHIT. I love you, Dad. I miss you.
Round The Game 
Leave a comment