Running the Floor: Demon Deacons too much for young Hoosiers

Now the fun begins.

If the IU men’s basketball team thinks Maui was a challenge, they ain’t seen nothing yet.
Tonight, they’ll walk into the bowels of an ACC arena, and there are few places in the country less forgiving.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons bring a 6-0 record and a No. 15 ranking to the Big Ten-ACC Challenge, and if this southern boy can offer one piece of advice, they don’t screw around in the ACC.

Let’s ignore the massive height difference because it’s going to be there pretty much the rest of the year. Even if we ignore the fact the Deacs have two 7-footers, two kids at 6-foot-11 and three more at 6-foot-8 or taller, this team was built to handle the baby Hoosiers.

As a team, Wake Forest plays perfectly to three strengths that happen to be IU weaknesses.

They rebound at an understandably impressive clip. As a team, they average 46 rebounds per game. Four players average four or more rebounds a game and two clean the glass at a rate better than nine per game.

Tom Crean said Tuesday the key to competing against the much taller Demon Deacons will be initiating contact on boxouts because, “Wake Forest guys and Gonzaga guys, they’re not just going to get tips, they’re going to get tip dunks.

“We’ve got to make sure that we’re going out and meeting people,” Crean added. “If we stand and wait for the contact to come to us, we may not even feel the contact.”

It doesn’t get much better.

The Hoosiers turn the ball over at a rate of 18.5 per game, and Wake Forest happens to force 19.8 a contest.

Crean himself characterized the Demon Deacons as one of the “longer” teams IU will see this season, meaning there will be lots of hands in passing lanes. Crean acknowledged that his team will have to “meet” its passes more, rather than waiting for them, or they will get stolen.

Lastly, Wake Forest can flat out run the floor.

On average, they score more than 86 points per game, while holding opponents just a shade more than 64. “Athletic” was the word Crean used at his Tuesday press conference to describe his next opponent.

The problem with this, of course, is the Hoosiers’ greatest offensive strength that doesn’t end in “Pritchard” is their ability to get down the court faster than the other team.

IU only shoots 46.4 percent from the field and just more than 28 percent from range, so its transition game is going to be key until this young team can find its shot.

That won’t be tonight, however. And every time the Hoosiers try to push in transition, they will look around and see two or three black and gold shirts right there with them.

“We’re not a team that just backs off, and we’ve got to try to get easy baskets where we can,” Crean said of his running game. “But we’ve also got to be smart. We’re not a team that’s just gonna go in and challenge, time after time, with guys that are more athletic, more experienced and bigger.”

September and October were spent talking about throwing these young Hoosiers into the fire with an incredibly rocky early schedule. Smoke, hot, fire, ow.

Crean’s bunch will surely play as hard as they can – they always do. But that won’t be nearly enough, as they’ll find themselves outmatched and overpowered in one of the toughest road environments around, against a team hungry to find national respect again.