Wake Forest will look to keep its perfect home record alive when it plays in the NIT quarterfinals against Texas A&M Wednesday. The Demon Deacons are coming off an NIT victory over VCU Saturday and their 25-win season is their best since 2004-05.
Wake Forest is led by ACC Player of the Year Alondes Williams, who averages 18.8 points and 6.4 rebounds, along with Jake LaRavia, who adds 14.9 points and 6.6 rebounds.
Defensive Rating
Wake Forest enters this matchup with a 25-9 (13-7 ACC) record. They have a great defense that is holding opponents to 32.5 percent shooting from three-point range, the fourth lowest rate in college basketball.
They also have a strong defensive rebounding rate that is holding opponents to under 42 percent inside the arc. This has been a big part of their success this season, and it will be important for them to continue to maintain this advantage against the Aggies.
Texas A&M enters this game with a 25-12 record, and they have improved quite a bit since the start of conference play. They are currently the third-best team in the SEC on defense, and they have also been able to improve their offensive efficiency in the past few games.
Their offense has been led by guard Quenton Jackson, who is averaging 14.5 points per game. They also have two other double-digit scorers in Henry Coleman III and Tyrece Radford, both of whom average 6+ rebounds.
The Aggies are a great team when it comes to swiping the ball and forcing turnovers. They rank fifth in the country with 10.1 steals per game and they are averaging 16 turnovers per game, which is the 11th-best rate in college basketball.
These stats are very impressive and they could prove to be a major reason for the Aggies to win this game. They are also very good when it comes to making free throws, hitting 70.6% of their shots when they go to the line.
Offensive Rebounds
The Texas A&M Aggies (25-12) have been the hottest team in college basketball in the SEC outside of Alabama, and they’ll get a chance to do it again on Saturday against Wake Forest. They enter this matchup with a 5-0 record in conference play, which gives them a huge lead over the rest of the league and could be a key to their success against the Demon Deacons (25-9).
The offensive rebounding percentage of texas a&m is much lower than it has been the past two seasons, but they’ve been able to make up for it by scoring a lot of points from deep. The Aggies have also made up for their lack of size with big man Henry Coleman III and center Tyrece Radford, who both average a double-double.
A&M’s offense is built around two-player sets, where they run Horns a lot. This allows them to set up simple actions, like ball-screens or handoffs, while still allowing their guards to take advantage of the space between the two bigs to finish at the rim.
As a result, A&M’s offense is averaging a good amount of shot volume in both the half court and the scrimmage. They’ve also been very efficient in the offensive half court, averaging just under eight assists per game and scoring over 90 points per game.
They’ve also been very effective on the defensive glass, allowing just 35.7% of their opponents’ misses to be turned into rebounds. While that’s not exactly an elite number, it’s far better than the 52% that A&M allowed to teams a week ago against Oregon.
Fouls Calls
Both of these teams have played very good defensive basketball this season. Wake Forest has allowed the most steals per game in the ACC, and Texas A&M is one of the best at preventing turnovers. However, both of these teams aren’t particularly good at offensive rebounding.
This will be a game where we see a lot of fouls called, and both teams are getting to the free-throw line at a high rate. This means that we can expect around 20% of the points scored to come from the foul line.
As for the actual shooting, Wake Forest has a very effective field goal percentage this year, and they are also hitting an excellent percentage from deep. On the other hand, Texas A&M is not great at shooting from deep, but they are still very good at attacking the basket and getting to the foul line quickly.
The key to this game is going to be how Texas A&M handles Wake Forest on the offensive glass. The Aggies are allowing an average of 33.7 boards per game this season, and that could prove to be the difference in this game.
Wake Forest has been a good offensive team this year, but they aren’t great at attacking the basket. This will make it a difficult game for the Demon Deacons.
On the other hand, Texas A&M has been very good at getting to the foul line and they have a very high effective field goal percentage this season. On top of that, they are preventing a lot of turnovers and this will help them stay in this game.
A lot of this comes down to Tyrece Radford, who is a tough defender and is a threat to get to the rim. He also has a knack for getting to the free throw line and has become an important part of A&M’s offense as well.
Turnovers
In the third round of the NIT, Texas A&M will take on Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are 25-9 overall and 13-7 in the ACC while the Aggies are 25-12 and have just one loss on their resume.
This game will be a matchup between two of the best offensive teams in the country. Wake Forest is averaging 79.3 points per game and features a roster that is led by ACC Player of the Year Alondes Williams and big man Jake LaRavia. They also have a pair of impact guards in Daivien Williamson and Khadim Sy that could make a major difference in this game.
While the Demon Deacons are averaging a ton of points per game, they are allowing a lot of turnovers as well. They turn the ball over 23.8% of the time and they have a mediocre field goal percentage, making them vulnerable to teams that can make them pay for it.
Wake Forest is a very good defensive team and they will need to stop Texas A&M from turning the ball over too many times. In fact, they have forced over 20 turnovers in each of their last nine games.
As for the Aggies, they are a good defensive team that can force turnovers and create easy opportunities to score on fast breaks. They also have an excellent shooter in Quenton Jackson who leads the team in scoring at 14.5 points per game.
The Aggies have the opportunity to go to New York City and compete in the NIT final two rounds for the first time in school history. This is a chance for them to prove that they should have been in the NCAA Tournament, and it will be interesting to see how this game turns out.
