The dip in confidence might be taking on a new low for the Demon Deacons because they're finding little to build on in some of their recent outings. A week with two losses by 20 or more points is bound to do that.
And this is supposed to be a part of the schedule that the Demon Deacons should be looking for positives as a way to turn around their season.
"It takes an extremely mentally tough person to persevere through some tough, rough, difficult times coupled with some limitations," coach Jeff Bzdelik said.
Wake Forest has lost six consecutive games to dip to the last-place spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.
"We've gone through a tough stretch here, our confidence has been rattled and we need to rise above that," Bzdelik said.
The problem is that there's not a clear path out of this for the Demon Deacons, who won only one ACC game last season and Bzdelik has yet to prove that he can direct the team to escape from such doldrums.
NOTES, QUOTES
--Wake Forest actually improved its rebounding in ACC competition after struggling for the first couple months of the season. The Demon Deacons averaged almost two rebounds per game more in conference games than they have for the season as a whole. Still, the team is dealing with a minus-4.1 rebounding margin deficit for the season after Clemson held a 30-26 rebounding edge in the most-recent game.
--The Demon Deacons have shot less than 40 percent from the field in nine games this season (or more than one-third of the team's games). They fell below the 33.3-percent mark in Saturday's loss to Clemson, hitting 16 of 43 shots from the field.
--The Demon Deacons don't seem capable of dealing with adversity. A few bad sequences tend to lead to more trouble. "We just got down a little bit and we just rolled over," freshman G Chase Fischer said after one recent loss. "It hurts me to stay that, I'm never one to roll over, but it's a team thing."
QUOTE TO NOTE
"We panicked and we didn't respond well in the second half." -- F Travis McKie after the Demon Deacons trailed by six points at halftime to Clemson and ended up with a 78-58 home loss Saturday.
THIS WEEK'S GAMES
--vs. Georgia Tech, Feb. 15
This is the first of two late-season meetings between teams at the bottom of the ACC standings. This could be a low-scoring game unless Wake Forest's guards can successfully push the pace, tough the Demon Deacons will have to keep watch on potentially explosive F Glen Rice Jr. of the Yellow Jackets.
--at Miami, Feb. 18
The Demon Deacons don't necessarily have the guards capable of dealing with Miami's backcourt, but they have to hope that G C.J. Harris can do enough at the offensive end to apply pressure on Miami. Wake Forest must also contend with the large body of Miami C Reggie Johnson, who's from Winston-Salem, N.C. (where Wake Forest is located).
FUTURES MARKET
The Demon Deacons have rarely played with much game pressure during the second halves of games during the past month because of a series of lopsided scores. This means there's little to build on in terms of clutch play or to know what might were in tight-game circumstances should those arise again. The Demon Deacons would mostly turn to scoring leader C.J. Harris, but he has been picking up a chunk of his points in some recent games without teams concentrating on stopping him. In order to find how who's going to handle pressure the best, the Demon Deacons need to be in some competitive second halves.
PLAYER NOTES
--Sophomore F Travis McKie shot 0-for-3 on 3-pointers Saturday against Clemson. Still, his 25 successful 3-pointers this season compared to 17 long-range baskets all of last season.
--Senior F Nikita Mescheriakov scored 11 of his 12 points in the first half against Clemson. That put him above his season average of 7.2 points per game, which is the lowest total among the four players who have been in the starting lineup throughout the season.
--Junior G C.J. Harris had 24 consecutive games with a double-figure point total, through the weekend. His 18 points against Clemson were a team high.
