Tale of the Tape: Virginia vs. Wake Forest

Posted on Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, 5:12 pm

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The Virginia men’s basketball team returns home tonight against Wake Forest after suffering its first loss of the season over the weekend at Duke. Tipoff is scheduled for 9 p.m. at John Paul Jones Arena.

The Cavaliers (16-1, 4-1 ACC) are a 21 1/2-point favorite against the struggling Demon Deacons (8-9, 1-4), who were beaten handily at Virginia Tech Saturday.

Despite the loss in Durham, UVA moved up a spot to No. 3 in the latest AP Top 25 poll, while falling two spots to third in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll. The Wahoos are still the top overall team in the country according to KenPom (2nd AdjD, 3rd AdjO) and the NET rankings.

Wake is rated 154th overall by KenPom (122nd AdjO, 209th AdjD) and 174th in the NET rankings.

The ‘Hoos sit a half-game behind North Carolina for first place in the conference, while the Deacs are currently in a five-way tie at the bottom of the standings with Notre Dame, Miami, Florida State and Boston College.

Danny Manning’s squad notched its biggest win of the season exactly one week ago, upsetting then-No. 17 NC State in Winston-Salem, but has dropped every other league contest thus far.

Wake junior guard Brandon Childress leads the team in just about every category, including points per game (16.8), minutes per game, 3-point shooting, assists and steals. Freshman forward Jaylen Hoard has been impressive, averaging 14.3 points and a team-leading 8.1 rebounds per game, while sophomore guard Chaundee Brown chips in with 11.4 points a night and does a little of everything.

There’s a dropoff in both scoring and overall production outside of Childress, Hoard and Brown, with no other Demon Deacon averaging more than 7.5 points per game.

Wake is 0-5 away from home on the season and 1-3 against ranked opponents. Aside from a win at Pittsburgh last February, the Deacs have lost 13 of their last 14 overall on the road. In ACC road games only, Wake has only won twice in its previous 16 games dating back to the 2016-17 season.

UVA will hit the road for its next two — Saturday at Notre Dame and next Tuesday at NC State — before a pair of home games (Miami and Duke).