Virginia needs to bring intensity into tonight’s Wake game

By Jerry Ratcliffe

While Wake Forest played without inspiration in its last outing and Virginia appeared to be intimidated in its trip to Chapel Hill, both teams are expected to raise the intensity level in tonight’s “late” tipoff in Winston-Salem.

UVA is a 7.5-point underdog heading into the game, which starts at 9 p.m. on ESPNU. The Cavaliers (13-14, 6-10 ACC) are tied for 13th in the league standings, while Wake is 19-8, 11-5 in the ACC and tied for fourth. UVA has lost its last two outings to Duke and North Carolina, while the Deacons have dropped two of their last three, including last weekend’s bad loss to NC State, 85-73.

That defeat knocked Wake off the NCAA Tournament bubble, meaning the Deacs are desperately in need of another win in order to avoid another late-season swoon, something that has knocked them out of contention for an NCAA bid for the last three seasons.

While Virginia has won 12 of the last 14 meetings with Wake Forest and five of the last six at Lawrence Joel Coliseum, the Cavaliers were blown out in Winston-Salem last season when Tony Bennett’s team dropped a 66-47 decision. UVA split the series last year, winning 49-47 in Charlottesville.

Interim coach Ron Sanchez needs to inspire his team to bring intensity into tonight’s game after simply looking lost at UNC, where the Cavaliers fell behind 21-2 and didn’t have a single rebound halfway through the first half.

Wake should be ready after its mysteriously poor performance against NC State.

“I didn’t think we came in with a sense of urgency,” Deacs coach Steve Forbes said of that loss.

Virginia will lean heavily on leading scorer Isaac McKneely and Dai Dai Ames, who has averaged 15.7 points during his last six outings. However, the Cavaliers are going to have to get a strong performance from guard Andrew Rohde and from a mixed bag of frontcourt players: Elijah Saunders, Blake Buchanan, Jacob Cofie and Anthony Robinson.

Rebounding will be one of the keys to the game, and Virginia simply must raise its level to compete on the boards. When the Cavaliers win the rebounding battle, they are 10-1.

While Carolina simply bombed the nets from outside against UVA, the Wahoos may not have to worry quite as much about that aspect tonight. Wake attempted only nine triples in its loss to the Wolfpack in its last outing.