CLEMSON BASKETBALL

Deep 3 with T.O.: Terrence Oglesby's three keys to beating Wake Forest
Terrence Oglesby is here each week with his keys to the game.

Deep 3 with T.O.: Terrence Oglesby's three keys to beating Wake Forest


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The Clemson Tigers will look for its eighth-straight victory over Wake Forest and move above the .500 mark in league play.

The contest will be televised on ACCN with Mike Monaco and Matt Doherty calling the action courtside, while Don Munson and Tim Bourret will call the action on the radio waves. The radio call will be available on the Clemson Tigers Network and Tunein.com.

Here are former Clemson guard Terrence Oglesby’s keys to the game for the Tigers:

*The Tigers are rolling and look to make it six wins out of their last eight games. Clemson goes to play Wake Forest less than 2 weeks after winning a tight contest at home. It required a career-best performance from Hunter Tyson and defensive stops towards the end to get the victory. The Tigers have improved significantly at the free-throw line since their performance in Littlejohn and hope to come out guns blazing after an excellent performance against Syracuse. The Demon Deacons are really talented individually, and every player on the floor for Danny Manning has the green light for better or worse. That brings me to the first of the Deep 3 keys to the game...

G.Y.Y

This is probably my favorite acronym I learned during my time as a graduate assistant at Clemson. GUARD YOUR YARD. Wake Forest is talented and every player on the floor is looking for their own shot, as evidenced by their previous game at Clemson. Brandon Childress was the only Demon Deacon who registered an assist. That’s a problem if you are Manning, but it also lets coaches know what the team mindset is: attack. The better the Tigers can contain the ball, the easier it will be to stay out of long rotations and closeouts to shooters.

Attack Olivier Sarr

While Brandon Childress is certainly important for the Demon Deacons, Sarr is the lone member who provides any sort of inside presence offensively or defensively. When he has been in foul trouble Wake has struggled mightily this season. With injuries mounting, he’s the only player with the size to guard inside and the only player that can score consistently with his back to the basket. He was a handful for the Tiger frontcourt last time the two played, and if he’s put in pick-and-roll situations, he struggles to stay out of foul trouble. It only helps the Tigers if he’s on the bench.

Keep them off the FT line

Wake Forest goes through periods where they really struggle to score. When they play well is when they get to the free-throw line. Seven of their nine wins have come when their free throw rate is above 44.3 percent. When they haven’t been able to get to the FT line at that mark, they are 2-8 on the season with those two wins coming against Long Beach State and Davidson (you get what I’m saying without me saying it). You don’t foul and you win the game.

*4 Point Play* - I have to add one more point because Jamie Luckie called a foul, AND IT WAS THE RIGHT CALL!

Player movement away from the ball on offense - Wake isn’t toward the top of the league in defense because they are playing so many young pieces. They do a solid job on the help side if the offense is stagnant. It’s when you get their young guys moving is when they really struggle with positioning defensively. This helps with driving lanes and for extra passes for open shots. If the Tigers are in their motion-type offense after misses, then guys have to really move to create confusion and open looks for themselves and teammates.

Note: Almost all teams go into motion type offenses after missed shots by the other team. I’m not letting some big cat out of the bag.

Clemson should look at this as a golden opportunity to keep things moving in the right direction. Six out of your last eight games in ACC play sounds awfully good to Tiger fans and Clemson basketball is starting to look good in the most important part of the season.

Be sure to follow me on Twitter @CoachTO22 prior to the game as I will be Live-tweeting the game in Winston-Salem.

Also, take a listen to my new podcast “Let It Fly with Terrence Oglesby” to get further post-game analysis and get takes about the ACC heading into February and through March Madness!

Listen to the podcast here

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