The Cavaliers look to build on a strong performance against Maryland as they take on Wake Forest in John Paul Jones Arena Sunday.
Virginia will need to continue to focus on several key areas to beat the Demon Deacons. One of the main reasons the Cavaliers were so successful against Maryland was their ability to get to the line and make free throws. With another home game, Virginia could gain a big advantage by attacking the basket and forcing Wake Forest into early foul trouble.
"We do very good when we emphasize something specific," Virginia coach Dave Leitao said. "We didn't give up a lot of transition baskets against Carolina because we talked about it."
Virginia continued to play good transition defense against Maryland, only surrendering six fast break points to the Terrapins.
The Demon Deacons currently occupy the cellar of the ACC standings, and have lost two in a row at home to Boston College and N.C. State following a road win over Miami.
Leitao noted that Maryland will be the fourth straight game in which Virginia will battle more than one "really good post player."
"I'd like to see our interior defense get better," he added.
Interior defense may be the one area where Wake Forest might be able to exploit the Cavalier defense. Maryland was able to outscore Virginia in the paint 42-30, and the Cavaliers have struggled this year to contain skilled post players such as Purdue's Carl Landry, North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and Boston College's Jared Dudley and Sean Williams.
Wake Forest will try to feed the ball to 6-foot-11 senior Kyle Visser early and often to try and wear down the interior defense of Virginia. Visser is averaging 18.3 points per game and 7.8 rebounds per game. Virginia could neutralize Visser if senior Jason Cain can get Visser in early foul trouble. Visser has finished with four fouls in Wake Forest's last two games, and if he is in early foul trouble the Demon Deacons do not have many other options.
Wake Forest is still trying to find a second scorer on a young team that has seven freshmen and features four freshmen who are averaging 17 minutes per game or more, including freshman 5-foot-11 guard Ishmael Smith, who is second on the team with 8.9 points per game and leads the team with 6.3 assists per game.
A win over Wake Forest could help Virginia turn the corner for this season and help the Cavaliers build a résumé for a postseason tournament. Currently Virginia is not even listed as a bubble team by ESPN.com, but wins over Wake Forest, on the road against N.C. State and against a suddenly slumping Clemson team could give Virginia some confidence heading into a showdown against Duke at home.
To win those games Virginia will need to continue to get offense from more than just senior J.R. Reynolds and junior Sean Singletary. If sophomore Mamadi Diane can continue to build on his career-best game against Maryland, Virginia could have a three-headed beast that would be hard to stop.
"It makes my job a little bit easier" when other players contribute to scoring, Singletary said. "I still have other things to do like lead, but it definitely makes my job easier."
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