The Good and The Bad From Wake Forest's Exhibition Against Piedmont International

The score (WF 118 PI 48) did not matter, but the game still did.  Wake Forest cruised to a victory and the team still has a lot of promise.  With only one senior (Trent VanHorn) and one graduate transfer (Austin Arians), the Demon Deacons are still a young team that should grow together and be even more of a force in the next few years.  There is only so much you can take away from an exhibition matchup between an ACC school and a Division II program, but there were some things that were noticeable for the Demon Deacons, both good and bad.

The Good: Point Guard Play

Bryant Crawford and newcomer Brandon Childress were great facilitators for the Demon Deacons tonight. With a combined ten assists and just one turnover between the two, the point guard position was extremely efficient.  They were able to spread out the defense and make great passes to their big men in the low post as well as pass to their three point scorers on the outside.  They weren't flawless, but they were pretty close.

The Good: New Faces

Brandon Childress has already been mentioned and had a fantastic first game, but other new faces in Winston-Salem contributed to the Wake Forest win.  Keyshawn Woods had a double-double (10 pts, 11 reb), Sam Japhet-Mathias scored 12 points in just 10 minutes and Austin Arians had the first two Wake Forest scores of the season.  Wake Forest lost key players like Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre, but the new arrivals definitely add some comfort going into the 2016-17 season.

The Bad: Free Throws

Noticeable Free Throw Statistics- WF

Player

FT - FTA

FT%

Dinos Mitoglou

6 - 11

54.5%

John Collins

4 - 7

57.1%

Trent VanHorn

0 - 3

0%

Wake was bad at the line last year. They ranked 304th nationally in free throw percentage.  Tonight, they still struggled.  Wake Forest went 23-38 from the line (60.5%).  It was just one game and Dinos Mitoglou was surprisingly off at the line, but considering the struggles from last year a bad free throw percentage to start this season is not what Coach Danny Manning must have envisioned for his team.  Wake will need to figure out how to get that percentage up before they play tougher competition.

Overall, Wake Forest looked stellar in this exhibition game.  It only gets tougher from this point on, but there is a lot of promise in Winston-Salem with fresh faces and youth.  A week from today, Wake Forest opens up the regular season hosting Radford at the LJVM Coliseum.