Steve Forbes, Hubert Davis on Wake Forest’s small-ball lineup
When Wake Forest traveled to Chapel Hill to face off with North Carolina in early January, head coach Steve Forbes used his traditional starting lineup of Tyree Appleby, Cameron Hildreth, Damari Monsanto, Andrew Carr and Matthew Marsh.
But, in the team’s past two games — a two-point loss at Duke and 17-point victory over Notre Dame — Forbes went small, bringing guard Daivien Williamson into the lineup and moving Carr to the five.
READ: Takeaways from Wake Forest's 81-64 win over Notre Dame
Ahead of the second installation of this season’s matchup between the Tar Heels and Wake Forest Tuesday night, North Carolina head coach Hubert Davis reflected on the Deacons’ new starting lineup used this week.
“That's made them different from an offensive standpoint,” Davis said. “Being more dynamic in terms of being able to stretch the floor and shoot the ball from three.”
In Wake Forest’s games against Duke and Notre Dame, the team took 61 shots from behind the three-point line, connecting 23 times (37.7%). The Deacons went 14-30 (46.7%) from deep in the victory over the Irish.
“I felt like the last two teams we played, we could go that direction,” Forbes said in his weekly ACC teleconference Monday. “It's not like we haven't gone that direction at some point [in] every game this year. I just probably haven't started that way.”
In those two games with a new starting lineup, 6’10” freshman Bobi Klintman saw increased usage as the first player off the bench. Klintman, like Carr, brings versatility on both ends of the floor. He combined for 55 minutes this week, including 33 of a possible 40 against Duke. In those games, he shot 7-8 from the field and a perfect 4-4 from deep, while pulling down eight rebounds.
In turn, Matthew Marsh, who has started 11 games as a traditional center, only saw a combined 15 minutes of action, including just four in Durham.
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When three-point sharpshooter Damari Monsanto, Klintman and Carr are on the floor together, the offense hums. During 73 total minutes with them at the 3/4/5, the Deacs are +49 with a 55% assist rate.
“It's obviously a more explosive offensive team,” Forbes said of his smaller lineup. “We banged 14 threes on Saturday. It made me look like a much better coach.”
In Wake Forest’s 88-79 loss in Chapel Hill, Marsh started the game and played 24 minutes. North Carolina’s 7-foot center, Armando Bacot, scored 21 points on 11 shots.
“I'm very situational when it comes to lineups and matchups,” Forbes said. “[It] depends on the low post player, how we defend it. The biggest nightmares I have are guarding the stretch five. A great low-post player like Bacot is, [going small] gives us the advantage a little bit offensively, to be able to spread it out.”
Forbes has a handful of different lineup options that he can roll with against Carolina, and each one has their own strengths and weaknesses.
The heavier, big-bodied Marsh and Davion Bradford are more capable of challenging Bacot’s attempts at the rim, but is it worth the offensive trade off? Considering Forbes started with a small ball lineup against 7-foot Kyle Filipowski and Duke, it’s certainly a possibility that he continues with Williamson in the starting lineup and a healthy dose of Klintman.
Wake Forest and UNC tip off at 7pm ET Tuesday night on ESPN.
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Essex is the lead football writer and a managing editor for Deacons Daily. Essex served as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black for two years, in addition to roles as a beat and feature writer.