Preview: Rutgers at Wake Forest

No single game, or even two games, makes a team’s identity. Such things evolve and become established over longer periods of time than 40-minute games.

But you can’t start establishing it without, you know, having a starting point.

Wake Forest came out of a gritty Black Friday win against Charleston Southern talking about showing more of its identity, and then did so with last week’s win over Florida. Turning a nine-point deficit into an 11-point win over the Gators was what coach Steve Forbes called an “identity win,” one in which the Deacons implemented his GGTT — gritty, grimy, tough, together — mindset as well as they have all season.

Now it’s a matter of continuing it against Rutgers on Wednesday night.

“When we got back from Charleston, we had some tough practices,” Forbes said after the Florida game. “I have been hard on them, and it’s hard because we’ve been hurt. I’m worried about injuries, but we can’t get better if we don’t go hard. … We started holding people accountable to box out and all of those things.

“It’s just one game. But I’ll give them credit for getting better in practice over the last couple of weeks.”

The thing about Wake Forest establishing this identity is that it shouldn’t — and doesn’t, per guard Cameron Hildreth — matter who’s available to play and who’s not.

“Our identity shouldn’t matter who’s on the floor or who we have,” Hildreth said. “Obviously when these guys come back, they’re going to be part of our identity.

“But it doesn’t matter who we have on the floor. Forbes expects an identity from us and we can show that.”

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Here’s what to know ahead of Wednesday night’s game:

Time: 6 p.m.

Location: Joel Coliseum.

TV: ACC Network.

Announcers: Anish Shroff (play-by-play) and Perry Clark (analyst).

Series; last meeting: Tied 1-1; Rutgers won 81-57 last season, the first leg of this home-and-home series.

Records: Rutgers 5-2; Wake Forest 4-3.

Stat to watch: 25.3%.

That’s how often Rutgers forces its opponent to turn the ball over, per KenPom.

Rutgers does a lot of things well defensively — Wake Forest saw that last year — and forcing turnovers is what the Scarlet Knights do best. That turnover percentage is sixth-best in the country, after being 25th last year (21.7%).

It’s gotten better lately. In Rutgers’ last four games, it has forced a combined 82 turnovers.

So … it’s good thing Wake Forest seems to have cleaned up some things in this area.

Since turning the ball over 18 times in the overtime loss to LSU, the Deacons have 22 turnovers in two games. They had 13 turnovers last week against Florida, but that was a 77-possession game — you can live with a turnover percentage of 16.9% if you shoot near 50% (28 of 57) and take 29 free throws.

Matchup to watch: Rutgers’ frontcourt vs. Wake’s frontcourt.

Probably need to stop making a habit of listing this as the matchup to watch for all of the Deacons’ games (or maybe it just feels that way).

It’s just difficult to ignore Rutgers’ length — and the role it played in last year’s blowout of the Deacons.

It starts with fourth-year center Clifford Omoruyi. He’s 6-11, 240 and after recording the 22nd-best block percentage in the country last year (9.1), he’s up to sixth this season (14.9%).

Fifth-year forward Aundre Hyatt is 6-6, 235, and Rutgers has worked freshman Gavin Griffiths (6-8, 193) into the rotation — he was the No. 23 recruit in the Rivals150.

Rutgers is waiting on the return of Mawot Mag, a 6-7, 216-pound fourth-year forward. He started the first 23 games last season before tearing an ACL and hasn’t played this season, though he warmed up before the Scarlet Knights’ 76-58 loss to Illinois in the Big Ten opener on Saturday. Rutgers was 16-7 with him and 3-8 without him last year.

It’s a grouping that, on paper, gives Rutgers some size advantage against Wake Forest.

What’s worth remembering is the same could be said entering the Deacons’ last game, against Florida. Wake Forest held its own on the inside in that game, outrebounding the Gators 34-33 and scoring at the rim often, especially in the last 15 minutes.

Edit to add: About an hour after publication, news came that Efton Reid III has been cleared to play this season and is eligible to play against Rutgers. Here's the breaking news story.

That obviously changes the calculus on how Wake's frontcourt matches up against Rutgers, though it's up in the air about how much Reid will play in his debut, given he's only been practicing over the past few months.

Scarlet Knight to watch: Guard Derek Simpson (No. 0).

Simpson has had — how to put this delicately — an up-and-down season already for Rutgers.

The Scarlet Knights unexpectedly lost guards Cam Spencer (Connecticut) and Paul Mulcahy (Washington) to late-spring transfers. That turned Simpson into the only returning guard with significant experience, having started six games last year and come on strong at the end of the season.

The 6-3, 165-pound Simpson had two points in each of Rutgers’ first two games this year, including a season-opening 68-61 loss to Princeton. He followed that up by averaging 15 points in the next four games, all of them wins, including a career-high 23-point game against Howard in which he was 7-for-10 from the field.

In this past weekend’s loss to Illinois, Simpson had seven points and was 1-for-6 shooting. It was his first game of the year without an assist.

Deacon to watch: Guard Hunter Sallis (No. 23).

Sallis played in 68 games over the past two seasons at Gonzaga. He scored in double figures six times.

Sallis has played in seven games at Wake Forest; he’s scored in double figures seven times.

The latest transfer guard to thrive in Wake’s offense is coming off a 24-point game — tying his season and career highs — on 8-for-15 shooting. Sallis was dynamic against Florida, hitting mid-range jumpers off of pullups, getting to the rim, and draining two 3s.

It’s the long-range shooting that might be the most-impressive part of Sallis’ transformation. Granted, he’s had more opportunities at Wake Forest. But Sallis was 15-for-61 (24.6%) from long range at Gonzaga; he’s 19-for-43 (44.2%) as a Deacon, having made multiple 3s in every game.

While Rutgers might have an advantage in the frontcourt, Sallis and his backcourt mates Kevin Miller and Hildreth should give the Deacons an advantage in guard play.

What’s on deck: Wake Forest both ends a back-to-back against power conference teams and starts a back-to-back against teams from New Jersey with this game.

The Deacons play host to New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) on Saturday night. The Highlanders are 1-6 entering Wednesday night’s game against Fordham and lost 101-60 against Miami the only time they played a power conference team this season.

Rutgers comes out of this game with another road game against a tough opponent, this one coming Saturday against Seton Hall.

KenPom prediction: Wake Forest wins 71-69.

Deacons Illustrated prognosis: This is a fascinating matchup for a lot of the reasons laid out above.

Rutgers makes it really difficult to score unless you’re hitting 3s; Wake Forest has scored a bunch of points lately without hitting many 3s.

If Wake Forest protects the ball, it will eliminate easy-offense chances for Rutgers.

It’s a chance for the Deacons to repay the Scarlet Knights for last year’s blowout in Piscataway, N.J.

And it’s a chance for Wake Forest to further solidify its identity.