Sunday, January 02, 2011

What Might Have Been

Wake had its biggest opportunity of the season to date today, and didn’t know what to do with it.

So many factors were in the Deacons favor going into the final five minutes of today’s game with Gonzaga. They had the homecourt advantage, as well as the momentum from having sliced a 13-point deficit to 62-58. The Bulldogs were, if not gassed, then clearly feeling the heavy-legged effects of Saturday’s cross-country plane flight after a physical game Friday night against Oklahoma State.

At least four out of five times this year’s Gonzaga team is going to beat this year’s Wake team. The Bulldogs have experience as well as talent, whereas it’s going to take more time and more development to see how much talent the Deacons really have. They certainly have precious little experience, with only one player (C.J. Harris) who had ever started a game at Wake before this season.

But today could have been the exception. It would have taken teamwork, discipline and cohesion to pull it off, but with five minutes remaining, the upset was there for the taking.

Instead, Gonzaga scored nine of the game’s next 10 points over the next three minutes to spend the final two minutes bracing for the five-hour plane flight back to Spokane.

Terrell took two more shots over the Deacons’ next two possessions, and I didn’t like either. One was a fall-away from deep in the right corner, the other an 18-footer in heavy traffic on the right wing. He missed both. The quality of a shot should be judged at the moment it is taken, not by whether it goes in. A player can hit a tough shot from time to time, but Dave Odom used to always term those fools’ gold. They’ll leave you flat broke when you can least afford to be.

Then after Robert Sacre of the Bulldogs dunked on Ty Walker, Ari Stewart pulled up from the top of the key and left his 3-pointer short.

Steven Gray, fouled by Terrell on the perimeter, hit both ends of the 1-and-1 for a 68-59 lead. Wake worked the ball inside to Walker, but Sacre blocked his shot. Sacre then put the finishing touches on the win by posting Walker, hitting the bucket, and sinking the free throw for a 71-59 lead with 2:08 remaining.

And that was that.

“We just took a couple of quick shots, and we had some opportunities where we can’t hold onto the ball,’’ Coach Jeff Bzdelik of Wake said. “But we had some nice looks. We didn’t make timely shots.

“We’ve got to make that extra pass. That’s what it is. There are possessions where we need to make the extra pass and be a little cleaner with the ball and block off one or two more times. At halftime the rebounding edge was even. (Gonzaga out-rebounded the Deacons 22-11 in the second half). In the second half we allowed them to clean up a couple of misses.

“And in a tight ball game those possessions are huge.’‘

So was the opportunity Wake had with five minutes remaining, the one they frittered away to fall to 6-8 going into Wednesday’s final non-conference game of the year against High Point.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

No Defense for Wake’s Effort

To win, or at the very least contend for championships in basketball, strong defense is not always sufficient. But it is always essential.

And the most succinct reason why Wake has fared poorly in this failure-to-launch season is it hasn’t played defense well enough to do any better. That was obvious as I mulled what was happening with the Deacons on my drive up to Richmond and it’s all the more so as I sit here in my hotel room digesting the Deacons’ 90-74 loss to a team it had beaten 17 straight times.

Richmond’s good. If I didn’t like senior point guard Kevin Anderson, the 2010 Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, then I haven’t been paying attention. He scored 21 against the Deacons two years ago, 31 last year and 23 tonight. Smart and tough and totally bought-in to the team concept, he’s everything Wake doesn’t have. And senior forward Justin Harper, after two underwhelming games against Wake, made up for it tonight with 20 points, 13 rebounds, two assists and a block.

But I couldn’t help wonder if Wake made them look all the better, like it has so many players so far this season.

When Anderson wanted in the lane, the got there.

“He’s a handful,’’ Coach Jeff Bzdelik of Wake said. “We’ve had trouble keeping people in front of us all year, and he once again demonstrated that.’‘

When Harper wanted the ball inside, he posted his defender under the net and laid it in.

“We got soft down there tonight, no question,’’ Bzdelik said. “We allowed people to sit down on us, and believe me, we work on that on a daily basis for an extended period of time. Why that happens, trust me I’ll be watching the film for four hours on the way home tonight trying to find an answer myself.’‘

I can attest that Bzdelik knows the problem and has been working on it in earnest in practice. But so far whatever lessons are being taught aren’t taking. If they were, Richmond wouldn’t have scored on 25 of 38 second-half possessions to win by 16. The Deacons really wilted after rallying to a tie at 54, and over the next 90 seconds were outscored 11-0.  And it didn’t stop there. The Spiders had the ball 21 times over the final 11 minutes, and scored on 16 of them.

Bzdelik played mostly zone in the first before falling behind and resorting to the man-to-man. Maybe he should have played zone 40 minutes. I don’t see how it could have hurt.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Can Wake Improve Along With the Competition?

When his team reassembled after Christmas, Jeff Bzdelik looked in the eyes of all his players.

“What I was simply looking for was to see if they were they hurting as much as I and my staff were—and am,’’ Bzdelik said.

But did he get a sense that all were hurting, for certain?

“A sense of most,’’ Bzdelik said. “But until we have a total commitment of all, we will struggle to reach our full potential.

“All five (on the court) have to be deeply committed at all times to strive to do the right thing, in an unselfish way in all areas of the game.’‘

Bzdelik drove the point home with two marathon practices. The Deacons, unrestricted by the NCAA rule that allows a team only 20 hours of participation while classes are in session,  practiced four hours on Sunday and 3 1/2 on Monday. Suffice it to say a goodly portion of the time was committed to improving a defense that ranks 10th in the ACC by allowing opponents to shoot 43.2 percent from the floor.

And most of the teams that had their way with the Deacons’ defense weren’t as good as the ones coming up on the schedule, starting with tomorrow’s game at 10-3 Richmond. Of all the games between Wake and the Spiders, I don’t remember one that the Deacons entered as prohibitive underdogs.

To even make it close, Wake will have to play far better than it did in losses to Stetson, Winthrop, UNC Wilmington and Presbyterian and a two-point home victory over winless UNC Greensboro. Bzdelik knows it, and he can only hope his team does as well.

“There’s no doubt that we have lost games this season thus far to teams that don’t have the individual talent, man for man, that we have,’’ Bzdelik said. “That is extremely disappointing to all of us. But at the same time, we are learning the hard way what it really means to be a team. Gaining that wisdom and experience have come at a high cost.

“I’m starting to see the light flicker, as for what it really means to be a team, to do things for others that might not benefit you individually – but will benefit this team and our future success. We’d better get it because, no disrespect to those we have played, but the level of competition that we are about to embark on – starting with the game Wednesday night – is at a nth degree higher. Whatever you want to call `nth.’

“So trust me, I understand that.’’

Friday, December 24, 2010

Zone or Man? It’s Up to You

If you’re like me and have a little time on your hands these holidays, I know great way for you to waste it.

Since getting hip to Strat-0-Matic as kid, I’ve been a gamer. I like the strategy games where I can just coach, and don’t have to mess around with all that manual dexterity. I’ve played pretty much all of them, baseball, basketball, football, even hockey. And I know I’m a heck of a manager/coach by all the championships I’ve won.

Just the other day I came across an internet college basketball game called Stellar College Basketball. http://www.stellarcollegebballgame.com/. It’s completely free and you can download it and be up and playing in 10 minutes. It’s not the greatest game I’ve ever played, but it’s not bad. Not bad at all. I played last season’s ACC Tournament and the results were all too familiar. Duke won, beating Maryland 74-63 for the title. Nolan Smith (the Everett Case Award winner) and Kyle Singler scored 18 each. Greivis Vasquez led the Terps with 20.

And in case you’re wondering, Dino Gaudio saved his job by beating Maryland 75-60 in the first round, with Ish Smith scoring 23 and Al-Farouq Aminu contributing 14 points and 14 rebounds. The Deacons got bumped in the next round to Virginia Tech 75-62 when Malcolm Delaney dominated Smith, outscoring him 29 points to 6. Ish had a rough day, making only 1 of 8 shots from the floor.

I just got through with a regular-season tilt. Wake beat N.C. State 57-56, rallying from a 30-26 halftime deficit. Aminu was huge, piling up 17 points and 13 rebounds as the Deacons shot 41 percent from the floor and held the Wolfpack to 38 percent. Wake had to overcome 22 turnovers, and did so, partly, by outrebounding State 38-36.

The game is pretty basic, as you might expect for the price—or lack thereof. But I’ve played a lot worse.

If you check it out, let me know how your games turned out.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Lost in the Fog

Anybody can get away with firing anybody if they hire the right replacement. The new A.D. at Maryland who is showing Ralph Friedgen the door could clean house of Gary Williams as well, as long he went out and landed Mike Krzyzewski. The money call is always the second one, not the first. Ron Wellman didn’t have to let Dino Gaudio and his 61-31 record go, but he did anyway. He did it because of two reasons. The first is he obviously thought it was the best move for Wake. I know Wellman well enough to know that. The second was because, in the position of strength he has forged in his 18 years at the school, he could.

But that really put the spotlight on who he was going to bring in.

And the coach he brought in, Jeff Bzdelik, has already, before his first Christmas in North Carolina, lost to Stetson, Winthrop, UNC Wilmington and Presbyterian, and beaten winless UNC Greensboro by two in Joel Coliseum.

Long-time readers of this blog know I don’t ride in posses. I certainly don’t lead them. It’s not my job to hire or fire coaches. But if I didn’t at least assess their performance and why people should be happy or distressed, then you’d have little reason to drop by. And I have no trouble understanding why so many readers, and fans in general, are so up in arms about the first dozen games of Bzdelik’s stint as Wake’s coach. They’re not used to losing to Stetson, Winthrop, UNC Wilmington and Presbyterian. Why should they be? They never have before. These are historically horrendous losses.

I did a bit of quick research upon returning home from last night’s loss to Presbyterian. In the last two years of Skip Prosser’s run at Wake, the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, the Deacons were bad enough to lose more games (33) than they won (32) and go 8-24 in ACC play. But over those two years, the Deacons were 20-6 against non-conference teams. And the losses were to Florida, DePaul (twice), Air Force (coached by Bzdelik), Georgia and South Florida. Not a team from the Big South or Atlantic Sun among them.

The Good Ship Wake Forest has sailed into uncharted waters. And the passengers are wondering if, through the dense fog, they aren’t bearing down on the edge of the world.

Nobody expected 2010-11 to be a banner season. If Gaudio were still coach, the Deacons would still be bad, especially without Tony Woods and Tony Chennault. Wellman is on record as saying Wake won’t win the national championship this season. There may be those among his fanbase who would settle for an ACC win. But nobody wants to get used to losing to teams from the Big South, Atlantic Sun and Colonial Athletic Association. Thus far, Bzdelik has given Wake fans no alternative other than rank apathy.

There, I’ve laid out my take on the first dozen games of Jeff Bzdelik’s stay at Wake. I can’t imagine how it could have been much worse.

And I have a great imagination.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Chennault: To Play or Not to Play

If there’s ever been a team that took a misstep into a new season, it was Wake. The Deacons lost the game to Stetson and their point guard to a broken foot. And best I can tell, they haven’t recovered from either.

Jeff Bzdelik’s first regular-season post-game press conference at Wake began with the news that freshman Tony Chennault had broken his foot and would be sidelined for 8-to-10 weeks. Nobody knows just how much of a difference Chennault might have made in the Deacons’ 6-5 record going into tonight’s home game against Presbyterian, but the glimpses we got in practices and a turn or two against Stetson were tantalizing. He is a pass-first point with a low center of gravity and a desire to get into the lane whenever he can—or in other words,. just what the Deacons have been missing. But as stumbling starts at Wake, N.C. State and North Carolina have reaffirmed, freshmen have been known to struggle defensively before becoming acclimated to the physicality and pace of major-college basketball, and Chennault may have been as much a liability at that end of the court as those he would be replacing.

But it’s pretty safe to say his presence wouldn’t have caused any more damage to a team that has already lost to Stetson, Winthrop and UNC Wilmington and beaten winless UNC Greensboro at home by two.

So now the questions become, when does Chennault return and will he play this season or apply for a medical hardship waiver and begin over again in 2011-12? Which, being the savvy reporter I am, were the two I asked Chennault at yesterday’s practice.

He said the foot is healing, and that he hopes to lose the boot protecting the fractured fifth metatarsal of his left foot in a couple of weeks. But as we’re reminded constantly by trainers and doctors, every human body has its own schedule. Some folks just heal faster than others. So as of yet, nobody has been able to tell Chennault exactly when he’ll be cleared to return. And even after he does, there’s that matter of getting back into shape—and not just good shape, but the kind of tip-top shape it takes to sprint up and down the court three or four times without passing out.

And given the history of Chennault’s foot, Bzdelik and the medical staff should err on the side of caution, which I’m sure they will.

So the earliest Chennault could return, based on the initial prognosis, would be the game at N.C. State on Jan. 8. I’d call that wildly optimistic. If he returns in nine weeks, he’ll play at Virginia Tech on Jan. 15, and if it takes 10 weeks that would put him back for Duke on Jan. 22.  There’s also the possibility the original prognosis was off, and that it’ll take even longer to get him back safe and sound.

Chennault said he won’t make his personal call on whether to play this season until he sees how long it takes to get back. He’s open-minded for either possibility. Bzdelik, as you would expect, has taken the same stance of waiting to see how much of the schedule remains by the time Chennault returns. No decision has to be made before then.

But let’s think along with them.

If Chennault makes it back by Duke, that leaves at least 13 games, counting the first round of the ACC Tournament. In that event, I’d say play him this season. Players come and go at a dizzying rate in college athletics, and who can predict four weeks from now, much less four years? And though his return is unlikely to make a difference in the Deacons’ post-season prospects, it would allow Bzdelik to plug back in a critical part to see what kind of chemistry and synergy can be built headed into next season. And without seeing what Chennault can do this season, Bzdelik will have that many more questions to answer when the team reassembles for practice next mid-October.

But if the return takes, say 12 weeks, then he’ll be back for Maryland with only 10 games remaining. A season of eligibility for 10 games is a high price. In that event, I’d leave it totally up to him. If he wants to play this year, I’d play him. If not, I’d be left to hope he’s good enough to want to have around another four years, and not so good that he’d leave for the NBA before April of 2015.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

How To Contact Rodney Rogers

Jerry and Lee of the Peanut Gallery have both inquired on how to get letters to Rodney Rogers, the ex-Deacon great who is paralyzed from a dirt bike accident of two years ago. In all matters such as these, I checked with my good friend Julie Griffin, the director of the CHAMPS/Life Skills program who does the best job of anybody with keeping up with former players and coaches. Julie said to send the letters to her mailbox, which is:

Rodney Rogers
C/O Wake Forest University
P.O. Box 6242
Winston-Salem, N.C. 27109.

Julie said that to get the letters to Rodney before Christmas, you’d better send them ASAP. She’ll collect her mail up through Dec. 22, but Wake will be closed from Dec. 23 through Jan. 4. Julie also passed along the news that Rodney recently married his fiance Faye, who has been by his side through this entire trying experience. So that’s another reason to send along well-wishes.

You don’t think this Wake Forest basketball team could use a Rodney Rogers in his prime, do you?

Of course, what team couldn’t? The Durham Bull had the best combination of size and explosiveness I ever saw from a player in a Wake Forest uniform. He was really something.

Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect

On Monday and Tuesday, Wake Forest had what were universally described as the best practices of the season.

“Monday there was no shooting, and Tuesday there was limited shooting,’’ freshman Travis McKie said. “So we just did defensive drills and straight talking on defense, straight communication, straight hard-nosed basketball.

“Those two practices are going to help us out for the rest of the season.’‘

On Wednesday, the Deacons won a home game against winless UNC Greensboro by two points when the Spartans botched a last-second opportunity to win. So the only three conclusions to be drawn are either a) it will take time for the effects of those two great practices to bear fruit, or b) the Deacons are so bad that it’s going to take a heck of a lot more than two good practices to straighten them out, or 3) the Deacons are so bad they are basically beyond help.

Good teams don’t routinely dribble off their feet. Good teams don’t leave the perimeter exposed for wide-open threes. Good teams don’t clunk clutch free throws down the stretch. Good teams don’t look at where they’re passing the ball after they’ve passed it. Good teams don’t stand around under the backboard while opponents outhustle them to the rebounds. Wake Forest has been doing all those things all year—with the obvious exception of missing clutch free throws—and it was doing them again against UNCG.And that’s how an 0-8 team that lost to FSU by 24, to Virginia Tech by 22, to North Carolina A&T by 12, to Wofford by 22, to Furman by 13 and to Maryland by 43 had a shot a victory on the last possession of the game.

It’s no news flash to report that Wake Forest is not a good team.

Losing center Tony Woods because of personal behavior and guard Tony Chennault because of a broken foot has crippled Coach Jeff Bzdelik’s first team at Wake Forest. But all teams in all sports are required to play with the players they have. And if a team can’t overcome the loss of personnel then they weren’t strong and solid enough to begin with. And as much as one might want to sympathize with Bzdelik and the hand he has been dealt, the truth is no Wake Forest team—nor any ACC team for that matter—should ever be losing to Stetson, Winthrop and UNC Wilmington and having to sweat out an end-game scare against UNC Greensboro.

Bzdelik knows this, of course. He’s been around basketball long enough that he has to. But he has remained bound and determined to put the best face on this most unsightly of seasons, and to stay as relentlessly upbeat as possible. His is a fragile team, physically and emotionally, and the last thing he wants to do is fracture what little confidence the Deacons have left.

So he’s left to say what he said after Wednesday’s nail-biter against UNC Greensboro.

“Listen, I’m positive and I’m encouraged,’’ Bzdelik said. “We have a terrific group of young men who are gaining wisdom and experience in a tough way, and they’re responding and improving. They care. And yes we’re going to have our challenges throughout the year—there’s no question—as we grow up. But that’s the way life is. It’s not always what you always want.’‘

There’s always the risk of losing credibility when you say you’re proud of a team that beat a winless opponent by two at home. But other than beating up on his players while they’re this down, what else could he say for public consumption?

It’s what he says in practices, and the results it produces, that really matters.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

More Than They Could Have Imagined.

Going into Sunday’s game against UNC Wilmington, I thought I knew what to expect from Wake. I thought the Deacons had shown enough improvement since the early disasters against Stetson and Winthrop that they would handle rather handily a Seahawks team going through as much transition as they were.

As it turned out, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought I did, but didn’t. And in that regard, I was like pretty much any freshman who shows up for his first season of playing college basketball. All of them think they have at least an inkling of what it’s going to be like, but few, if any, do. Ask any freshman by the end of his first semester about it, and he will tell you the demands and expectations were far greater than they ever imagined. The freshmen year is hard enough for those students not on athletic scholarships. For those who are, the experience is usually overwhelming.

Not until a freshman understands the price in terms of commitment, work ethic, discipline and conditioning that it takes to hold your own in the ACC can he make a successful transition from high school and AAU. Some freshmen actually never do. Sometimes it takes two or three years for the lesson to be learned. My sense is that two of the Deacons still grappling with the issue are Ty Walker, a junior who played sparingly his first two seasons, and Ari Stewart, a sophomore who had a really nice freshman season, but only as a reserve who could lean on veteran leaders such as Ish Smith and L.D. Williams. And there are at least indications that’s the main reason Walker is not expected to start tonight against UNC Greensboro and Coach Jeff Bzdelik was, as of the end of Tuesday’s practice, still deliberating on Stewart.

The freshman who seems to have the best grip on what it takes is Travis McKie. He plays really hard, and has been since the opener against Stetson. The one who clearly had little to no clue was Melvin Tabb, which may well have been why Bzdelik felt compelled to give Tabb some time away from the team. Carson Desrosiers needs to develop physically, J.T. Terrell needs to at least try to do what his coach tells him to do and Tony Chennault, obviously, needs to recover from a broken foot.

Wake returns to Joel Coliseum tonight to play UNC Greensboro. Because the Spartans are one of college basketball’s worst teams, at 0-8, I again think I know what to expect.

But do I? In about four hours I’ll find out.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Deacons Going Nowhere Fast

The debacle against UNC Wilmington yesterday provided all the reasons one would need to wonder if, nine games into his first season at Wake, Coach Jeff Bzdelik has lost his team.

Which leads me to wonder if he ever had it.

I’ve sat through my share of ugly shows over my years as the Wake beat guy, and yesterday’s setback—with the Deacons getting cuffed around by a team picked to finish last in the CAA—was about as ugly as it gets. Making it all the harder to stomach was watching two of Wake’s key players, junior Ty Walker and freshman J.T. Terrell, sulking on the bench through the second half after Bzdelik had clearly seen enough of their, shall we say, less-than-inspired play.

Terrell trudged off the court during a timeout late in the first half. Told by Bzdelik to run, he did. For about one half-hearted step. He didn’t start the second half, and spent most of his 17 minutes on the bench staring off into space. And that’s pretty much the pose he took in the locker room later when I asked him four questions.

Question one—“J.T., were you given a reason you didn’t start in the second half?’’—was met with silence.

Question two—“Did (Coach Bzdelik) say anything?—was met with silence.

Question three—“Did you ask him why you didn’t start in the second half?—produced a monosyllabic “Nope.’‘

Question four—“What was your reaction to not starting or playing more than you did?—was met, again, by silence.

I’ve been at this game long enough to know it’s not all about me, and if a player wants to be the first in my time of covering Wake to give me the silent treatment, that’s his prerogative. J.T. Terrell may be a wonderful human being for all I know because, truth is, I don’t know him. I hope to get to know him over his time at Wake. But just as it’s not all about me, it’s not all about him either. In his case, it’s about being a good teammate and a player willing and anxious to learn from his coaches.

And Walker, once he was subbed for early in the second half, walked over the bench and called for his warmups. He bickered with teammates and generally was creating enough disruption that Bzdelik, at one point, felt compelled to walk down the bench, lean over, and say something to him.

At least he talked after the game, telling me he didn’t know why he didn’t play more in the second half.

“I have no idea—I just didn’t,’’ Walker said. “I have no explanation at all. I can’t read the coaches mind, so whatever he goes by I respect it to the best of my ability.’‘

And lest we forget, Bzdelik has already taken steps to get freshman Melvin Tabb with the program, suspending him for three games to give him time to concentrate on his academics and, in Bzdelik’s words, ``carry himself to the level of expectation we expect from our players.’‘’ Tabb returned to the team last Thursday and was in uniform yesterday, but did not play. Bzdelik said last week that Tabb was going to have to earn his way back into the rotation.

But as bad a scene as it was in Greensboro yesterday, it really wasn’t all that much worse than the season-opening loss to Stetson or the setback to Winthrop. When asked before the season who was going to be the team leaders, Bzdelik said it would have to be him. But it’s becoming more and more apparent it’s going to take a player or two or three to step forward and remind everyone that a team divided can’t stand, not even against UNC Wilmington. And if it can’t stand against the Seahawks, it’s really in trouble against Duke.

“I’m not saying we’re fragile,’’ Gary Clark, the lone senior, said after the game. “Everyone has to buy into the system and play hard for the full 40 minutes, because Wilmington did.’‘