Friday, February 19, 2010

The New Kid is Coming On

JCG, a regular in the peanut gallery, requested an update on Nikita Mescheriakov, the transfer from Georgetown who joined the Deacons this semester. It just so happens that Michael Jennings of Scout.com and I watched Nikita go through his paces at yesterday’s practice and we agreed that he certainly looked like he belonged on the court.

By way of disclaimer, I’m hesitant to draw too many conclusions about a player based simply on practice because I’ve seen too many be a beast at 3:45 in Miller Gym and a bust at 9 o’clock in Joel Coliseum playing against Duke in front of a nationally televised audience. I’ve also heard so many times about the newcomer, a transfer or a redshirt, being absolutely unstoppable in practice, only to find out the next season that he’s not really all that after all. Mescheriakov didn’t exactly leave a lasting mark at Georgetown. There was little apparent anguish when he left. His stats were nothing to text home to Belarus about.

Having hedged, I will say this about Mescheriakov. He’s tall, taller than the 6-7 he was listed when he played at Georgetown. That’s rare. Usually the 6-7 guy that shows up is actually 6-5 1/2, if that. Nikita looks every bit of 6-8 and may be close to 6-9. He and sophomore Ty Walker are on a separate weight-training regimen under Todd Hedrick, the basketball strength and conditioning coach, that has them both lifting four times a week. It is beginning to show in Mescheriakov’s upper arms and shoulders. He looks stronger than he did a month ago.

He’s left-handed and his shot is a line drive. But his touch looks pretty good. And he has 3-point range.

He also has spring in his legs and moves well. Again, he looks like he belongs on the court.

Coach Dino Gaudio said one reason he took Mescheriakov on the rebound was he liked his versatility. Dino felt he could play three or four positions on the court. He’s a natural wing forward, and I didn’t really see him as a power forward in his first days at Wake. But if he continues hitting the weights all through the off-season and puts on another few pounds of hard-rock muscle, then he might give the Deacons some minutes inside next season. He’ll definitely have the experience that the five incoming freshmen will not.

I’m not ready to climb out on the limb and say he’s a lock to start next season. But if he keeps working hard and developing, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the rotation.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Facial Hair No Longer Apparent On McFarland

Am I ever glad I made it by Wake Forest’s basketball practice today. Otherwise I’d have missed the scoop of the season.

Chas McFarland is clean-shaven.

McFarland, if you’ve haven’t been paying attention, was threatening to shave his mustache after Saturday’s game against Georgia Tech because he said it itches. But he didn’t feel he could because the Deacons, at the time, were on a four-game winning streak and he didn’t want to jinx his team. Talk about loyalty and commitment.

Well after Wake lost at Virginia Tech Tuesday night, McFarland made good on his threat and showed up today with no ‘stache. I didn’t even notice it when I said hello before practice, but of course even when he had it you had to look really hard to see it. Then somebody mentioned he was clean-shaven, and after getting up close enough I confirmed that was indeed the case.

When he came over for water late in practice, I asked him how many razors he wore out taking his mustache down. He said he used a trimmer.

I didn’t even razz him about our “Battle of the ‘Staches” challenge because I could tell from the way he was talking on Saturday he wasn’t going the distance. But he still has time between now and graduation to get back in on the competition, which would be triggered by Wake making it to the Final Four.  And of course, as I said before, I’m willing to take on all comers—so long as they play basketball for Wake. I’ll even take on the walk-ons, though I don’t see a lot of threats there.

UPDATE: Derrick Jackson, who along with his son Joshua are two of the most dedicated Wake Forest fans around, emailed me to say that our Battle of the ‘Staches reminded him of a classic Bugs Bunny Cartoon called The Rabbit of Seville, in which Ol’ Bugs dumps both hair restorer and “Figaro Fertilizer’’ on Elmer Fudd with some hair-popping results. He said I’d better hope that nobody on the Wake team gets a hold of that stuff, or I’d be trounced. He sent the link. The pertinent part starts at about the 5 1/2 minute mark, but you’re obviously going to want to watch it all.

Rabbit of Seville

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Bad Night in Blacksburg for Men in Stripes

If you’ve dropped by for an excuse as to why Wake Forest lost to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg last night, you’ve come to the wrong place.

The Deacons lost because the Hokies, after falling behind by 11 early in the second half, took the game by the throat and played harder and better than Wake down the stretch. They attacked the basket with abandon, they hit their free throws, they outscrapped the Deacons for rebounds and they shut down Al-Farouq Aminu after Aminu’s amazing 21-point first half outburst. Their crowd was the best I’ve seen this season outside of Cameron, and Coach Seth Greenberg made the right moves down the stretch.

Kudos to Tech. It was an impressive win, one that should all but lock them into a bid for the NCAA Tournament.

And I’ll say once again, the next best thing to winning is to lose with a good excuse. As humans, we always think we’ve been wronged when we lose. Apparently, that’s the way we’re programmed.

Now having stipulated all that, I’ll agree with the general outcry that it was a terribly officiated basketball game. It was so bad it was hard to watch Mike Eades, Bob Donato and Tim Kelly botch one call and one situation after another.

The biggest problem was there wasn’t a lead official—technically known as a referee—among them. Eades was designated as such, but last night’s performance is pretty compelling evidence that he’s not up to the role. I agree with a good friend who said that if there had been a true referee on the court, a guy like a Karl Hess or Les Jones or even a Mike Wood working that game, it wouldn’t have disintegrated the way it did.

I didn’t see a replay of the shot by Malcolm Delaney that put the Hokies ahead in the second half, but I’ve heard from enough people that it was a two-pointer and not a three to believe it must have been. Putting the wrong player on the free throw line in the second half was an embarrassment, especially when he’s allowed to shoot and miss a free throw that is waved off while they get the right guy.

To me the saddest call of all was the double technical, and I’m basing that on having seen a good replay of the incident. Kelly called it originally on J.T. Thompson for shoving Chas McFarland. But after the officials huddled for about five minutes, and watched video of the play, they came back to say they were assessing a double technical on both players.

First off, I’m not even sure Thompson should have gotten a technical. I’ve seen far harder shoves that didn’t result in technicals. But I’m absolutely convinced that no other player in the ACC would have gotten the other technical besides Chas McFarland. He got that one on reputation. You could say he bumped Thompson, but it was little more than a brush, and much, much less than it was made out to be. I’ve seen Hess and Jones officiate enough games to know that they would have gone to both players and told them in no uncertain terms to knock it off. And the players would have, and play would have gone on.

Chas McFarland has a reputation as an agitator, and it’s well deserved. I wrote about it early this season and I read about it recently in ESPN The Magazine. Everyone knows that reputation, including Mike Eades, Bob Donato and Tim Kelly, and last night they allowed that reputation to influence the way a game was called. You can say McFarland brought it up himself, but it’s up to the officials to call the game as it’s played on the floor, period.

A good game was marred by bad officiating. It was hard to watch.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Sorry Tybee, a Challenge is a Challenge

Chas McFarland said the other night that his mustache is itching and he would love to shave it, but can’t. The Deacons are on a four-game winning streak, and he doesn’t want to jinx it.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was just trying to avoid any humiliation from the `Battle of the Staches’ I proposed last week.

The reaction I’ve gotten from my offer to shave my beard and mustache in the event that Wake makes the Final Four has been so strong and gratifying that I imagine I’m in regardless of whether Chas or any of the Deacons want to challenge my ability to sprout facial hair. The gauntlet I threw down, if you weren’t paying attention, was that should Wake Forest reach the Final Four I would shave my face clean of mustache and beard and grow back only my mustache over the weeks leading up to Chas’ graduation in May, at which time photographs would be taken and I’d have all you guys judge who has the best ‘stache. I’ve even offered to allow Chas to keep growing his, giving him a handicap of sorts to help make up for the 40 years of practice I’ve had in growing mine.

So here’s the new deal. I’ll take on all comers, as long as they play basketball for Wake Forest. I’ve noticed that L.D. Williams has pretty heavy growth. He might be really tough to out-sprout. But I’ll willing to give it a shot.

I told Dino Gaudio about my challenge last week and he loved it. Everyone has, in fact, except for my bride Tybee. And she was aghast. See, she’s one of the few people in Forsyth County who have seen me without a beard and, judging from her panic-stricken face when I informed her of my offer, she obviously doesn’t want to see it again.

“You’re going to what?’’ she demanded.

I told her to calm down, that Wake hasn’t been to the Final Four since 1962. That relieved her a bit, but I could see she was still a little shaken over the possibility of having to see my face.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Beware the Bottom Feeders

In lieu of a prediction for tomorrow’s game between Wake Forest and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, I’ll forecast what will happen if the Hokies lose.

Virginia Tech will then win either two or three of its remaining six games (counting the first round of the ACC Tournament) and present a resume of a 23-8 or 22-9 overall mark with a conference mark of either 10-6 or 9-7. And when the NCAA Tournament selection committee leaves the Hokies home for the sixth time in Seth Greenberg’s seven seasons as head coach, we’ll all hear Greenberg grumble to high heavens.

But he’ll have only himself to blame.

Greenberg needs to grasp what Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest learned two seasons ago. That was the year the Deacons were 17-13 overall and 7-9 in the ACC and couldn’t even get an invite to the NIT. Their problem was they played N.C. Central, Winston-Salem State, USC Upstate and Presbyterian all in the same season and it trashed their strength of schedule. Every team plays over-matched non-conference opponents, but the key is to play over-matched teams ranked by the ratings percentage index between 100 and 200 and not those ranked between 200 and the final spot of 347.

Truth is, a Wake Forest or Virginia Tech should be able win a home game against Appalachian State (No. 121 in the most recent RPI). So schedule Appalachian State instead of clogging your slate with N.C. Central (No. 343), Maryland-Baltimore County (No. 338), VMI (No. 316), Charleston Southern (No. 280), Longwood (No. 259), UNC-Greensboro (No. 253), Brown (No. 228), and Delaware (No. 205)—all of whom decorate (to use the term loosely) the 2009-10 Virginia Tech schedule.

I don’t discount the element of luck. Schedules have to be made out a year or two in advance, so you can’t always help it when a team you expect to be decent actually crashes and burns. There have been seasons when Greenberg could expect to get more credit for beating Penn State (No. 225), and it was the ACC that paired Virginia Tech with Iowa (No. 182) in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

Wake Forest has played Winston-Salem State (No. 298), Elon (No. 264), UNC-Greensboro), High Point (No. 239), UNC-Wilmington (No. 228) and East Carolina (No. 215), but none except for WSSU, Elon and UNC-Greensboro are among the 100 worst-ranked teams. And Gaudio balanced it out by playing Gonzaga (No. 19) and Purdue (No. 10) on the road and Oral Roberts (No. 130), Richmond (No. 27), William & Mary (No. 51) and Xavier (No. 20) at home.

You can make the case that Wake’s schedule should be harder. After watching the Deacons play East Carolina, High Point and WSSU in succession in November, I might have agreed with you. But Gaudio hasn’t painted his team into a corner with a schedule that requires 25 wins to make the NCAA Tournament.

I imagine Greenberg has been warned of what can happen to teams that plays too many cream puffs, but apparently the lesson has yet to take.

The Night Dean Wouldn’t Let Me Down

“A thousand dollar car going to let you down,
More than it’s ever going to get you around,
Replace your gaskets and paint over your rust,
You’ll still end up with something that you never trust,
A thousand dollar car’s life was through,
Bought 50,000 miles before it got to you.
Oh why did I ever buy
A thousand dollar car?”
From A Thousand Dollar Car, by the Bottle Rockets.

Every time I hear that song on the Bottle Rockets’ CD the Brooklyn Side, I think about the $500 car (cost adjusted for inflation) I drove back in the mid-1970s. Or I should say I drove whenever I could get it started, which wasn’t always that easy to do.

A good buddy, Rico Cavatinni, took me down to Fayetteville where his father ran a used car lot and we came back with a 1967 Triumph. I’ve made some bad decisions in my life, but few of them have cost me as much aggravation and money as that one. The car’s most constant problem was the starter, which, on cold nights, took forever to kick off the engine. It would always crank, but often not until I had sat there and grinded the key in the ignition a dozen or so times while holding my mouth just right.

And that’s exactly what I was trying to do on one of the most embarrassing nights of my life. It was about 2 in the morning on Feb. 18, 1975. I was sitting in the parking lot of the Pines Restaurant on the outskirts of Chapel Hill and the only other car in the parking lot was a baby blue Cadillac. And in that Cadillac were Dean Smith and his son Scott. I kept telling Coach Smith that I’d be fine, that the car would start eventually like it always did, but he wasn’t leaving until he saw me drive off.

By way of back story, I was working at the time for a Captain Ahab-type character named Orville Campell, the publisher of the Chapel Hill Newspaper, who, in his constant quest to save a buck would arrange for me to fly with the team to cover road games for the paper. It was really awkward because if you knew anything about Dean Smith and the way he ran his program, you know how big he was on doing things the Carolina Family way. And with Dean there was always a clear delineation as to who was in the family and who wasn’t. As a scruffy, bearded 23-year old sportswriter who had hitch-hiked a ride on the team plane, I was in no way, shape or form a member of the family. He let me know that at least twice on the trip, once right after I had boarded the plane at the Raleigh Durham Airport, and again when we were boarding the plane in Roanoke, Va. after the Tar Heels and their freshman point guard Phil Ford had beaten Virginia Tech 87-75.

When I first got on the plane over at Raleigh-Durham, Dean had strolled down the aisle from the front to tell me that I was welcome to be on the flight, but he would prefer if I just sat there throughout the trip and didn’t say ``Boo,’’ to any of the players or staff. I assured him that was fine with me. And then after the game, I was walking a few feet behind Dean and the Voice of the Carolina Tar Heels Woody Durham on the tarmac, ready to climb the steps into the plane when Dean stopped me cold. “Hold on Dan,’’ he said. “Players board first.’’ Hell I didn’t care when I got on, but he made me feel like I was knocking people over to get the best seat.

Those of us who covered Dean knew how exasperating he could be. A contrarian by nature, he would always pick a point with whatever assertion he felt your question might imply. And he never, ever, ever forgot a perceived slight. One sportswriter wrote that of the two most famous sports figures in North Carolina at the time, one was named Petty and the other was also petty.

But all of us have competing sides to our nature, and the people who loved and appreciated Dean would go on and on about how loyal and decent and thoughtful he could be. That’s the side I remember after the team bus dropped everybody off at the parking lot of the Pines and all modes of transportation dispersed into the cold February night but my Triumph with the balky starter and Dean’s baby blue Cadillac. He had his son with him, I’m sure he wanted to get home and I’m sure he was planning to rise the next morning far earlier than I was. But he wasn’t leaving until, at long, long last, my engine finally turned over and I was able to get home on my own.

I saw Dean on television the other day, and he’s clearly showing his age. Scott is now a referee who works Southern Conference games. My son, Nate, is the age I was that night in the parking lot of the Pines, the night Dean Smith made sure I was going to be OK in spite of my $500 car.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Deacons’ Cover Blown

Well, the Deacons’ days of lurking outside the Top 25 appear over.  It’s hard to dismiss 18-5, four game winning streak, six wins in seven games, all in ACC play.

I know how the polls work. Get ranked up there early, and it takes a month’s worth of losses and a court order to get you out. Show up for practice after the early departure of the two top scorers to the NBA off a team that lost in the first round to a 13th seed and you’d have to do something unheard of like beating Gonzaga at Gonzaga to get consideration.

Or something like that.

This team is far easier to underestimate than it is to beat. Most teams built on defense and rebounding are. In that regard, I considered it fitting that Dave Odom happened to be in town to commentate on TV for the first time at Joel Coliseum. I got lucky enough to run into him yesterday at practice and we shared some belly laughs with Craig Zakrzewski, the basketball equipment manager, and Lynne Heflin, whose title of administrative assistant cleverly conceals the real role she’s played now for 24 years as the brain trust and conductor of the whole operation. This year’s team plays the game the way some of Odom’s best teams played it. Obviously there’s no Tim Duncan on the court, and if you want to quibble, this team is more uptempo than most of the ones coached by Odom. Only four of Dave’s 12 teams averaged anywhere close to the 75 points a game this team is averaging, and five straight (1996-2000) averaged fewer than 70. But every point the opponent doesn’t score is as important as every point you score, and Coach Dino Gaudio’s philosophy of defense and his ability to implement that philosophy is far closer to the that of Odom than to his mentor and former boss, Skip Prosser.

Unlike Prosser, who in his constant quest to force tempo extended his defense and preyed on passing lanes, Odom built a wall around the basket, baseline out. I never heard him call it a Pack Line defense, the term that has been attached to the defense Wake now plays, but the core principals and concepts are at the very least similar. This team isn’t pretty. Most of Odom’s teams weren’t pretty. At the risk of repeating myself, teams built on defense and rebounding—the kind that win by holding the opponent to no field goals in the final 8:50 and without any points over 13 of the final 14 possessions, as the Deacons did tonight—rarely are.

But, in theory at least, they should be well-suited for post-season play when the pressures and uncertainty of the proceedings have a tendency to tighten teams up. Looks like we’ll get to test that theory in about a month. In the meantime, the Deacons have blown their cover. They’re in second in the ACC, a game behind Duke, and they’re carrying some serious momentum into Tuesday’s game at Virginia Tech. They’re bona fide.

And come the next poll, they’ll be nationwide.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The Battle of the `Staches’

So there is actually something I can do better than either Chas McFarland or Al-Farouq Aminu, and that’s grow a mustache. Of course it might have something to do with the fact I began sprouting mine long before either were born.

Chas told me after the Miami game he’d been growing his for a few weeks. I checked him out after Tuesday’s game against BC and it looked like he’s got a ways to go. Then I noticed the growth above Farouq’s upper lip and couldn’t resist.

“Who’s got the better mustache, you or Chas?’’ I asked.

“Oh I think Chas does,’’ he replied.

“You’ve been working on yours. How long have you had yours going?’’ I asked.

“Just a little bit. Mine doesn’t grow as fast as Chas’,’’ he said.

The only way to have a true contest, obviously, would be for us to all start clean-shaven. I wouldn’t even mind giving both Chas and Farouq a couple of months head start. So here’s the challenge. If Wake reaches the Final Four, I’ll shave my mustache along with my beard. Then I’ll grow only my mustache back until Chas’ graduation in May, at which time we will declare a winner.

Maybe we’ll take photographs and let everybody vote. If I win, all I’m asking for is 1/10th of one-percent of all of Farouq’s future earnings in basketball. Then I really could buy that beach house next to Dave Odom down at Emerald Isle.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Style Points in Scarce Supply

A question I wished I had asked Coach Dino Gaudio tonight was whether he was more concerned by the Deacons not scoring a field goal in the last 10 1/2 minutes or BC shooting 48.5 percent from the floor after halftime.

I have a hunch I know.

Defense is the first answer as to why the Deacons are 17-5 and 7-3 in the ACC. Ish Smith is having a lights out senior season and Al-Farouq Aminu is one of those wonderful talents that you feel lucky you get to watch play game after game. But that wouldn’t be enough to win seven of 10 games in the ACC without the less-stylish contributions, defense, rebounding and setting solid screens. If style points are your thing, this is not your team. The Deacons don’t blow anybody out, or at least they haven’t in ACC games (unless you define a 13-point win at Chapel Hill as a blowout). They’ve threatened to on repeated occasions, but have invariably found themselves on at least the cusp of concern by the long-awaited final horn. They’re not a great offensive team, the kind designed to blow other teams out, and it seems to always catch up to them somewhere along the way.

Last year was different. With Jeff Teague and James Johnson leading the attack, Wake won four ACC games by more than 15 points. This year, the 13-point win at UNC was the biggest, followed by the 12-point home win against Virginia. All the others have been inside 10 points, with two of them won in overtime. And it would take a brave man to argue that the conference is as good this season as last.

But the other thing that should be said about last year’s team was it slipped considerably on the defensive end in February and March. The final numbers were impressive. Wake ranked third in the ACC with a field-goal percentage defense of .398 and was second in ACC games only at .419. But the team that held North Carolina to 35 percent on Jan. 11 was not the same defensive team that was scorched by Clemson’s 51 percent on March 8. And that’s not just cherry-picking—only five of Wake’s first 18 opponents shot 40 percent or better, as compared to 11 of the final 13. And the two that didn’t shoot 40 percent shot 38 (FSU) and 39 (Maryland) percent.

That brings me back to the question I should have asked Dino. This year’s team has been holding steady on defense. Overall only eight of Wake’s 21 opponents have made at least 40 percent of their field goals, with Maryland astride the mark. But since the three-game sag during which Miami shot 46 percent, Maryland shot 40 and Duke shot 43, the Deacons, coming into tonight had allowed only one of its last five opponents to shoot 40 percent. So now, after BC’s 46 percent, it’s two of the last six. Most coaches could live with that, quite comfortably in fact.

Will Wake have to improve on offense to have a shot at post-season success? It obviously wouldn’t hurt. The Deacons looked mighty good scoring 75 points in 30 minutes tonight, and they should get all the credit in the world for making 17 of 22 free throws down the stretch to win the game. But they lost their range and missed their final eight field-goal attempts, which helped BC make the final score respectable. Maybe their offensive lapses will doom them at the most inopportune time this season, but, on the other hand, maybe the freshmen C.J. Harris and Ari Stewart will find even firmer footing down the stretch and maybe L.D. Williams will continue to be as assertive offensively as he was tonight and maybe Chas McFarland will build on his 14 points, 11 rebound performance. We’ll see, and we won’t have to wait long with games against Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech coming up in the next week.

Regardless of whether Wake jells offensively, the heartbeat of the team is its defense. The Deacons aren’t the 1981 Indiana Hoosiers defensively, but on their best days they will guard you. And if they keep guarding, they’ve got their best chance to keep playing.

And that, I’m pretty sure, is the answer to the question.

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Casting Call For A Quarterback

In the first spring A.R. (After Riley), Wake Forest will have to find a quarterback. All Coach Jim Grobe knows about who will be playing quarterback in the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian is that it will be a player who has never taken a snap in college.

The candidates are sophomore Skylar Jones, redshirt freshman Ted Stachitas, freshman Brendan Cross and incoming freshman Tanner Price.

“We don’t know. We don’t know,’’ Grobe said last week on national signing date. “But now we’ll find out, because we’re just going to keep rolling those guys through all spring. We’ll have a pecking order just to say one goes in. But hopefully they’ll all stay healthy and by the end of spring ball everybody that lines up at quarterback this spring is going to have the same number of snaps, and we’ll see who the best is at the end of spring.

“And then when Tanner Price gets in here, we’ll start over again, and try to get through the first couple of weeks of August and see who the guy is and move on from there.

“We might feel better about a starter by the end of spring but right now I wouldn’t bet on any of those guys—I wouldn’t bet for them or against them. I think any one of them, including Sky Jones, could be the guy.’‘

My own sense coming out of last season was that Cross, the son of ex-NFL lineman Randy Cross, had the inside track. People around the program rave about his discipline, commitment and ability to learn and process information. But my opinion was obviously colored by the fact I really haven’t seen Stachitas do much in his two seasons with the program. He had shoulder surgery in high school, then went through another round after he arrived at Wake Forest. He also had an infected foot that set him back this season. I’m not the only person around to think that if he was the heir apparent, then he would have beaten out Ryan McManus for second team last season.

But Grobe indicated he’s anxious to wipe the slate clean on all of his candidates. He was asked last week if Stachitas had totally recovered.

“I think so but I’m not positive,’’ Grobe said. “It’s funny, we were in practice one day this past fall and it’s a pretty easy throw in the flat and (Stachitas) kind of underthrew it. It was a little helicopter ball that went in the dirt. I said `Ted, what the heck was that?’ He said `Yeah Coach, I used to be able to throw pretty good.’ But that was earlier in the season. I thought by the end of the year that he was definitely throwing the ball down the field better with his intermediate throws and deeper throws. To me it seemed like he had a little bit of a problem sometimes on touch passes. Of course, what happens is you watch Riley throw one and then Ted comes in. So that’s part of the problem, is you’re always comparing everybody to Riley Skinner.

“But I think he’s pretty healthy and we know he can run. He’s one of the faster kids on our football team. The nice thing about Ted Stachitas is he’s really fast with pads on. He’s a guy who I think has all the ability and I think he’s healthy. Of course you can be healthy after two shoulder surgeries and still not have the same ability to throw the football you did. So I think he’s in pretty good shape. We’re going to turn him loose in the spring and find out.’‘