Comments

It’s know nothings like RonnieFranchise that drive a true basketball fan crazy. Bz calls the timeouts you’re referring to when the opponent is rallying and momentum needs to be broken. You can’t be sure how many possessions will occur before a deadball happens which leads to the the TV timeout. There are times when the coach has to take action to help his team regain composure regardless of when TV timeouts might appear.

Andy on 01/22/2012 (12:55 am)

Robinson, Childress IS the next coach. Did you hear him on that interview during the Duke game? He already sounds ready, in my opinion. Wake better not let him take another job before the Bzdelik experiment is seen through. Childress played all the way up until just a year or two ago…we’re talking about a proven winner, beloved by Wake fans, with somewhere around 15 years of professional experience in the NBA and in Europe. And someone who knows, first hand, the potential of the Wake Forest basketball program.

Casey on 01/21/2012 (11:54 am)

For the record, I’m not opposed to 3 guard offenses. I think Duke’s works very well.

I’m opposed to 4 wing offenses. I’m especially opposed 4 wing offenses when Carson Desrosiers is the C.

If you’re 6-10, 6-10 like Duke or 7-0 7-0 like Carolina then 3 guards are perfectly acceptable, but you aren’t going to see Carolina with Harrison Barnes playing 4 and 3 guards on the court.

I’m ok with 3 guards on the court with a combination of Walker, Greene and Desrosiers. I wince at the idea 3 and Meschirakov. But when it’s Desrosiers and McKie, which it always seems to be, we have no physical presence at all.

I also don’t see that we have 3 guards that merit 90 min on the court. Whereas I do see 4 forwards who do merit 85-90 minutes a game.

If I’m doing the rotation. It’s McKie and Harris 35mpg, Chennault and Meschirakov 30mpg, Walker and Desrosiers 25mpg and Fischer 20mpg. For the 5-10 min I have Fischer playing 3, I’m going to counter with Walker and Desrosiers on the floor with him.

JoeyD on 01/20/2012 (9:06 pm)

Robinson, I love your comments.  This is a school that held the number 1 ranking several times over the last decade, and now we are in bad shape. And, to the folks who say, “Wait ‘til next year” as we have a great recruiting class - Coach B inherited a Top 10 recruiting class!! We need to step up and hire a top coach - Tommy Amaker?? We are ruining a great basketball history! Someone, please “Wake” up. I did renew my Deacon Club membership yesterday. I still love the Deacs!

Jimmy on 01/20/2012 (7:33 pm)

Three things stuck out to me:
1. Wake played hard and gave maximum effort.
2.  While the game was close, Bzz decided to switch to a zone - and by the time he decided to go back to man to man, Dawkins had introduced himself, and the game was basically over.
3. Whats up with Bzz and these timeouts right before the TV timeout?  He called three in the game seconds before the TV TO.  To get the players more rest?  Or does he not know TV TO’s exist????

RonnieFranchise on 01/20/2012 (6:31 pm)

Its come to this…we are actually excited that we are “showing effort” and “playing hard”?  Really?  One of the only plays I tuned in for saw us call timeout because we could not inbound the ball before a 5 second count.  Did you see Childress…he looked like he could not stand to watch.  Please step up Randolph, talk sense into Welman and GET US A COACH.  Duke could have beat us by 40 if they actually played with the intensity they usually do and I very much doubt that we would have then shown “effort” and “energy”.

Robinson on 01/20/2012 (3:51 pm)

I was proud of our energy and the fact that we played hard until the end. The offensive effort was ok but the coaches need to work the team hard on how to play defense. there is no way we should have allowed Dawkins to get 7 threes in the first half. All in all, I thought the effort was there but we were terribly outmanned. We need this type of offensive effort on Saturday but need to be better on the defensive end.

Ken Green on 01/20/2012 (2:49 pm)

I must say, was glad to see the effort put in.  The kids certainly aren’t giving up.  I do wonder though how Duke and others are continuing to get wide open 3’s.  I noticed that Duke was setting double picks in the middle as to allow one of their shooters to come open.  We must have seen that in the film.  Is there no answer?  Or is that just the way it is?  Secondly, our own 3-point shooting has got to get better.  19 percent shooting behind the arc ain’t gonna get it.  With all those misses and missed layups and short shots (read Chennault), its going to be really hard to win, even if other things are going right.

Dano on 01/20/2012 (2:10 pm)

Thanks Lee,
It’s always a gamble to write something at 1:30 in the morning that has to be self-edited. It’s a gamble for me to write anything anytime that has to be self-edited. I appreciate you looking out for me.
Dan

Dan Collins on 01/20/2012 (1:03 pm)

I’ve only commented twice before, & once was to disagree with JoeyD on going big. But, I’m now with JoeyD on the rotation. I coach HS ball & will usually choose to emphasize ball-handling with 3 guards over 3 bigs. But, at the college level a 6’2” guard can’t box out the 6’7” SF. If there’s no press, going big is worth a shot.

Vinton on 01/20/2012 (12:36 pm)

At least the Deacons covered the spread… showing the bookies that 22 is too much against the DOOKies at Cameron but not near enough against the PuppyPak at the Joel…

Lee Jackson on 01/20/2012 (12:34 pm)

Dan, after Duke, Florida State and North Carolina, even, we will continue to believe in and encourage the basketball Deacs, both men and women.  We, also, will be saying, “Just wait ‘til next year.”  Many of us old heads have learned the mantra by heart over the years, and it’s still great to be a Deacon!  I saw part of the Duke-Wake game last evening, and was proud of most of what the young men did.  It WAS a bother to see the easy baskets flow, but there were good moments.  I am really enjoying seeing a TEAM this year.

Lee Anglin on 01/20/2012 (12:28 pm)

@ Deacon 23—Lee should have replaced General Ewell with Early sooner then he did and Gettysburg may have been different. But this conversation is for a different blog.

Doug on 01/20/2012 (12:26 pm)

Dan:
  It CAVALRY! C-A-V-A-L-R-Y…
  But, we spellers apprecialate your effort.
  Lee Anglin

Lee Anglin on 01/20/2012 (12:22 pm)

8 min in we were down 3. Bzdelik rotated Meschirakov out, moved McKie to the 4 and brought Fischer in to play 3. 3 min later we were down 13. Walker, Meschirakov and company check back in and despite the out of this world shooting from Dawkins the halftime margin is only 13.

McKie put Curry on the bench with 3 fouls early in the 1st half because Curry couldn’t guard him. Walker played on 16 min despite having 4 blocks in the 1st half and keeping Duke’s inside game at bay. Kelly is a 6’10 4, there’s no way McKie can guard him. The results show.

What is wrong with letting Desrosiers play 4, putting Meschirakov in the rotation at 3 and staying big? We clearly have more talent in the front court Walker, Desrosiers, Meschirakov and McKie than in the backcourt with Harris, Chennault and Fischer. We clearly don’t have a big guard capable of playing the 3.

Duke obviously has more talent than we do. They are obviously going to beat us 9 times out of 10, but must we play them with a set of handcuffs on?

JoeyD on 01/20/2012 (12:13 pm)

Was good to see the energy level and competitiveness cranked up last night.  Still an 18 pt loss but didn’t expect them to beat Duke-yet.  Shooting was poor, missed layups are very frustrating and I wish the big men would get more rebounds but much better than the NCST game.

MD on 01/20/2012 (12:02 pm)

Dan:
Your comments are right on point. If we are to compete with Duke, all of the peripheral issues aside we simply need more talent. As to your call for tanks rather than letter openers…I beleive it was Confederate General Jubal Early that said “we could lick the Yankees with corn stalks”....unfortunately the Yankees wouldn’t fight with corn stalks!

Deacon23 on 01/20/2012 (11:17 am)

Dan,

Spot on that the Deacs are out manned.  I did notice a comment at the end that was feeling after the game: “Tonight they actually played pretty well, at least offensively, and they never had a chance”.  When i read the main article, that didn’t come across.  It did here and I fully agree.

Hal on 01/20/2012 (11:16 am)

Dan, I think that the tone of your blog entry was a bit more consistent with the game I watched on TV than your WSJ article (“flog” in title.) or maybe the TV announcers were too Pollyannish and influenced me too much?  Enjoyed watching the fight in our guys to the end.

G in OH-->NC on 01/20/2012 (11:07 am)

I watched the game on TV last night (I also had a book to read, knowing that the game would probably get ugly).  I did agree with the commentators.  Wake was playing hard.  It was pretty obvious we just don’t have the athletes to hang with a team like Duke.  Next year, hopefully we will.  Then, and only then, will we know whether it’s all a lack of talent or if it might be coaching or a combination that has made the past two seasons “the winter of discontent.”

Jim on 01/20/2012 (10:02 am)