My Take on Wake - About As Bad As It Can Get

About As Bad As It Can Get

This is harsh, I know, but if there has ever been a time Coach Dino Gaudio and the Deacons had it coming, it would be today.

Having watched Wake Forest lose to a No. 7 seed in the ACC Tournament (Maryland) by 11, lose to a regular-season also-ran from the Horizon Conference seeded No. 13 in the NCAA Tournament (Cleveland State) by 15 and then lose to an ACC Tournament No. 12 seed missing its leading scorer and rebounder (Miami) by 21, I honestly don’t know where the Deacons can go to find someone they can beat in post-season.

A disturbing trend that began long before Gaudio took over as head coach only accelerated today when the Deacons were beaten just abut every way a team can get beaten by a Hurricanes’ team that had lost 11 of its previous 14 games. What is it about Wake Forest and the post-season?

That’s a question I asked everyone I could get to during an extremely somber post-game session. And no one had the answer.

“I don’t know,’’ senior L.D. Williams said. “Maybe we’re not used to being there. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I wish I could explain it. It’s unbelievable. Unbelievable.’‘

Chas McFarland, who played just one minute in the second half, was of no more help.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out too,’’ McFarland said. “It’s not like we come out here and lose on purpose and not play well on purpose. There’s only so much time you can work on it, but we’ve got to go back to the drawing board.’‘

The seniors, Williams, McFarland, Ish Smith and David Weaver, have now won one post-season game in six tries—and that was the first one in which they played. Since beating Georgia Tech in double overtime in the first round of the 2007 Tournament, Wake has now dropped successive post-season games to Virginia Tech, Florida State, Maryland, Cleveland State and Miami.

But none, other than the devastating loss to Cleveland State last March, hurt worse than the one today.

“Honest to goodness I’ve never see anybody get shot and killed over a basketball game,’’ Williams said. “You can’t be scared. It’s basketball. We play this for fun. This is why we live, for these types of games, for the ACC Tournament. And for four years I’ve had the worst taste in my mouth in the ACC Tournament.

“I’ll never be able to get over this as long as I live. I’ve won one game in four years.’‘

The Deacons had the look of a team in disarray, especially in the second half. The body language bordered on profane. On more than one occasion Gaudio turned his palms toward the arena ceiling in a “Just what is going on?’’ gesture. He pulled McFarland after McFarland picked up his third and fourth fouls early in the second half and didn’t put him back in. He left Al-Farouq Aminu on the bench for all but seven minutes of the second half, and later didn’t mention the bruised hand that Aminu said was bothering him from the time he shot an airball on a free throw with 4:50 left in the first half.

But not one person in the locker room would acknowledge internal problems on the team. If they’re covering anything up, they’re doing it in unison.

“We’re fine,’’ McFarland said. “The chemistry’s fine. We’re fine. Everybody on this team loves each other. That’s not even a question.’‘

It came from a senior, and it came from a freshman.

“We’re one of the closest teams I’ve ever been a part of,’’ C.J. Harris said. “Every one of us are brothers.’‘

So if it’s not dissension, there must be another reason to explain the Deacons’ post-season woes. If they’re lucky, they’ll get a chance to figure it out next week in the NCAA Tournament, and not the NIT.

Back to the main page.

By Dan Collins on 03/11/2010 (8:55 pm)

Comments

I agree with Jim—you shouldn’t make it personal with amateur athletes. As for our coach though, you can’t explain his postseason record away:

- ACC 1st Rd 2010: lose by 21 to the 12th seed

- NCAA 1st Rd 2009: lose by 15 to the 13th seed

- ACC 1st Rd 2009: as the No. 2 seed lose by double digits to Maryland

- ACC 1st Rd 2008: lose by double digits to FSU

BAL on 03/12/2010 (1:21 pm)

It’s lack of player leadership, period. Wake hasn’t had any leadership since Chris Paul, and he only stayed 2 years.

Steven N on 03/12/2010 (12:30 pm)

Dan, Sorry not buying your analogy between this years Carolina team and the circumstances that Wake finds themselves in. Bottom line, the team runs plays the coach calls, the team is a direct reflection of its coach, the team is prepared by the coach. The goal if any team is not to just be good and have a winning percentage. If that is how a program is judged perhaps we could have the tournament in January, then Wake perhaps could win a game, it seems we always peak in late January to Mid February.

Tony C on 03/12/2010 (11:59 am)

Good grief, SM has a point, you get national sports writers dissing the team/coach is not a good thing. Frank Haith’s hometown newpaper was just as kind, Adam Smith said about the Deacons - “Another nightmare performance conspired to doom Wake Forest,...A frightful mess of ineffective offense and frail defense left the Demon Deacons assuming the position of road kill against the Hurricanes, who finished last in the conference.”
What now?

EJ on 03/12/2010 (9:32 am)

I’m as mad and sickened by yesterday as anybody else. However, to take it out on these kids by calling them lazy and losers is harsh and unfair. These are the same kids who have had some impressive wins for us. Comments like these make me as sick of some of our fans as I am of living with these crushing defeats. I think we need to look at the coach. I believe Wellman will give Gaudio another year to grow into this role, or he’ll be gone.

Jim on 03/12/2010 (9:16 am)

The below are two items on yesterday’s game. The first is from the AJC columnist Mark Bradley. The second is from Pat Forde (second quote) at ESPN. Both cast a critical eye on the coaching.
I know you’re a beat write and not a columnist, but what’s your take on their thoughts Dan?

Greensboro — If you’re looking for the ACC’s worst coach, look no further than the guy based in Winston-Salem, which is just up the road from here. Wake Forest entered Day 1 of the ACC tournament as a No. 5 seed playing a half-hour from its campus. It’s about to go home.

As I type, Wake trails the Miami Hurricanes by 22 points. This is difficult to do, but the brave Deacs have managed it. Should Wake lose — there are 16 1/2 minutes remaining — it will enter the Big Dance having won one of its past six games. And it will surely leave the NCAA tournament posthaste, seeing as how Dino Gaudio is coaching this bunch.

There’s a word for Dino Gaudio. That word is “overmatched.” He has four good-to-excellent players — Ish Smith, L.D. Williams, Chas McFarland and Al-Farouq Aminu, who played at Norcross High — but essentially allows them to do as they please. They dribble around. They take weird shots. Sometimes they play hard; today wouldn’t be an example of that. And Wake hasn’t really guarded anybody since Tim Duncan got drafted.

Scanning the bigger picture, you’d have to say a season in which Wake can finish as the No. 5 seed means it was a down season for the league. But you knew that already.

OK, enough about Wake. Join me in a bit as we chat live off Georgia Tech’s rather important date with North Carolina.

From Pat Forde:
“Gaudio has won 60 of his 90 games as Wake’s head coach—a perfectly fine winning percentage. But he’s also been blessed with an abundance of talent—and that talent isn’t coming close to performing in the postseason.

This is a sport where coaching reputations rise and fall in March. After this debacle, Dino Gaudio’s has hit rock bottom.”

SM on 03/12/2010 (1:48 am)

I realized after the Carolina game that I have to expect this team to lose every time out. They’re meeting my expectations!

Last year’s collapse looks pretty good. Those games were in other states. Today, it was a home game against a team that has lost 11 of 14.

I told my daughter she cannot go the Wake. She must go to Duke like her grandfather, or Carolina like her greatgrandfather, or Alabama like her mother. I won’t subject her to this life. She argued with me, but someday…, I know she’ll understand…, that it’s for the best.

Frank on 03/12/2010 (12:58 am)

Coaching is the biggest part of this failure. When’s the last time the Deacons beat a strong squad in the postseason, especially the NCAAs? But just as important, this group of players doesn’t really care about winning. I’ve never seen a team with a total lack of passion or fight. They role over in the most important games of year. You guys are an embarrasment to our university.

Dan on 03/12/2010 (12:55 am)

Jerry, L.D. got a concussion yesterday in practice and was only cleared to play this morning. He was wearing that headband as protection. I’m as disappointed as anyone over the loss and I don’t know what is wrong with the team but I do know these young men and they are NOT lazy, undisciplined, unmotivated, whimpering losers.

screamin demon on 03/12/2010 (12:49 am)

N.I.T. here they come. I have been cheering for the Deacs for 30 years and just believe it’s time to look at another coach. Maybe Rusty Larue

Scott on 03/11/2010 (10:57 pm)

Country,
Finally figured out who Dino reminds me of, took me several weeks to go down memory lane; none other than Bob Stack that great Deac Coach from the late 80’s who was lost from the time he arrived in W/S…

Said two weeks ago that it was the NIT, now we know for sure…Sad, ain’t it honey!

How much longer do we have to endure this travesty?

Tom on 03/11/2010 (10:53 pm)

What an awful showing. Never in this one. Miami wanted to win, Wake looked like they wanted to hide. Scared and embarrassed. I have been trying to give Dino the benefit of the doubt, but the idea of “Teams who are led by players get further” keeps coming back. More and more, that sounds like passing the buck to me. No fire in the coach, no fire in the team. You think Dino would throw his jacket over a call like UVA’s Tony Bennett? I don’t think so. Even Dean Smith got Tech’s now and again to put some fire back in his squad.

Dino’s got to go, but he won’t, at least not next season.

C’mon Deacs, win a postseason game to redeem yourselves!

Thomas on 03/11/2010 (10:36 pm)

Good questions Dan.

Shooter on 03/11/2010 (10:35 pm)

I appreciate your loyalty to Deacon athletics. I realize your profession requires you to have access to the coaches and players.So I guess you have to make nice. But I would find it very refreshing and courageous of you to write what many of us see as the unvarnished and brutal truth: This Wake basketball team is mostly made up of lazy, undisciplined, unmotivated , whimpering losers.
This afternoon’s Miami fiasco was embarassing. No decent team with any pride would quit so early—-as they realized that for the umpteenth time they were unprepared and in trouble—as this bunch did today. What a waste of scholarships in the $45+K range.
The coaching—we’ve said it all. Gaudio has to go; If today’s game isn’t the nail in the coffin, what will it take.?
Another thing. As I have read and heard from many sources, Reggie Johnson really wanted to go to Wake. He had to settle for Miami, where he apparently was willing to accept a redshirt year and work hard to lose weight and to improve his game. Why is what could have been his scholarship being wasted on Ty Walker, who,if they really had wooden “benches”, would have a butt full of splinters.Also, what was L.D. Williams doing wearing that silly headband? That violates the concept of “uniform”. That look is just not the Wake Forest I know and love in spite of these comments.
One final thing, why doesn’t Dino close the door to the press? I get sick and tired of the whimpering and excuses and promises to do better next time. That makes their performance even more disgusting.
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m pretty angry and fed-up.

Jerry on 03/11/2010 (10:26 pm)

Ouch…I’m not going to get on here and rant and rave about new coaching staffs or renovations, even though I should and I don’t blame anyone who does. This team has looked so lost over the past few weeks. Unable to prepare game plans that work and unable to adjust to ones during the games that clearly aren’t working. Please please please just take your loss, stay at home and don’t go NCAA tournament. There’s no need to further embarrass the university or your fan base by going to the post season and letting secondary universities beat you down on CBS, becomming laughing-fodder for highlight packages. Some groups of players just can’t win or catch a break, and as much as I didn’t think it would be the case, maybe this is just one of those groups.

Ron N Winston on 03/11/2010 (10:20 pm)

The answer is simple and it’s been the same for a couple of years - it’s coaching. It hurts me to say it because I’m a loyal Wake fan and alum for 40+ years, but it’s coaching !!!!!!!!

dlb27104 on 03/11/2010 (10:07 pm)

Wow! That was the worst game I have seen in some time. Defense was certainly lacking today. Poor shooting again today with no apparent game plan on offense. Chas and Aminu needed to step up and didn’t. Maybe Aminu was hurting and that affected his play but Chas was all too typical with 4 pts, 2 TO’s and 4 fouls taking himself out of the game early. It is disappointing to watch him continue to self destruct after 4 years hurting his team.
I feel we have a very good chance of missing the NCAA’s and heading to NIT. Probably a better choice but sad for the seniors.

MD on 03/11/2010 (10:00 pm)