Comments

Mindact,

I think that the argument can certainly be made that Ty Walker should have received more playing time along the following line of reasoning:(a) Walker is thought to have a tremendous amount of “upside”, (b) playing is the best way to develop that potential, and (c) Chas McFarland, Tony Woods, and David Weaver were at times pretty inept, so developing someone like Walker may not have resulted in a significant dropoff.

I think that the third part of the case is where the argument falls apart.  As bad as the other front court players were at times, it always seemed obvious that they were more effective players than Ty Walker, and thus deserved to the playing time they got.  If Walker was so good, he would have performed much better when he did play, which was always against low quality competition.  Rather than dominate the inferior competition (and earn more playing time), he looked tentative, awkward and weak.  At no point did he provide even a glimpse of ability that would lead one to believe that he was capable of contributing (much less dominating) at the ACC level.  This, combined with the fact that Dan repeatedly has mentioned that Walker was consistently overmatched by his peers in practices, leads me to believe that Dino Gaudio treated him more than fairly (starting with trying to get Walker to redshirt his freshman year).

I do share your hopes that Walker cracks the lineup this season and is prepared to make a contribution.  We need him.

DC on 06/01/2010 (2:11 pm)

Truth be told. I’ve always felt Ty had a raw deal from Dino. Seems like there was this need to preserve seniority or tenure over having the most skilled player on the court. Except for when it’s painfully obvious. A guy like Ty was kept on the bench so that he doesn’t play and questions get asked about why he’s been benched in favor of the other post players. The plan was to unleash him this year and voila, he’s improved tremendously. Ty was and always is a beast. That beast will be finally unleashed. Thanks to Bz.

mindact on 06/01/2010 (2:19 am)

Wouldn’t it be a good idea for Bzdelik to reach out to former wake forest player tim duncan and have him spend time working out with ty walker. A lot of players seem to gain confidence after having trained with pros. Steve nash cites the time he spent playing against jason kidd and gary payton as helping him gain a lot of confidence going into his senior year.

mike on 05/21/2010 (10:55 am)

Everything that I have heard from a source close to the team is that this is the same things Gaudio and company were trying to do with Walker for the past two seasons. I hope maybe the Bzzzz can find the right “motivation” to get this kids head out of his rear end.
Putting your head down and loafing/pouting won’t get you a spot on ANY team.

Thomas on 05/04/2010 (11:45 pm)

Dan,

Thanks for your response to my questions earlier.  I definitely appreciate the value of having a positive attitude, especially for a player who is still far from reaching his potential.  Hopefully Ty Walker sees the light at the end of the tunnel! 

I am willing to take for granted (for the time being) that Walker will continue to develop from a physical and emotional standpoint.  I think we should fully expect (demand?) that type of progress from Wake Forest athletes. 

But I’m still curious about the rest of the ingredients that make a productive center.  Based on Bzdelik’s comments, am I to believe that Walker’s skillset is there?  If not, what do you anticipate are the things that Mark Pope will immediately pick out as areas for improvement (footwork? the jumpshot that closely resembles that of Bill Cartwright? boxing out?). 

Perhaps this all falls under the label of “physical maturation”, but given Walker’s well-documented struggle to simply get strong enough to play in the ACC, I think that the skillset should be analyzed separately. 

Thanks again!

DC on 05/04/2010 (10:30 am)

Bob, the name is pronounced buzz-DEL-ik. I’m glad you’re reading. The blog is a labor of love.

Dan on 05/04/2010 (9:16 am)

KA,you might be right about Larry(I was on campus then, Larry was a nice person just not mean enough)but Loren went on to another school and was very productive.

DC#68 on 05/04/2010 (6:35 am)

How do you pronounce “Bzdelik”? I appreciate your columns. Living around Hickory we don’t get a wealth of WF news or info. Your columns help keep those of us from outside the area in the loop.Thanks again…

Bob Warren on 05/03/2010 (5:36 pm)

KA,
Dino tried to talk Ty into redshirting his first year, to avail. The first time I talked with Ty at the start of the next season, Ty said he probably should have redshirted.

Dan on 05/03/2010 (12:12 pm)

For the old timers out there; it sounds like we have the reprise of Larry Harrison or Loren Woods, maybe both.  I still wonder why Ty wasn’t red-shirted, since it is plain to see he needs to mature.

KA on 05/03/2010 (11:16 am)

DC, there were other caveats that Bzdelik mentioned besides playing hard, which were “to always keep his head up and keep his chin up and believe in himself and know that I believe in him.’’ I’m not going to put words in Bzdelik’s mouth, but I will say there are those around the program who feel that Walker needs to mature emotionally as well as physically. That’s been my impression as well, though I probably don’t know him well enough for it to be more than an impression.
And to Tom, I believe you put more stock in high school rankings than I do.

Dan on 05/03/2010 (9:21 am)

Good to see BZ bring Pope in to coach the big men. Hope he will be a good recruiter also!

I never understood why the former coach allowed Walker to be bench bound considering the hoopla he had while in HS…

Tom on 05/03/2010 (9:02 am)

Dan,

So based on Bzdelik’s quote in your blog, is it fair to say that he believes that Ty Walker is a double-double player right now?  How does that square with what you’ve seen and what the previous coaching staff (including those still on the staff) has said about his development over the last two years? 

I can understand that Coach Bzdelik wants to make positive comments to the media about individual players like Walker.  Doing so will certainly build some good will and trust.  However, I find it hard to believe that Walker simply needs to be play hard and think positively about the future in order to be productive player. 

However, it is equally clear that Coach Bzdelik thinks that Mark Pope brings a unique (and previously missing) ability to develop our low post players.  That logic absolutely makes sense to me.  So I suppose my follow-up question to Bzdelik’s quote in your latest post is this… What do you suppose Coach Pope will be saying to Ty Walker about his game (you know, when he looks him eye-to-eye)?  Hopefully he doesn’t tell Walker that all he needs to do to succeed is play hard.

DC on 05/02/2010 (11:14 pm)

Hope Ty puts in the work this summer and has the kind of year his potential would point towards.

By the way, glad to have you back Dan.

jcg on 05/02/2010 (9:14 pm)

I’m very excited to see where Coach Bz takes the program. Love his comments about Ty and bringing in a big man to coach big men. I’m 5’11 and tried to teach golf to a 6’5 guy. It’s disconcerting not meeting eyeball to eyeball when you’re trying to communicate with and improve the motor skills of a student. So happy that Coach Bz recognizes the difficulty that average size coaches have in teaching big man skills to very tall people. Shows tremendous insight into teaching. So glad Coach Bz is going to lead our program.

deacfreke on 05/02/2010 (4:24 pm)