Collect Call From the New Orleans Jail
It just so happens I have a brother who’s a lawyer. Joe, if you’re reading this, be prepared to bail me out again.
If the NCAA doesn’t quit jerking us around, then I’m going to need your services to spring me from the local hoosegaw which, based on the reports I’ve heard is not a place I want hang around for long.
People who know me know how combustionable I can be, especially when I’m up against an entity that can’t provide the wireless we’ve paid for (it crashed at the worst possible time last night, when I had about two seconds to file the biggest story I’ve written all season) and leaves us stranded at the arena well past the midnight hour (the shuttle service stopped less than an hour after the game, in direct violation of NCAA policy), but can keep me from talking with a person I’ve known well for four years.
I asked one question in today’s media conference about the Deacons’ ability to come out fast and loose against Texas and the need to do so again in tomorrow’s matchup with No. 1 seed Kentucky. You can read their response in tomorrow morning’s advance in the Journal, and I hope you will.
Before I could ask L.D. Williams another question, about how he would have felt to close his career with 999 points, the moderator said the allotted time had expired. No problem. I just figured I’d walk with L.D. to the Deacons’ locker room and we’d discuss how his career almost ended in large part because of his traveling call on the baseline during an inbounds play following a timeout late in regulation..
Williams had mentioned the play in the media conference, calling it probably ``the most bonehead mistake of the tournament.’’ But I wanted to put the play into context, and how he might have felt if it had ended his career one point shy of the 1,000-point mark.
Before L.D. could answer, the NCAA volunteer assigned to accompany Williams and Ish Smith back to the locker room, cut him off.
“You’ll have to wait until they’re back in the locker room, OK?’’ she said. I know she was just doing her job the way she had been told to do it, but after suffering the indignities of the last two days, I was, shall we say, steamed.
What it meant was I had to miss the opening minutes of Coach Dino Gaudio’s session with the media to walk around the arena to ask L.D. the question I had already asked and he was already answering. But it was worth it for his response.
“To be honest, the only thing I could think about was what if the game ended with me traveling on the baseline like that,’’ Williams said. “Somebody came up to me after the game and said `You get one more chance to get a thousand.’ I was like `I don’t care if I don’t score another bucket, as long as we win the next game.’ ’’
Lost in the uproar of Williams’ brainlock was the play he had made just moments earlier, when he had blocked a dunk attempt by Texas’ powerful power forward Gary Johnson. It was a remarkable effort that I thought, at the time, had sealed the victory.
“I was joking with one of my teammates, `I thought I was going to get dunked on,’ ‘’ Williams said. “I think Ish has more blocks than I do this season.
“After that play on the baseline I was just so rattled I couldn’t fathom us losing the game the way we did. I’m so grateful for my teammates, the way they stepped up.’‘
Thankfully, not even the NCAA can keep me from having a blast down here in the Birthplace of Jazz. The game was obviously one for the ages, and we finally made it down to the French Quarter by around 1:30 and dropped into Pat O’Brien’s to see these two women plunking on grand pianos accompanied by this wacky dude drumming his fingers on a metal tray. We all felt he was the best tray player we had ever seen.
Tonight the Drive By Truckers are playing down at Tipitina’s, and if I close this post in time to catch dinner, I plan to be on hand.
And for the record, L.D. was right. He has seven blocks this season. Ish has 19.
Back to the main page.
By Dan Collins on 03/19/2010 (7:53 pm)
Comments
So did you catch DBT? They had a streaming feed but you could only see about 10% of it.
Rusty on 03/21/2010 (2:09 pm)
Dan, I am a little disaponted in your colums to be quite honest. Most of your loyal readers on this site see the problems with this team, but it appears you refuse to see it. A High School Coach wouldn’t allow Chase to conduct himself the way he did, he is a cheap shot artist who tried all season to fake fouls rather than to play hard and keep at it. As soon as he is getting beat he turns into a bully. How many times this season did this cost us? Dino lost control over this team and the previous teams. No disipline, no direction. Teams in March are much improved than those of December, honestly we should have beaten Texas by 20 points. 20 turnovers and 50 percent free throws. Where is the improvement. Please Ron Welman do something.
At the end of the day however, these kids are here for a education first, and our School is amoung the higest when it comes to athletes graduating, in that we beat the crap out of Kentucky!!! Congratulations Deacons.
Tony C on 03/21/2010 (11:02 am)
Dan,
Congratulations on another season of excellent coverage of Wake Forest basketball. It’s much appreciated. I also appreciate the efforts of all the guys on the team.
Before I look back at the season that just ended, I want to think a bit about where I would like to see this program go in the future. Winning the NCAA Championship is the goal I would choose for our team. And even after watching us get annihilated by Kentucky tonight, it is a goal that I think can be achieved. But it can only be achieved if we have a team that is driven to succeed and improve.
I absolutely think that this team wanted to win. But driven? Not so much. When Al Farouq Aminu picked up his second foul tonight, I couldn’t help but remember the debate on this blog back in December about whether Coach Gaudio made a good decision in keeping Aminu in the game after his second foul early in the first half of the NC State game. Because Aminu was so important to this team’s future success, I argued that he needed to stay in the game in order to learn how to play with foul trouble. Unfortunately, Aminu is the same player now that he was in December, so he picked up his third foul and the rest of the game was history. And I think that the team that played Kentucky tonight was the same team back in December.
The teams that make it to the Final Four next week will have vastly improved since December. All of the great teams evolve over the course of the season. They manage to adhere to he coaching cliche of playing one game at a time while simultaneously being aware that of the bigger picture.
With five freshmen and a transfer, the 2010-2011 Deacons are going to be entirely different from this year’s team. But I’ll be watching to see if the team in 2011 has improved on its weaknesses that were apparent in 2010.
DC on 03/21/2010 (12:22 am)
5 min. left…total humiliation…There are many good mid major coaches out there. N. Iowa, Murray St. St. Marys, need I say more…
No D… excuse for the way they played this bunch of Ky thugs!
Tom on 03/20/2010 (10:19 pm)
“Joe, if you’re reading this, be prepared to bail me out again.”
Again? Sounds there’s a story here that needs to be told!! Out with it, Country!
Andrew on 03/20/2010 (8:15 pm)
Lisa, Indeed we did and they were spectacular. Opened with my favorite, Carl Perkins’ Cadillac and played an eight-song encore while really, really letting it go. Cool bar too.
Another wonderful night in the N’Awlings.
Dan on 03/20/2010 (2:36 pm)
Chris,
Great seeing you guys too. Too bad we couldn’t have been in Buffalo.
Dan on 03/20/2010 (2:34 pm)
Good to see you guys at Pattie O’s the other night. Always good to have a couple of celebratory hurricanes after an NCAA win. . . .
Chris on 03/20/2010 (10:55 am)
Did you catch the Truckers?
Lisa on 03/20/2010 (5:58 am)
Dan - so glad the Journal sent you to New Orleans so you can keep all of us entertained and informed who wish we were there but aren’t! Love your blog especially when you get to write about such a big win as the one the Deacs had last night! Keep enjoying your time in the Big Easy and hope you get to write about an even bigger win tomorrow night!!(your friend who stops by to chat with you in the Rovere Room on Tuesdays during football)GO DEACS!!
Screamin demon on 03/19/2010 (10:05 pm)
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