My Take on Wake - Eagles Endangered After Loss to Deacons

Eagles Endangered After Loss to Deacons

How long has it been since Wake embarassed and humiliated an opponent in basketball, even one picked to finish fifth in the MEAC?

That’s the question I was mulling while driving home from the Deacons’ 93-79 victory over N.C. Central. The scene I’ll remember from yet another in a countless number of early-season, non-conference scrums was not from the game itself, but instead took place in the hall outside the media room of Joel Coliseum about a half-hour after the game was over.

LeVelle Moton, a former star at N.C. Central who has returned as coach, took forever to emerge from his locker room. We’d all met with coach Jeff Bzdelik of Wake and several of the Deacon players and were already hunkering down to our laptops when we were informed that Moton was available. Instead of walking down to the media room, it was decided to do this thing right where we stood.

And where Moton stood was in open and unbridled opposition to the kind of defense his team had just played, especially in the second half when the Deacons shot 61 percent from the floor and 73 percent from 3-point range while scoring on 26 of 39 possessions. Wake Improves to 3-0.

“I tell them all the time,`It’s your team but I coach it, and if you’re going to be the focus and the heartbeat, and if you’re going to be the so-called man, there’s a lot of responsibilities that come with it,’ ‘’ Moton said. “And part of that is through adverse situations, you’ve got to make a toughness play. And that’s not going to be your jumpshot. That’s getting stops on the defensive end.

“It’s embarrassing. We embarrassed ourselves and our university. For a team to shoot 58 percent on us, that’s embarrassing. I’ve never seen nothing like that in my life. I take full responsibility for that. It was one of the most difficult things I’ve ever seen in my life. We have people who are capable, but we’ve just got to go back to work and make sure we concentrate on that end of the court.’‘

One reporter made an attempt to buck Moton up, pointing out that Ray Willis of the Eagles had scored 23 points while making five of six shots from the floor, two of two from 3-point range and 11 of 12 from the line.

“Yeah, but he has to make things happen when the ball is not in his hands,’’ Moton said. “I mean no disrespect to Wake Forest, but if we played the Lakers they shouldn’t score 93 points on us. Ray Willis was guarding (Travis) McKie, and he had 25 points. Dominique Sutton was guarding Nikita (Mescheriakov) and this kid had 15 points. C.J. Harris had 23 points. I mean they’re not even missing. Anytime you allow a team to shoot 12 for 17 (from 3-point range) I don’t even care about the offensive end of the floor. We’ve got to stop people. That’s the thing. We’ve got to stop people. I don’t care about scoring. We can score. We’ll manufacture points. But the defensive end is just about heart and we don’t have that right now.

“That’s humiliating. That’s embarrassing.’‘

No one is comparing N.C. Central to the 1974 N.C. State Wolfpack. Moton has landed a bunch of impressive talent on the rebound, with Sutton tranferring from Kansas State, Willis, from Oklahoma, Ebuka Anyaorah from Georgia and sharp-shooting Landon Clement from UNC Greensboro, but last night they appeared to be more of a collection of players than a team. Some of that might have had to do with the arrest of the Eagles’ starting point guard Justin Leemow on Saturday for possession of a controlled substance.

Even so, I have to think that the Eagles are as good, as is, as last year’s Stetson team. And we all remember how that one turned out.

Furthermore, the Deacons haven’t just improved from last year, they were much more cohesive and focused than they were just two weeks ago in an exhibition victory over Ferrum. Harris noticed it as well.

“This was definitely a step,’’ Harris said. “We’ve improved dramatically over the past two games. And that’s what we want every game. It makes the game fun and it makes the game that much easier, and that’s what we want.’‘

More heartening to Harris and his teammates than the 34 field goals on 59 attempts was the quality of those 59 shots and how they were produced. When Central pressed the Deacons, the Deacons made them pay with sharp passing that led to layups, dunks or open 3-pointers. But I was even more impressed with how well Wake moved the ball against the Eagles set, half-court defense. Day by day, game by game, the Deacons appear to be getting a grip on the open post motion offense.

“I think it was just sharing the ball,’’ freshman Chase Fischer said. “That’s huge, sharing the ball.

“And this team has great chemistry, as you can see. I just think we need to keep that up and not let the ball sit too much and go one-on-one – just keep moving the ball in transition and in the half-court sets, and the shots will keep falling.’‘

Wake will see far greater challenges than it has so far. Dayton, the team the Deacons will play Thursday in the first round of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, undressed UNC Wilmington 74-49 Saturday to improve to 2-1. Archie Miller, the former N.C. State guard, is in his first season as coach of the Flyers, taking over when Brian Gregory left for Georgia Tech. The Flyers, with three starters back from a team that finished 22-14, were picked to finish sixth in the Atlantic 10. Chris Johnson, a 6-6 forward who averaged 11.9 points and six rebounds last season, was picked second-team preseason All-Atlantic 10.

Wake’s not back. As good as the Deacons’ looked against N.C. Central, they’ve still got miles and miles to go before they return to ACC relevance.

That said, it’s always encouraging when the coach who is embarrassed and humilated comes out late from the visitors’ locker room, and not the one down the hall.

Back to the main page.

By Dan Collins on 11/21/2011 (1:46 pm)

Comments

You may be right on getting Daniel Green minutes, but I don’t think we have the luxury of playing him against scrub teams. I think we’re so fragile that we’d better keep the 5 on the court that give us the best chance to win. If he proves in practice that he can help on D & boards, I’m sure minutes will come.

Vinton on 11/25/2011 (10:44 pm)

He can’t grow into that role sitting on the bench watching against scrub teams. It’s best to let him play against the scrubs, learn from his mistakes and build confidence for further down the road.

Right now we’re getting 64 min a game from our bigs and we’re resting Travis 5 min a game. That means we’re playing 3Gs, giving our opponents a physical advantage, for 20 min a game.

Daniel Greene at the very least has to play the 10 min Carson sits. He needs to play at least 5 of Nikita’s 10 as well. That would cut that physical disadvantage in half.

We have scorers, even if our 4 is dead on offense. We desperately need the size on defense.

JoeyD on 11/22/2011 (2:46 pm)

Dan hopefully you will have a chance to ask Grobe why our football team has allowed the opposing team in all but 4 games to score at the end of the first half. This is not only dishearting to our team but allows the other team to carry momentum into the locker room, not to mention that since we often opt to receive the opening kickoff gives them the ball back in the second half. One could say that our poor showing in the second half of games really starts at the end of the first half and we never recover.

dellis on 11/22/2011 (12:50 pm)

Joey D -

Rebounding will be a problem all year, but a coach has to put his 5 best players on the court. Right now that’s the starters, but Coach B has to sub at some point & all he has on the bench are guards. I don’t see a Rodney Rogers-type rebounder sitting on the bench waiting for playing time. Daniel Green may become an answer eventually, but he has to grow into that role. If your top 8 players include 4 guards, you’ll see a lot of 3 guard sets. I think you just have to hope that the outside shooting & ballhandling offset the lack of size.

Vinton on 11/22/2011 (12:11 pm)

I fail to see the improvement. I see a team that has been outrebounded 3 times in 3 games by three teams who between them have 1 player over 6-7 who actually gets on the court (and he was 1 rb form a double double).

Ga Southern shot 49%. NCCU made more free throws than we attempted.

If Loyola could make a shot (1-14 from 3) they would have beaten us. If we could have missed a shot (12-17) NCCU would have beaten us. Both stats are pure anomoly.

We will be crushed unmercifully the first time we get on the court with an actual basketball team. Shoould happen sometime on Thursday.

We’re still playing 3 guards and a small forward when we desperately need to develop some inside presence. We can’t expect 10-15 quality minutes from Green against a Maryland or Virginia if we won’t give him those kinds of minutes against NCCUs and Georgia Southerns.

JoeyD on 11/21/2011 (9:09 pm)

It’s tough to implement a system - any system - when the players are playing the way they want when they want. This year’s team is, fortunately, addition by subtraction. Some of the guys who either never bought into Coach Bzdelick’s system or who only bought into it some of the time are now gone. While I wish them well in their pursuit of basketball glory in other locations, I’m grateful that Coach B has “cleaned house”, so to speak. I tell people all the time that I am proud of Wake Forest’s football program because they play by the rules, most of the team graduates, and most of the players are genuinely good young men. I’m glad to see that the basketball program is following suit. Coach Grobe came into a program that had a lot of talent already, and he was able to use the players he inherited to get some success really fast. Coach Bzdelick did not have the luxury of having that kind of talent. Last year would have been a disaster no matter who was coaching. This year we should start to get a better idea not only what kind of coach Ron Wellman hired but also what kind of leader Coach B is. Here’s hoping for the best of both. GO DEACS!

Matt on 11/21/2011 (9:04 pm)

As long as the team is cohesive, shares the ball, eliminates turnovers and plays tough team defense, that’s all I can ask. There is a tougher schedule ahead and there will be losses but as long as the team is just that, a team, we will be fine until the reinforcements get here. To this point, I’m pleased with the team play!

Ken Green on 11/21/2011 (3:56 pm)

Dan,

I think you’ve put the win against NC Central in the proper perspective. Do you get the sense that everyone on the team has put it in the proper perspective as well?

It is practically impossible to get the gist of an individual’s mindset from his quotes, but I have been impressed that all of the players have been able to acknowledge the positives from these three wins without losing track of the fact that this year is going to be a process. No one seems the least bit over-confident. It’s quite refreshing, as is the fact that we finally get to watch a discernable half-court offensive system. As you noted, these are baby steps, but at least they’re in the right direction.

DC on 11/21/2011 (3:26 pm)