Grass Not Always Greener
Most players who have transferred from Wake Forest over the past few years may have been missed for who they are, but not for what they could have done to help the Deacons win basketball games.
An exception is probably Anthony Gurley, the 6-3 guard from Boston who transferred back to his home area to attend Massachusetts after Skip Prosser died the summer after Gurley’s freshman season of 2006-07. I caught snatches of Massachusetts’ 73-72 upset of Memphis yesterday and Gurley played 29 minutes and scored 14 points. He’s averaging 16.4 points a game while shooting 49 percent from the floor and 39 percent from 3-point range for a Atlantic 10 team that’s currently 6-5. He has shown improvement from his sophomore year, when he averaged 11.2 points for the Minutemen while shoot 39 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3-point range.
Ranked as the 68th best prospect in the nation by Bob Gibbons after his senior season at Newton North High School, Gurley chose Wake Forest over offers from BC and N.C. State. He averaged 14.5 minutes a game as a freshman in a backcourt that included Ish Smith, Michael Drum, L.D. Williams, Harvey Hale and Shamaine Duke, and scored 6.4 points a game while shooting 40 percent from the floor and 32 percent (16-for-50) from 3-point range.
He scored 24 points in a late-season loss at Georgia Tech, hitting four of five 3-point attempts, so it’s not like he was playing in a conference above his ability. It might be overstating the case to say he would definitely be starting as a senior this year at Wake, but it’s hard to imagine that he wouldn’t, at the very least, be in the substitution rotation and logging significant minutes.
Jamie Skeen, a 6-9 forward, actually started 30 games for the Deacons as a freshman and sophomore before being declared ineligible (violation of team rules) for the first semester of his junior season. But before ever playing another game, Skeen announced plans to transfer. He has surfaced at VCU of the Colonial Athletic Association, and in his first game for the Rams scored 10 points and pulled down four rebounds yesterday in a victory over Tulane.
What I’ll always remember about Skeen was his answer when I asked him about being beaten out of the starting lineup by Chas McFarland by the third game of his sophomore year. I thought Skeen might be peeved, given he had started 24 games the season before. We were standing outside the locker room at Iowa, after an incredibly unsightly 56-47 victory over the Hawkeyes. Skeen stunned me by saying that McFarland should be starting instead of him because he had been playing better in practice. That’s the first and only time of my sportswriting career I had an athlete tell me that. Skeen’s production fell from 7.5 points and 4.6 rebounds as a freshman to 5.6 points and 4.1 rebounds as a sophomore, so it was hard to predict a bright future for him at Wake.
As for three other former Deacons now playing elsewhere, it’s easy to say they made the right decision to leave.
Shamaine “Call Me Joe” Dukes is a 6-1 senior guard at Georgia State where he’s averaging 12.8 points for a 6-6 team that, like VCU, competes in the Colonial Athletic Conference. He’s shooting 41 percent from the floor and 21 percent from 3-point range and has more turnovers (34) than assists (31). But to be fair, he did have 134 assists to 83 turnovers last season, when he also averaged 12.8 points a game.
Casey Crawford is a 6-9 junior who is averaging 11.8 minutes, 3.4 points and 2.2 rebounds for Colorado, a 6-4 team from the Big 12. His forte was his outside shot, and he’s making 42 percent his three-point attempts.
And Kevin Swinton, a 6-7 forward from Greensboro, has surfaced at Oklahoma Baptist, an NAIA school in Shawnee. Swinton transferred first to UNC Wilmington, but had his scholarship pulled when he was arrested for a firearm possession at the his dorm. He had a strong debut at Oklahoma Baptist, contributing 15 points and 11 rebounds in 19 minutes against Friends University.
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By Dan Collins on 12/20/2009 (3:27 pm)
Comments
Dan,
Interesting article on the mental side of Aminu’s recent struggles. Clearly he has the talent to excel, so it’s great to know that Coach Gaudio is working to get him in the right frame of mind. He is such a thrill to watch that I hope he can overcome the challenges with the turnovers, fouls and free throw shooting.
I definitely agree with Coach Gaudio’s decision to put Aminu into the game with two fouls in the first half. While picking up a third foul is a huge risk, especially for your best player. He needs to learn to play without fouling if this team is going anywhere this year. So with two fouls in the first half against NC State in December? You better believe he needs to be in the game.
I was struck by Aminu’s statement that he wanted to be physical at the beginning of the game. I think that is a great sentiment. And frankly, I would not be displeased if Aminu picked up an early foul by bowling over the defensive player as he backed him down beneath the basket, or by boxing out an opposing rebounder with a little too much enthusiasm or denying an easy dunk with an authoritative block attempt. Those types of fouls are indicative of physical play. But reach-ins and over-the-backs are not. And offensively, Aminu seems to be resorting to the fade-away a lot rather than imposing his will on less athletic and smaller players by drawing contact.
So, suffice it to say that I am pleased that he is thinking about playing a more physical brand of ball. As I said before, he just needs to trust his talent. Perhaps that’s what Gaudio means by telling him to take his time and not rush himself.
DC on 12/23/2009 (10:01 am)
DC, that’s an astute observation on Ish. As I mentioned to Charles, if he hit his free throws and finished a little better, he would be one of the all-time best guards to play at Wake. And he’s pretty good as is.
Buffalo hired Jeff Quinn, the OC at Cincinnati. I imagine both Lobo and Brad Lambert, the defensive coordinator, will be hired away at some point.
Dan on 12/22/2009 (1:10 am)
Thanks for the update on former players. A nice read. I enjoy your blog as well. Glad to hear that all of these players are still playing and seem to be doing well.
wes on 12/21/2009 (11:16 pm)
I’ve never seen a player go from overrated to underrated (probably why I hate the terms) as Ish. Wake Forest fans were missing CP3 so much that we didn’t notice that Ish broke the freshman assist record. And then when we laud his speed, we get frustrated when he runs himself out of possessions. In spite of the free throw struggles, he seems to be the one guy on this team who steps up during big moments (not enough of a sample size on Harris or Stewart yet).
And that reminds me of what seems to be an interesting aspect of this year’s team - the tendency to get flustered at points in the game. Even Coach Gaudio has made comments about the kids being “tight”. I think Aminu is probably the biggest example so far this year. Unfortunately, I don’t think that there are good ways to practice being “clutch”, but at some point Aminu and the others need to trust their talent and not shrink from big moments in the game. A coach walks a fine line between being critical of his players mistakes (no shortage of them so far this year) and highlighting the positive contributions in order to keep their confidence up. Ultimately, it’s up to them to be mentally tough, and it seems like a few guys on our team have a little bit of growing up to do. As has been said before though, it’s only December.
To switch gears completely, I heard a rumor that Coach Lobotzke was interviewing for the Buffalo coaching job recently vacated by Turner Gill. Any word on that?
DC on 12/21/2009 (10:17 pm)
Charles, good for you, keep tabs on Jamie. He’s a good guy and I hope he landed in the right place. And he has talent.
I understand your sentiments on Ish. He’s a high risk, high reward player, and he’s pretty much the offense in those games he can beat his man into the lane. I try to give him some slack on the layups that miss because I know he’s in serious traffic, but if could finish better and hit his free throws he could be one of the best point guards to ever play for Wake. And he’s darn good now. He played 38 minutes last night, all 20 in the second half. And he finished with two turnovers. That’s not bad.
Hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas.
Dan on 12/21/2009 (7:31 pm)
Dan,
Nice to hear what happens to the players who leave. A number went to the CAA, and who can blame them for wanting to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Being in Richmond I’ll be keeping an eye on Skeen, he came to a good place to play basketball at VCU. Their fans are great and they are building a great tradition at the mid major level.
As for the NCS game, I’ve never seen so many dunks, it was pretty fun to watch. I wish Ish Smith would keep under control more. He had a good game but against a better defensive team they would have made him pay. A lot of times it seems like he just drives into the paint with no plan, and the result is a turnover or a missed layup. When it works it looks great, but the percentage is not very high. He sets up Aminu great, but doesn’t seem to set up the rest of the team as well and he took and missed too many shots last night. Because it was NCS got away with it, but against a Duke or UNC he’s going to need to distribute better and find his teammates in scoring position, like CP3 was so good at.
Charles on 12/21/2009 (6:41 pm)
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