My Take on Wake - Hodges Better Than Enchiladas

Hodges Better Than Enchiladas

For years now I’ve called high school coaches whose players had just committed to Wake, and known pretty much what they were going to say before they said it.

That was until I called Bill Hodges.

I’d gotten wind that Andre Washington, a 6-11 center from Roanoke Catholic High School, had cast his lot with the Deacons. So I called Hodges, his coach, for verification and to find out what I could about the impending addition to the Deacons’ roster.

I’d also picked up that this was the same Bill Hodges that had been the Associated Press National Coach of the Year in 1979, the year he directed Larry Bird and upstart Indiana State to the final game of the NCAA championship. I was anxious to get the story written, because it was approaching 7 and I really wanted to watch the Sweet 16 basketball games. But alas, when he didn’t answer, I had to leave a message.

In the meantime, I did a little research to find out what had happened to Hodges between Indiana State and Roanoke Catholic three decades later. I came across a fascinating story written by Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard. Long and Winding Road My favorite quote was Hodges’ reason for why he left Indiana State.

“I left because of illness,’’ Hodges said. “The president got sick of me.’‘

So I’m sitting in the living room downing enchiladas, rice, beans and an adult beverage or two, watching North Carolina lay it on Marquette, when the phone rings. I knew who it was before I answered.

And it was.

So what, I asked Coach Hodges, can you tell me about Andre Washington.

“He can’t play,’’ Hodges said.

Not sure I heard right, I said `He can play?’‘

“He can’t play in the ACC,’’ Hodges said.

For one of the few times in my life, I was speechless. That was for the two or three beats it took Hodges to say, “No I was just kidding.’‘

We both laughed, with me telling him I thought I had gotten a real story.

For the next 10 or 15 minutes, we talked. Or I should say he talked and I listened. From the “interview’’ came the piece we ran in this morning’s Journal. Deacons Land Big Man I know it’s stupid to compare a raw high school junior to the great Larry Bird, but I was referring only to Washington’s hands, and not his complete game. Besides, Hodges brought Bird up, not me.

Anyway, Hodges proceeds to tell me some things about Washington you might want to hear.

He can pass and shoot, but Hodges is really impressed with his shot-blocking skills.

“He is long, long,’’ Hodges said. “He’s the best shot-blocker I’ve ever coached, and that means college and high school. He’s just got a knack for timing a guy’s jump. He very, very seldom ever goes off the floor and gets a foul trying to block a shot. That’s a real special gift that he has.’‘

Hodges last measured him before school, when Washington was 6-10. By now, Hodges said, he may be 7-0.

“I mean he’s got an 86-inch wingspan,’’ Hodges said. “That’s a fact, not a guess.’‘

Washington comes from a really strong family. His father, George Washington, is a former player at Livingstone College who is now the director of technology services in the Franklin County Public School system.

Washington is too light for the ACC now, but he’s got another year to get bigger. And he showed some mettle while playing against Isaac Butts, the 6-10, 285-pound center who was sidelined at Appalachian State this past year while recovering from an knee injury.

“He comes over and spends time with me,’’ Hodges said of Butts. “And Andre’s played against him, and he doesn’t back down from a big guy.

“(Washington) just has to get stronger. He will.’‘

Hodges made a promise, and elicited one from me as well.

“Andre, he’s a sharp kid,’’ Hodges said. “I think I’ve helped him a good deal. And we’ve got a whole another summer and a whole another year to go. Hopefully we can have him ready to play (for Wake).’‘

As for what he wanted from me?

“There’s one thing I want you to include in this article,’’ Hodges said. “If it wasn’t for Pete Davis, I wouldn’t have been in as much of favor as Wake Forest. He’s driven Wake Forest down my throat for years.

“Petey Davis is my buddy from Dobson, N.C. who is a huge Wake fan and has been for years and years. He’s a retired elementary school teacher. I met him when I was up here recruiting when I was at Indiana State. We’ve been buddies ever since.’‘

It’s a promise I had to keep. I didn’t want to let down my new best friend.

Back to the main page.

By Dan Collins on 03/26/2011 (2:51 pm)

Comments

jamie skeen was not a stud at wake forest.
he was a “tweener” not quicj enough to play the 3 and not tall enough to play the 4. he could shoot from the periemter but couldn’t score in the post. he got his shot blocked a lot. he couldn’t jump and could baely dunk. he knew that j johnson and aminu were going to relegate him to the bench and when he was kicked out of school he hit the highway. he has obviously learned to score in the post while at vcu ans looks to be stronger. he is 3 years older. if he had stayed at wfu, maybe he would have improved….but he didn’t.

wfu22fan on 03/30/2011 (11:20 pm)

Butler is NOT flying under the radar with less than grade A recruits…

Last year they were led by an NBA lottery pick. This year they are led by a kid who All State in Indiana out of High School (goofy yes, still a top 150 recruit). Both Freshmen who played BIG down the stretch against Florida were top 150 recruits.

College basketball is a 3 player game. If you have 3 kids that can play, you have a chance. Butler has been a top 25 program for most of the last decade. Every year when every one bragged about midmajor king Gonzaga, Butler was ALWAYS the better team.

VCU’s not riding scrubs either. They’re riding a horse known as “Mr. Basketball North Carolina.” Jamie Skeen is a 5th year 4 star college hoops STUD. You don’t find those very often. Mix that with an NBA understudy and you have a chance.

Of course all that is irrelevent. You don’t make the tournament out of the ACC with less than 4 star talent. Can’t be done. Hasn’t been done. Won’t be done.

Cite any team with any level of success in the NCAA tournament and I’ll show you the HS stud.

If you want to win, you gotta recruit. It’s just that simple. This ain’t the Big 12. There are 10 teams that can beat anybody in the country on any given night. In the Big 12 there are 8 teams that can be beaten by any team in the country on a given night.

Joey D on 03/28/2011 (9:51 pm)

To Bill Coleman,
I wrote about Jamie on Nov. 17, if you want to check it out. In that post I had the following passage.

After averaging 5.6 points and 4.1 rebounds as a sophomore, Skeen began his junior season in limbo when he was suspended for the first semester for what was described as a violation of the university’s academic policy. He would have had to apply to be re-admitted to Wake, but chose instead to transfer.

Dan on 03/28/2011 (4:08 pm)

What were the reasons Jamie Skeen left WFU?

Bill Coleman on 03/28/2011 (3:58 pm)

DAN YOU SHOULD DO A STORY ON THE NEW OGB.COM wake boards

scout has been completely decimated and the entire community mograted over night to have a board free from AD control, AD moles, etc

Joe Blow on 03/28/2011 (2:16 pm)

Hey Matt, I agree with your point either approach can work, however the Butler’s and VCU ‘s are the exception in that recruiting lower ranking players and not the rule. Additionally I am all for player staying 4 years, I think Aminu, Johnson, and Trague would agree now that staying 2 or so more years would have potentially been beneficial to them. Imagine where we would be now if they stayed. The difference between wake and the butlers and vcu’s of the worlds is that due to thier conferences, the NBA almuni, and history they do not have top talent even considering them. It they continue their success the level of talent available to them will increase over team, if the players believe that the coaches that help get them there will stay. Wake on the other hand has and continues to have high qualty talent interested in it’s programs for the reasons I mentioned below. Wake had a very rare opportunity when considering to let go of Dino. They could have waited until the found a proven leader who could increase the reputation of the school program, build on the recruiting to continue to attract and retain high qualty players, and set a high ethical standard for his players both on and off the court. Option b is great for school that can not attract players interest for what ever reason, but the road to success with this strategy has a significantly lower probably then option a ( especially with players staying 3 and 4 years). Additionally if you for what ever reason decided to go after option b, would you betbthe house on a unproven coach with margin success in both the NBA or college. Someone who is yet to win a NCAA game, someone who has only coached one NCAA game. Is that truly fair to the current players, who signed up to go to wake. I am hopeful that thing improve significant next year due to the amount of investment wakevhas put into this decision, but improvement should notvbe defined as 13 or so wins.

Frank II on 03/28/2011 (1:33 pm)

Wake has and should continue to recruit top-tier players. The Teague, Johnson, Aminu team was ranked No. 1 in the nation, finished 24-7 and finished third in the ACC. Chris Paul was also extremely highly-touted nationally coming out of West Forsyth. I don’t agree with a program saying ‘we’re this kind of program or that kind of program.’ You have to look at each individual situation for what it is…unique…and make your decisions based on what is best for the program. If Harrison Barnes had come to Bzdelik and said, “I want to play for Wake Forest,’ do you think Bzdelik would have said, ‘Sorry, Harrison, we’re not that TYPE of program.’ Gaudio was on a very similar path as John Calipari, in my opinion. Recruit like crazy, get the best players you can get and hope they all gel and it all works out. Unfortunately for Dino, he only had one crack at it and it didn’t work out as planned. Still…61-31 with three straight trips to the NCAA ain’t bad. Everyone says Odom lucked-out with Duncan, but did he luck out with Rodney Rogers? Randolph Childress? Josh Howard? Darius Songalia? Robert O’Kelley? Absolutely not. Wake most definitely does not have to take an ‘under the radar’ approach to recruiting. Prosser and Gaudio proved that. It’s about character and recruiting the most talented players that have the character that fit your team.

Casey on 03/28/2011 (12:14 pm)

This kid from VCU, I think his name is Jamie Skeen looked awfully good against Kansas Sunday. Good size, the type that Coach B talks about that is severely lacking on his present squad. Dan, How come we can’t get players like that?

bigm51 on 03/28/2011 (11:51 am)

Hey Dan - thanks again for all of your insider information. I read a pretty good article online today (although I forget where) comparing the strategy of John Calipari (get highly rated recruits who will likely leave after a year, get them to play well by year’s end, and then reload the next year) to the likes of Butler and VCU (get some above average players and train them to play as a team over their 4-year tenure). The article said that both systems can (and obviously do) work. It seems to me that Wake Forest will never be in that first category. Wake will never be a draw for top-tier talent partly because there are so many higher profile teams, even two in the same state. So if Wake is ever going to achieve the kind of success that we fans hope for, the Deacs will have to achieve Butler-style success. It seems to me that this is exactly where Coach Bzdelik is aiming. And I think he may be right on track.

Matt on 03/28/2011 (10:53 am)

I hate to play bad cop here, and I hope that AW turns out to be a quality player, but on paper I found it hard to see how he would be better than Ty walker, Tony wood ( if bz was able to keep him) , or even CD, whom were all top 100 recruits. AW current ranking ranking score is 40 which suggest he is unranked. Bz comments to Dan about a high qualty 1 or 2 year player, suggested he would be open to 5 star players coming to wake, but he recruiting record suggest he can not get them. If you look at the kids considering wake, their are a lot of 5 and 4 stars consider wake (more before bz took over), but he is bring in 3, 2 , and no star players. This is not a crack on the player, but on bz and Ron. Dan during your interview with bz you throw out roughly 13 wins next year a progress, while that would be progress to this season is that the expectation we should have for s team coming of two trips to the NCAA and who brought in a top 10 recruiting class. While I was not a Dino fan he put up 17 wins his first year under a very similar situation , and then took the team to two NCAA’s. Qualty/high rating Kids want to come to wake because of the basketball history, access to the NBA alumni, to play in the acc, the chance to go the NCAA. The reason they are not coming now is the unproving coaching and the uncertainty with this coach of ever seen a NCAA appearance. If you were a 4 or 5 star player and like wake, would you go to a school with a unproved coach, who based on his first year has questionable ability to build relationship with his team member, who has never pointed the figure to himself for the season but to the players. The answer is no!!!! My fear at this point is that we are allowing the bar to be set so low at this point that Bz and Ron will try to sale us on 13 to 16 wins next year ad progress and that the recruiting pool has declined so much that this job is not even attractive to a quality coach. The more bz tears down the program the more it is dependent on him. To the point that if we see the NCAA in 3 to 5 years he is a hero,

Frank II on 03/28/2011 (12:18 am)

Dan,

So we signed a seven-footer who has a knack for shot blocking and supposedly good touch around the basket, but only weighs 205lbs? I’m getting a weird sense of deja vu.

Nevertheless, I think that it is good to bring in players who have had the benefit of learning the game from coaches with the type of experience as Mr. Hodges. Hopefully we are getting a player with a good understanding of the game as well as an understanding of what it takes to succeed at the next level. I’ll be looking forward to updates on how Washington is doing over the next year. In the mean time, welcome to Wake Forest, Andre!

DC on 03/27/2011 (11:19 pm)

I know this is unrleated to the blog at hand, but, in hindsight, blowout losses to VCU and Richmond and being close to UNC in Chapel Hill in the second half and playing with Florida State and Duke for the first halves with THIS squad (weak and inexperienced as they were) don’t look so bad after all. May this Coach Bzdelik can coach after all…we’ll see.

Matt on 03/27/2011 (10:14 pm)

Dan.
I did read your article. Great story, I look forward to followups on this young man.

@John Sanders. Under the rador recruitng has always been a thing at Wake. Just look at Tim Duncan or most of the people that Grobe recruits.

winstonman78 on 03/27/2011 (7:16 pm)

For all the negative things a person can say about Coach Bzdelik, it can’t be said that he doesn’t have a vision for the program. Offering scholarships to “under the radar” players seems to be an important piece of it. Maybe this will all pay off in 2011-2012 or the year after. I don’t know. What I do know is the captain at the helm knows where he wants to go and believes he knows the way there.

Side set of questions for you, Dan. What is your sense of Coach Bzdelik on campus and around the community? Is he the kind of guy to eat in the PIT on campus and at The Village Tavern off campus? Does he reach out to the Screamin Deacons?

John Sanders on 03/27/2011 (5:30 pm)

Hooray, Dan! I’ll take anything that pushes away, if even for a day, from the “Let’s hammer Bzdelik some more!” rant the comments have been for months. Let us hope the peanut gallery gives the 7’Virginian a chance to develop. Sounds good to me! It doesn’t take much to lift my spirits regarding Wake. Hallelujah!

Lee Anglin on 03/27/2011 (3:30 pm)

That is why I read your stuff Dan, you get tidbits we would not otherwise know. Thanks for another good article

Michael Jennings on 03/27/2011 (2:53 pm)

winstonman78, To check out the piece that ran in the Journal, click on Deacons Land Big Man in the story. It needs to be darker so readers can see the link.
Thanks for reading.

Dan on 03/26/2011 (5:40 pm)

Well I hate we have to wait another year, but it will be nice to have someone long on the roster. Look forward to reading your piece in the journal Dan. Thanks fo sharing on your blog. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your posts.

winstonman78 on 03/26/2011 (4:47 pm)