It’s Not My Call, Y’All
What Wake Forest accomplished in the 2009-10 basketball season, given the loss of sophomores James Johnson and Jeff Teague to last June’s NBA draft and the absence of any player who had ever made any All-ACC team, was nothing to sneeze at. The Deacons won 20 games, finished tied for fifth in the ACC, made the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season and chalked up the program’s first NCAA Tournament victory since 2005—Thursday’s unforgettable 81-80 overtime victory over Texas.
So really, in my mind, it’s not what the Deacons did but how they did it that has left such a sour taste in so many mouths. From the time they rose to No. 23 in the nation at 18-5 (and 8-3 in ACC play), they lost six of their final eight, were clubbed by No. 12 seed Miami in the ACC Tournament and were run out of the second round of the NCAA Tournament by No. 1 seed Kentucky 90-60.
In this society, it’s all about what have you done for me lately, and lately the Deacons haven’t done nearly enough to satisfy many who live and die with the success or failure of their favorite college basketball team. I completely understand the sentiment. My own sense is that this team, like water, eventually found its own level. That said, the mark of a team is what it does when it matters most, under the bright lights of March. And much of what Wake earned by beating Texas was given back by how badly it was beaten by the Big Blue.
The case could be made that neither Dean Smith nor Mike Krzyzewski could have survived at North Carolina and Duke if they had faced the same level of scrutiny that Dino Gaudio has dealt with today. There was no talk radio to speak of back then, and certainly no world wide web capable of empowering, mobilizing and even inflaming fan bases through internet message boards and comment sections on newspaper websites. Compared to Smith’s 35-27 record over his first three years and Krzyzewski’s 38-47 mark over the same period, Gaudio’s 61-31 mark at Wake looks downright stellar.
But we all must play the hand we’re dealt, and there will always be those convinced that it was circumstances, and not previous performance at Army and Loyola of Maryland that got Gaudio a seat at the table in the first place. The late-season losses to Maryland and Cleveland State last year and Miami and Kentucky this year have done nothing to dispel that notion.
Gaudio could win over all but the most unreasonable among us by bringing along a team capable of playing better in March than it did in January, as both Smith and Krzyzewski were/are able to do in their glory years. But unless I’m reading the situation wrong, ultimately there’s one man, and one man only who Gaudio must convince that he’s the man to lead the Wake Forest basketball program into the future.
And take it from me. If you care anything about Wake Forest basketball, you’re lucky his name is Wellman, and not Collins.