Mescheriakov Story Didn’t Add Up
My father majored in math at what was then known as Western Carolina Teachers College and actually tutored students from Franklin High School. But if this apple fell from that tree then obviously I landed on a down slope and rolled for about three days.
That’s about the only way to explain the mistake I made in this morning’s report that Nikita Mescheriakov, the transfer from Georgetown, will have 2 1/2 years of eligibility remaining at Wake Forest. Unless there’s something else I’m missing, he’ll have a season and a half. A player gets five years to complete four seasons of eligibility. Mescheriakov spent Year I as a redshirt at Georgetown, Year II playing and Year III playing half a season before transferring. So after sitting out the second half of Year III and the first half of Year IV under NCAA rules for transfers, he’ll have the second half of Year IV and Year V remaining. Blame it on my public school education.
The good news for Wake fans is that Mescheriakov started eight games last season for the Hoyas. The bad news is that he didn’t do enough with his opportunity to solidify a spot in the rotation, much less the starting lineup. So when he sat the bench for most of Georgetown’s first nine games, he hit the road and headed this way. I asked him yesterday who else he was considering besides Wake, and he declined to say. Coach Dino Gaudio, by NCAA rules, is not allowed to comment on a player until he has signed, and as of yesterday he had not. After he does, I’ll talk with Dino about his reasoning for adding another player to next year’s roster.
There was an obvious need for bodies, for practice if nothing else. Unless Al-Farouq Aminu shocks the world and returns next season, the Deacons will still have had only 10 scholarship players—and that’s if everyone else stays. And half of the 10 will be freshmen. In the event Dino and his staff wanted to redshirt any of the freshmen, that would leave only nine players eligible for games.
I did pick up that one of Mescheriakov’s selling points was his versatility, that he can play anywhere from point guard to power forward. He didn’t play any of them very well at Georgetown, and got roughed up pretty good there by those who didn’t consider him a Big East caliber player. We’ll see if another year sitting out and the coaching of Dino and his staff can turn him into an ACC caliber player. If they do, then he’ll be a nice player to have for three semesters. Even if they don’t, he’ll be gone by the time the incoming freshmen, J.T. Terrell, Tony Chennault, Melvin Tabb, Travis McKie and Carson Desrosiers are juniors.
Trivia quiz from one of my subjects (history) better than math: Who was the 6-8 transfer from Georgetown who averaged 12.3 points and 5.2 rebounds for Wake from the 1989-90 season through the 1991-92 season?