The High Cost of Wisdom and Experience
I heard a new verb tonight, courtesy of Chuck Martin. He’s the former assistant at Memphis who is trying to pick Marist up from last season’s 1-29 pratfall in his second year as head coach of the program.
Tonight his Red Foxes played even-steven with Wake through 10 1/2 minutes, and actually led 19-17 before the Deacons took charge with a 24-9 run to halftime. I asked Martin what did the Deacons do to break the game open.
“We call it, they ACC’d us,’’ Martin said. “That’s what they did.
“When I was at Memphis, they’d (ask) `You guys played really, really well. How did the game unravel?’ (We’d say) ‘We NBA’d those guys. Derrick Rose just took over.’ And that’s what (Ty) Walker did. He did what he should do. He’s an All-Conference ACC guy.*** He’s got potential to play at the next level. And he took over the game defensively.
“Their guards are big, their wings are good, Ari (Stewart) is talented. They’re going to be a really good team.’‘
Walker’s school-record 11 blocked shots and the Deacons eventual 81-59 victory notwithstanding, the Deacons haven’t ACC’d many teams this season. Otherwise they wouldn’t be 3-3, with a 10-point loss to Stetson of the Atlantic Sun and a nine-point loss to Winthrop of the Big South—both at home. I did some research when I got back last night, and best I could tell was going into this season Wake was 7-0 all time against opponents from the Atlantic Sun and 19-1 against teams from the Big South, with the one blemish being the loss to College of Charleston over a Bob Staak-coached team on Dec. 22, 1987.
So these are historically bad losses the Deacons have taken this year, and senior Gary Clark knows it.
“It’s humbling,’’ Clark said. “You know who we had in past years and what kind of success we had, so I’ve been here with the Farouqs and the James Johnsons and the Jeff Teagues and Ish Smiths. We had Chas (McFarland) here tonight.
“It’s different. It’s not the same.’‘
Coach Jeff Bzdelik was so down Monday night that he remained in the interview room long after everyone had left, sitting in his seat at the podium staring down. But hope springs eternal, and all that, and tonight he was back up and excited about his team and his season. He was really excited for Walker’s 11 blocks and what it could do for Walker’s fragile confidence.
“Obviously it made an impact on the game, No. 1,’’ Bzdelik said. “And No. 2, it’s quite a feat, 11 blocks in one game. No. 3, it really gives him a lot of confidence for a young man who hasn’t had a lot of playing time his first couple of years. So it’s all beneficial.’‘
But Bzdelik’s satisfaction with the performance extended past Walker doing the one thing he does well better than anyone in Wake Forest history. I know he’s looking close, closer than anybody else, but he was adamant afterward that he could see progress in his team.
For one thing, the Deacons handled the ball far better than they had been and ended up with a season-low nine turnovers. This is the same team that averaged 19 turnovers over its first five games.
“We’re starting to see some consistency with four or five players in double digits,’’ Bzdelik said. “They’re sharing the basketball, and that’s a good thing.The shot distribution was pretty even. We got to the free-throw line. We still don’t rebound well enough, obviously. We need to contain the ball better.
“They’re all young. They’re all learning. Learning and gaining wisdom and experience are coming at a high cost, and that high cost is three defeats. But it’s the only way they can learn and the only way we can have a reference point.’‘
***I included Martin’s description of Walker as an All-Conference ACC Player to indicate how glowing Martin was of Walker’s play, not because I think anybody should believe it. Until Ty gets stronger with the ball, both on rebounds he can’t clear and passes into the post he can’t control, he’s not going to contribute much of anything offensively or on the boards. He hasn’t learned to establish effective position underneath and he hasn’t shown the innate ability to get to a spot all great rebounders have. But his ability to block shots is something all teams are going to have to deal with. And if and when he can put the other parts of his game together, who knows, we might be calling Chuck Martin a prophet.