Wahoos 68, Imposters 44
If it wasn’t Wake Forest on the court against Virginia tonight, then coach Jeff Bzdelik of the Deacons spent a long time in the locker room after a demoralizing 68-44 setback talking with somebody.
The game, if it could be called that, was over for more than 20 minutes tonight before Bzdelik emerged to say that he didn’t recognize the team that allowed the Cavaliers to chase Wake Forest out of John Paul Jones Arena and halfway back down 1-29 to Winston-Salem.
“That’s not us,’’ Bzdelik said. “That’s not how we’ve been playing lately.
“So we’re just going to get back on that bus and go back home and know that we’re much better than this.’‘
When I asked about the extended address to his team had been afterward, Bzdelik, fairly enough, said he would respect the sanctity of the locker room. But from the red-rimmed eyes and hushed tones, it was obvious the Deacons hadn’t been discussing the fun they’re going to have at this year’s senior banquet.
“Everyone is disappointed,’’ Ty Walker said. “We weren’t ourselves out there.’‘
When I asked Walker if this was the low point of the season, he said probably. C.J. Harris wouldn’t touch the question with a 10-foot pole.
“It happens,’’ Harris replied. “You’ve got to have a short-term memory in basketball.’‘
Maybe so, but it’ll be many moons before I forget the performance of Mike Scott and how he scored his 19 points before coach Tony Bennett pulled him with 12 1/2 minutes remaining. Wake has been playing basketball since 1906, and for the first time in recorded history a player made nine shots against the Deacons without a miss. Reggie Johnson of Miami had the record from his 8-for-8 accuracy in the first round of the fateful 2010 ACC Tournament, and tonight Scott did Big Reggie one better.
The strategy was to make Scott shoot over the length of 7-0 Walker or 7-0 Carson Desrosiers. From the way he was swishing the nets, he might as well have been shooting over walk-on guards Aaron Ingle and Spencer Jennings.
Making a bad night all the worse was the score that flashed up on the John Paul Jones Arena of upstart Boston College, in a death race with Wake and Georgia Tech for the ACC cellar, knocking off FSU 64-60. Now if Leonard Hamilton wants to say he didn’t recognize his Seminoles in that game, that’s one thing. It’s a little harder for Bzdelik, whose Deacons had lost seven of their previous eight—and had allowed N.C. State to shoot 53 percent just four days ago—, to make that case.