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Taller, deeper Deacs ready to take step up
Jeff Teague (left) and James Johnson were the top two scorers for the Deacons last season as freshmen.
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Published: November 14, 2008
There are more delicate ways of describing the excitement that is accompanying Wake Forest into its second season with Dino Gaudio as head coach.
But none are more descriptive than the one offered by senior guard Harvey Hale.
"The community is salivating on how good they want us to be," Hale said. "They're salivating for us to show the world why Wake Forest is the tradition, and to show the world why Wake Forest is what it is.
"We've really slacked on that for three or four years. Last year was a stepping stone, but this year could really be that key year that we do it."
Four years after making their last NCAA Tournament appearance, the Deacons have no good excuses for not making it back.
The celebrated freshman class of Al-Farouq Aminu, Tony Woods and Ty Walker has made them taller, deeper and more talented.
James Johnson and Jeff Teague, two of the ACC's best freshmen last season, should be better as sophomores.
Ish Smith, L.D. Williams and Chas McFarland, largely responsible for keeping the Deacons at least competitive through the downturn, are now juniors.
And the improvements seen in the defense -- the Deacons' fatal flaw during Skip Prosser's time as coach -- should be ever more apparent in the second year of a new, more constricted system that is less risky than the previous pressure-oriented system.
"And it was a radical change from what we had done in the past," Gaudio said. "Everyone else who has implemented this defense, the second year has actually been better than the first."
Pretty much everyone acknowledges that the Deacons, rocked by the death of Prosser three months before the start of practice, had a season of grace in 2007-08.
They were young. Gaudio was promoted to head coach. Few were going to be too critical, regardless of how the Deacons played.
And they played better than expected, finishing 17-13 overall and tied for seventh in the ACC at 7-9.
But this year, anything less than a return to the NCAA Tournament will be a disappointment.
Gaudio knows that.
And he's OK with it.
"I was at Army, and we were on the other side of the fence," Gaudio said of his four-year run at West Point, where his teams were 36-72. "Our talent wasn't as good as the other team.
"I'd much rather have these expectations."
But to meet them, the Deacons will have to show considerable improvement on offense.
They have all the ingredients to be better on the boards and on defense, but someone still has to make some shots for a team that finished last in the league in field-goal percentage and next-to-last in free-throw percentage.
And that someone needs to be playing the wings, and in position to take advantage of the ability of Teague and Smith to break down defenses and deliver on-target passes.
Teague is a threat, but he'll spend much of his time running the point, especially until Smith recovers after breaking his foot in late September.
And Gaudio is convinced that Johnson will shoot far better from outside than he did last season, when he made only 28 percent of his 3-point shots.
Williams is convinced as well.
"The guy who has really come back shooting the ball crazy good is James Johnson," Williams said. "He is really shooting the heck out of the ball.
"And for him, that's really going to help him out a lot because guys are going to have to respect his jumper now."
But Johnson, a 21-year-old sophomore who led the Deacons with 14.6 points and 8.1 rebounds last season, will log many of his minutes in the post.
Any wing who can prove he can consistently hit open jumpers -- be it Hale, Williams or sophomore Gary Clark -- will be rewarded with playing time. Gaudio needs that player on the court.
"Hopefully it's a collective thing," Gaudio said. "But we are looking for 3-point shooting from Jeff Teague, Gary and Harvey."
Gaudio's other challenge is blending the talented newcomers with the more experienced veterans. After landing maybe the best back-to-back recruiting classes in school history, Gaudio has to splice all the pieces together.
There's an obvious logjam inside, where McFarland is poised to start again after making major strides last season and where Johnson and Aminu will most likely play about 30 minutes a game each.
That begs the question of what kinds of roles remain for junior David Weaver and freshmen Woods and Walker. The post will become even more crowded if 6-8 junior Jamie Skeen is readmitted after being expelled for the fall semester for violating the university's academic policy.
"I told our guys the biggest factors coming into this season were No. 1, eliminate distractions," Gaudio said. "And for us, those distractions are off the court and in the classroom if we're not doing well.
"The second thing is leadership. If we get one guy leading us, we've got a chance to be good. Now if we get two or three guys leading, we can be very good.
"And the third thing is, when you have young talented guys, it's chemistry, getting them to play together."
If the Deacons play together, they could still be playing in late March.
"I go to the grocery store, and I go to the movies," Hale said.
"I can't go anywhere without people saying ‘We're looking for a big year from you guys, Harvey. How's the freshmen? How's everybody?
"I say ‘Yeah, that's what we're looking for. We're looking for a big year.'"
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