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Deacons to face a test of character after defeat
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Published: January 22, 2009
Updated: 01/22/2009 12:55 am
It was fun while it lasted.
Both days.
So what's ahead for Wake Forest now that the bubble has been burst and the No. 1 ranking is a weekend away from being a thing of the past?
That was the question after Virginia Tech stunned the Deacons 78-71 last night at Joel Coliseum in their first game since moving to the top of the national rankings on Monday.
Will the Deacons learn a not-really-that-painful lesson from their brief appearance in the national spotlight and become a better team for having been No. 1, if even for just a week?
Was last night one of those inevitable nights that happen over the course of a five-month, 30-plus game season, where a combination of factors -- early foul trouble, no flow, unusually sluggish defense, an opponent playing its best and yes, some inconsistent officiating -- led to an upset?
Is this still a Top 5 or Top 10 team over the long haul even if it won't be No. 1 come next Monday?
Or did the Deacons come down to earth a little bit last night? Are they headed into the part of the season, and schedule, where it might be easy to dip into a mid-season lull? Second-ranked Duke is next on the schedule, and then comes a stretch of three trips in the next four games.
"We're going to find out about our guys a little bit," Coach Dino Gaudio said. "You know what I mean? I think Jay Bilas said yesterday we'll find out a little bit about Wake Forest when they see their own blood. That literally happened early in the first half. But there's tough kids in that locker room. There's no doubt in my mind they'll bow their necks and come to practice Friday and go back to work."
The tough kids promised the same.
"This can't make or break our season," guard L.D. Williams said. "We've got to get back in the lab. We've got things to fix, but in a week we've got Duke so we can't look back. We need to go back to square one. It'll look like Oct. 13 again, the first day of practice. We basically need to get back to basics, as Coach says."
Williams said that the Deacons did get a little caught up in being No. 1, even if Gaudio continued to steadfastly deny it afterward.
"We got to taste the humble pie," Williams said. "You know, we were No. 1 in the country, our spirits were high -- we felt like we were invincible a little bit. We were on top, we were the only team in the country without a loss, and we just got caught slipping. We got caught off-guard. We were feeling ourselves a little bit, and now we've got a taste of humility. So now we have to bounce back."
Greenberg an admirer
The Deacons weren't the only ones who were convinced that they would bounce back.
Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg spent almost as much time talking about his respect for the Deacons and Gaudio's program as he did talking about his team's victory.
Greenberg loves guard Jeff Teague, whom the Hokies "held" to 23 points last night, and even more he is impressed with the chemistry between Teague, James Johnson, Al-Farouq Aminu and the rest.
"I love their basketball team," Greenberg said. "I literally watched 10 of their game tapes and they're so well-coached. They play with freedom, but they play with discipline, and it looks like they have great trust for each other -- which is hard when you have that many good players, to respect each other that much.
"I've said it a number of times, that's a testament to Dino and Jeff (Battle) and their staff. And a testament to Skip (Prosser), because they're still his disciples. The way they stay together as a group, it's the most amazing thing in the world to me. Seeing those guys work together, it's special."
That's the group that Williams promises will bounce back from this loss.
"We've got some of the hardest-working, hard-nosed guys in the conference -- in the country," Williams said. "If you come into the gym anytime tomorrow, you'll see guys working on their game, just because we hate this taste in our mouth right now. We hate this nasty taste of a loss. We took so many of them the last couple of years, we just got tired of it. So now we've just got to go back to work and get this taste out of our mouth."
There's one other question, of course.
Did Virginia Tech show last night that there is more parity in the ACC than some might think?
Will that catch up with the Deacons, too, when they head out onto the road next month?
That's another reason to wonder.
"In this league, (success) can be very fleeting," Greenberg said. "You can be on top of the world one day and you can be finished the next.… This just shows you what the ACC's all about. It's a perfect example of just how good this league is, and that there are no easy outs."
■ John Delong can be reached at jdelong@wsjournal.com.
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