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Fresh Start: Juices flow as Deacs hit court
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Published: October 16, 2009
October 15th comes once a year. For average folks, it's an average day. For college-basketball players, it's the open-your-toys part of Christmas.
The world starts over on opening day, even if the weather is dank and gray, even if the ritual involves the involuntary reflexes needed to master monotonous practice drills.
This is official. This is the coach in the gym, watching every move and blowing the whistle and blowing out any undergraduate deemed guilty of imprecision. This is a perpetual benchmark on the basketball calendar of Ish Smith, Wake Forest's senior point guard.
"Whenever I see the leaves start falling, it's basketball season," Smith said. "No offense to football, because I love football. If I would have been any other player, I might have been a football player, but there's something about basketball season. The first day of practice, it gets my juices flowing."
Juices flowed every which way for Wake Forest last season. The Deacons bolted to a 16-0 record and climbed onto the No. 1 rung in the AP poll. Right after the first loss, they held a parquet party to commemorate knocking off top-ranked Duke.
The curve turned downward and settled on a plateau. Then the bottom fell out: 75-64 against Maryland in the ACC Tournament and 84-69 against Cleveland State in the NCAA first round.
Coach Dino Gaudio, his contract extended through 2013-14, softens the harsh landing by remembering brighter days. Senior L.D. Williams wants to soften nothing, his version of Oct. 15th laced with vinegar.
"I've been waiting for this since we lost to Cleveland State, to be honest with you," he said. "It's kind of like when you have a bad taste in your mouth, you want to do something else or drink something real fast so that taste leaves. That's pretty much where I've been since that loss."
The upheaval didn't end in March. James Johnson and Jeff Teague turned pro early. After a staff shake-up, prophets of competitive doom envisioned ACC disasters ahead -- prematurely, in all likelihood.
Oct. 15th changes the script. Gaudio expects to coach a conference contender, led by sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu and Smith. In his coach's eyes, Smith might emerge as the ACC's finest point guard. In Smith's eyes, the Deacons possess the fastest big men in the country and great shooters, fueled by the impulse to run like rabbits and finish the job.
Forward Aminu, who could have been picked ahead of Johnson and Teague in the draft, returns for a second season vowing to write a different climax. He cites North Carolina's 0-2 ACC record after its fall in Joel, an uncommon prelude to a national championship.
On Oct. 15th, Aminu turns his attention to the chemistry of large bodies in constant motion.
"Preseason, you're thinking about how you're going to get better -- you, you, you," he said, alluding to his larger muscles and smoother 3-point form. "When the season starts, like practice and things, you start thinking about how you fit into the team -- team, team, team."
Gaudio fits in at the top. His two-year contract extension represents something of a formality. No prudent athletics director -- and certainly not Ron Wellman -- would leave his basketball coach exposed to the vicious recruiting subculture with a three-year deal. That's like saying: "We don't really believe in our guy."
"There's no question it helps recruiting when you show that stability," Gaudio said, "because you're recruiting these kids so much younger. It's unbelievable."
Gaudio has verbal commitments from a five-man class of prep seniors, by reputation one of the nation's top groups. Wake Forest was in a similar position with the Aminu class two summers ago when Coach Skip Prosser died and Wellman promoted Gaudio.
"As we know," Gaudio said, "the sharks were in the water. Everybody came after those kids."
Sharks routinely infest the college waters, but you can't hear them thrashing about on Oct. 15th. You can only hear the sweet tweets of the coach's whistle and the squeaks of rubber soles on hardwood, the trumpets for a new beginning.
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