Wake Forest's most pleasant surprise of preseason so far won't start in Saturday's basketball scrimmage at South Carolina.
Coming off last Saturday's Black and Gold scrimmage, that honor will probably go to juniors Chas McFarland and L.D. Williams, sophomores James Johnson and Jeff Teague and freshman Al-Farouq Aminu.
The Deacons' most pleasant surprise may not even be the first player off the bench. With junior Ish Smith still sidelined by a broken foot, Coach Dino Gaudio said he'll probably substitute senior Harvey Hale first in the backcourt and junior David Weaver first in the frontcourt.
But based on what he has seen in the first nine practices, Gaudio said that it's going to be hard for anybody to keep freshman Tony Woods off the floor.
"Believe you me, I brought him in and told him, ‘You don't have a Gold shirt on today, but if you keep doing what you did the last three days (you will),'" Gaudio said. "He's done very, very well."
Woods is a 6-11, 245-pound center-forward from Rome, Ga., who has a physical maturity that Ty Walker, a 7-0, 215-pound freshman from Wilmington, has yet to attain. Woods certainly handled himself well in the intrasquad scrimmage, contributing 10 points and nine rebounds in 18 minutes.
"The good thing about him is he has the physical strength and body," Gaudio said. "He doesn't try to be who he's not.
"All these big guys come out here and think they've got to shoot jump shots and maybe make a 3, and diversify their games right now. You know what he is? He's right in there, bread and butter, banging you and rebounding.
"He plays to his strength which right now is on the block, rebounding and powering up the ball."
Gaudio said that the play of the intrasquad scrimmage was ragged, which is not unexpected this early. The Deacons made 19 of 50 shots (38 percent) from the floor and four of 18 (22 percent) from behind the newly extended 3-point arc.
"Does that mean our defense is good, or our offense is bad?" Gaudio wondered aloud.
Hale and sophomore Gary Clark, two candidates for playing time at wing guard, combined for two field goals on 10 attempts. Hale missed all four attempts, including three from 3-point range.
An emphasis this week in practice will be ball handling.
"If there was one negative, we turned the ball over too much," Gaudio said. "We had (15) turnovers in 18 minutes.
"We've got to work on that."
Smith was injured during a pickup game on Sept. 19 and had surgery on Sept. 22. The target date for his return was set as the season opener against North Carolina on Nov. 14.
Basketball trainer Greg Collins said yesterday that Smith appears to be progressing on schedule.
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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