Two developments that helped Wake Forest regain its footing after back-to-back stumbles against William & Mary and Purdue were the emergence of freshman Ari Stewart as a potent offensive weapon and the return of junior Gary Clark from mononucleosis.
Going into tonight's game at UNC Wilmington, Coach Dino Gaudio has seen signs that the 6-2 Deacons might soon be getting a significant contribution from yet another previously untapped source. Sophomore Ty Walker is making the kind of strides that befit a long-legged 7-footer.
In Wake Forest's most recent game, Sunday's 90-50 pounding of Elon, Walker took advantage of his 11 minutes of playing time to make two of five shots from the floor, and score four points to go with his six rebounds, a block and a steal.
"He gave us some good minutes," Gaudio said. "He's practicing harder. He's without a doubt, the last three weeks, improving, and gotten better.
"I like the direction he's going in."
Barring some last-minute change of plans by Gaudio, Walker won't start when the Deacons play tonight in his hometown of Wilmington. Gaudio said Sunday and repeated on Monday that he'll probably start his regular lineup of senior Ish Smith, freshman C.J. Harris, senior L.D. Williams, sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu and senior Chas McFarland.
"I'm not going to start (Walker)," Gaudio said. "I don't want to do anything that deviates for the normal lineup."
But if Walker channels the emotion of his homecoming into a productive night, and if Stewart and Clark play as well as they have in the past two games, then the Deacons won't suffer when Gaudio turns to his bench.
Stewart, a 6-7 forward from Marietta, Ga., has scored 33 points in 33 minutes the past two games, hitting 12 of 19 shots from the floor and five of eight from 3-point range. And Clark, a 6-4 junior, has scored 19 points in 34 minutes, making nine of 12 from the floor.
"I tell those guys I don't want them looking over their shoulder," Gaudio said. "If they're open, go ahead and shoot the basketball.
"(Stewart) is very confident right now where he is, and I'm happy with that. As long as he gets his defense better, he's going to play a lot of minutes for us. But you can't get 12 and your guy gets 14. That's minus two. But he's getting there."
The Seahawks beat Campbell 79-59 Monday night to improve to 4-5 in Benny Moss' fourth season as head coach. Chad Tomko, a 5-11 junior, leads UNCW with 16.4 points a game and John Fields, a 6-9 junior transfer from East Carolina, is averaging 14.8 points and a team-high 9.4 rebounds.
Montez Downey, a 6-5 senior guard averaging 6.9 points, is the younger brother of Taron Downey, a standout at Wake Forest from 2001-02 through 2004-05.
Gaudio said that the Seahawks aren't quite as up-tempo on offense as they were last year, when the Deacons drilled them 120-88 in Joel Coliseum. But what Gaudio remembers about that victory was that UNCW shot 48 percent from the floor and 40 percent from 3-point range.
"They really challenged our defense last year," Gaudio said. "They're not as open as they were last year, but they push the ball now.
"If there was one thing in our game (against Elon) that was a little suspect it was our transition defense, and we're going to work on that. That has to be better down there.
"Because when we're set, we're pretty good on defense."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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