Will the Deacs roar in March?

Wake Forest will go on the road to battle rugged Florida State

By: By Dan Collins | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: March 03, 2010

February could not end soon enough for Coach Dino Gaudio of Wake Forest.

"I think somebody said that February, for coaches, is maybe the longest month of the year," Gaudio said. "I think sometimes there are 50 days in February."

A month that started well enough ended abysmally for the Deacons, who will carry a season-threatening three-game losing streak into tonight's pivotal ACC match-up at Florida State. After cruising along at 18-5 and 8-3 in conference play after a home victory against Georgia Tech on Feb. 13, Wake Forest (18-8, 8-6) now finds itself trying desperately to pull out of its nosedive before missing the NCAA Tournament and crashing into the NIT.

Prompting the tailspin was an offense that seized up in the final 12½ minutes of an 87-83 loss at Virginia Tech on Feb. 16 and was unable to unlock itself against ACC cellar-dwellers N.C. State and North Carolina. Over the last 93 minutes of play, the Deacons have made 53 of 161 shots (33 percent) from the floor and 9 of 43 (21 percent) from 3-point range.

"You've got to put the ball in the basket," Gaudio said. "That's what you get points for."

So it is more than just a minor concern for Gaudio that he must try to get his team untracked against an opponent that, like Wake Forest, prides itself on tough, unyielding defense.

Coach Leonard Hamilton's Seminoles (20-8, 8-6 ACC) have struggled all season long to compensate on offense for the loss of Toney Douglas but will enter tonight's game ranked first in the ACC in field-goal percentage defense (37.1).

Florida State ranks ninth in the ACC in scoring (70.7 ppg) and doesn't have a player among the top 20 scorers. Solomon Alabi, a 7-1 center from Kaduna, Nigeria, leads Florida State SU with 11.8 points a game.

"We've been very, very good this year on the defensive end of the floor, and also rebounding the basketball," associate head coach Stan Jones said. "That's always been Coach Hamilton's identity ever since his days at Oklahoma State and Miami.

"We've tried to get offense with our defense, and we've been very effective with that. And we've done a good job of keeping the other team's field-goal percentage down, and we've done a good job of keeping the second-chance points down. When we've done that, we've been very good."

After watching his team shoot a season-low 29.7 percent in Saturday's 77-68 loss to North Carolina, Gaudio said that the struggles from the perimeter are allowing opponents to clog the lane. Therefore, leading scorer Al-Farouq Aminu managed seven shots against the Tar Heels, and three of those were from 3-point range.

He finished with seven points, nine fewer than his average.

"We've got to make perimeter jump shots," Gaudio said. "We do.

"We've got to kick out and make perimeter jump shots. It's no secret. (Clogging the lane is) what N.C. State did. That's what Carolina did as well. We've just got to find guys who can make jump shots.

"Now earlier in the year C.J. (Harris) and Ari (Stewart) were really shooting the ball well for us. They're young. They'll bounce back."

dcollins@wsjournal.com

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