One game plan won't be sufficient for Wake Forest while it prepares to play Saturday at Clemson.
"You've got Game Plan A and Game Plan B,'' coach Jeff Bzdelik said before Thursday's practice.
Plan A is in the event center Ty Walker is available. Plan B is in case he isn't.
Walker was sidelined by a concussion for the second half of Wednesday's 75-52 home loss to Florida State. He attended Thursday's practice, but did not participate.
Trainer Greg Collins said he wouldn't know until today, at the earliest, if Walker will recover in time to play Saturday. Collins said he might not know until Saturday morning. Tipoff is scheduled for noon at Littlejohn Coliseum.
"It's too hard to say right now,'' Collins said. "These things can really be fickle. Not everybody is the same, and not everybody recovers the same way. It's certainly customary on a day after an event like that certainly he does no activity, and basically we'll follow up tomorrow.
"But there's a very specific set of steps that he has to accomplish before he will be allowed to play on Saturday. So we're starting those steps (Thursday) and we'll know more (today).
"First of all you have to be absent of all symptoms. We aren't going to allow someone to go back to athletics and still have concussion-like symptoms. So that's the first thing.''
After the symptoms are no longer present, Walker will be given a series of computerized tests to evaluate how the brain is functioning.
"It's very good stuff,'' Collins said. "It's been chronicled through the NBA and the NHL for a lot of years.
"So it's another tool that we use to give us good information whether or not he's passed his concussion and on the road to recovery.''
Walker said he had never had a concussion before. He said he had no nausea after colliding with Bernard James of Florida State, but he did feel dizzy. He also had a headache, and his eyes were extremely light sensitive.
"I just went back to my room and sat in the dark and just went to sleep,'' Walker said. "I still do have a headache. (Wednesday) it was probably about an 8.5 out of 10. Today I would give it about a 4.''
Walker, a 7-foot senior who was suspended for the first semester for disciplinary reasons, has been playing the best basketball of his career in recent games. Bzdelik said his value to the team was obvious during the loss to FSU, when Walker blocked four shots and had four rebounds in 15 minutes.
After Walker left the game, the Seminoles broke the game open with a 43-22 run.
"He impacts every game,'' Bzdelik said. "It doesn't matter who the opponent is. He does because he protects the rim.
"You saw the significance in the game (Wednesday). And it certainly is a big advantage for us. Just like anybody. If any team loses an impact player, it affects them.
"We're no different.''
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