A Quick Glance at RAJohnston, New Writer For BSD

Heelllooooooooooooooooooo (in weird Seinfeld voice)

Welcome Johnson Bros. If you’re anything like the Coen brothers, this should be highly entertaining.

I’ll anxiously await your guys’ Blood Simple.

I hope you’ll shoot straight with us. I’m still bitter about MRickman’s frothy “open letter.” I couldn’t respond to it right after posting, so I’m doing it now.

Look, I love Wake as much as anyone (shit, I’ve got an eight inch tattoo on my right arm that says so), but I don’t have much tolerance for wasting talent and gutless play. This is Division 1 athletics, this is the ACC, this is WAKE FOREST. Come on Deacs, COWBOY UP! Wake was my dream school too. It was my dream school because it fostered success and commanded respect through achievment. There’s no place in my heart for coddling, especially while I’m endorsing my student loan checks. I want victory odes…not depressing haikus. – Deac for Life, LGD

Not hitting shots does not equal gutless play. The effort is there. Just gotta get flowing like we did earlier in the season.

So no blame to cast? Then it is what it is I guess. I guess 23 turnovers against NC State is just bad luck.

Also, shooting 50% takes guts. It takes stepping up. It takes a team incapable of bearing losses. There is something wrong with talent like Wake’s shooting 30%.

I’m by no means calling Wake gutless. They’ve shown tremendous fortitude in their four OT wins. But as of late, they haven’t shown up. It should not be, “Oh well, maybe the shots will fall tomorrow.” It should be, “You have the all the talent necessary to win the next two. It’s up to you. No excuses.” So I’m saying, no excuses.

I’m not saying that there isn’t something wrong with hitting less than 30% of your shots. I’m not naive enough for that. I didn’t say “Oh well.” I said, move on and forget about it.

I’m a pitcher. If I give up a homerun and I worry about the homerun on my next pitch and my next pitch…it affects my play. It sticks in my head and f***s with me. If the homerun happens, I forget about it and reboot, I can go back to doing what I was doing before. It’s how you win. It’s how you stop a losing streak.

I said that they had the talent, they were winnable matchups and that I think it can happen. Where in it was a fawning? Where was I making excuses? It was an opportunity to say f**k the last three games, they’re done with. Now go out and win the next two and give it your all.

I don’t understand how that is all that different from what you’re saying? On the boards there’s been an endless barrage of threads about what went wrong, how this team is flawed, how they have no basketball IQ, how they can’t shoot, how the defense isn’t playing well, how they are collapsing again. There’s plenty of that. I took another approach.

Am I disappointed? Yes. Was I pissed off on Saturday? Yes. And it only got worse when I drove home and got rear-ended. I’m still pissed. But that hasn’t gotten me anywhere. I like these guys, I’ve followed them the whole time they’ve been at Wake. I’ve been around them. That’s just the truth. So I tried to write from the perspective of giving them a little push and support. That’s all.

If you want the negative, woe-is-me, the sky is falling takes, just go to the message board. There’s more than enough to go around over there.

And don’t take this as a personal attack man, I’m just explaining myself. You know as well as I do that I’m up for debate/discussion. I like having you on here and I like getting your take. And I do understand where you’re coming from.

As for the latter post, no personal attack taken…and I hope you didn’t feel as if I was attacking you either. As for the former post, fair enough. I’m with you. See you on tomorrow night’s thread. Go Deacs!