N.C. State vs. Wake Forest Game Preview

If we have Desrosiers or Walker guard him one on one again, he is going to have another big game. NC State does not shoot the 3 well, we need to double down on him and give help to the bigs.

Hope we can win this one especially!

Just looked like the Deacs didn’t come to play today. I thought we would have come out much more fired up. The inconsistency of this team is just killing us. Add that to the fact that we are REALLY bad and you get the result that we got today. Frustrating to say the least.

We had a bad game. We came out slow and State dominated us inside.

With the exception of one or two players, the guys are buying into coach’s system. There were not a lot of positives today, and it was a frustrating game for sure, but I am still optimistic about the future.

We are a very bad team and it is going to take time to improve. I guess it’s kind of like that two steps forward and one step back. Let’s just regather ourselves and try to come out and not get blown out in Chapel Hill.

Let me start by saying… being a fan, you can’t ask for a better venue or atmosphere for a basketball game. Being at The Joel really made me believe again and showed me why I have such an un-dying love for this team.

On that note… I do not go to Wake Forest, I go to Campbell University and grew up in Asheboro, NC. However, as a student, I understand the dedication it takes to fill a student’s section and be a force to elevate the team. I will say that as a section, the Wake students do an absolutely top-notch job of being heard and intelligent fans. My question is this… Where was everyone? I understand we are on a slide right now, and despite why that is, these players deserve the support of their peers. I would sell just about any organ necessary to go to Wake and wouldn’t miss a game for anything shy of death or serious injury. I can only be there in spirit for them (unless I stumble on free tickets… Gotta love a college-kid budget), and would love to know that you guys are there for me to yell, scream, chant, and do whatever it takes to spark the team when things get tough.

As far as on the court, the first half I felt we played well other than on the boards. Carson’s extended minutes looked good and with some bulk he is really going to flourish around the goal. Tony is a beast, but he plays so fast that he over-runs his own dribble sometimes and gets caught making un-forced mistakes way too much. I really hoped for more JTT the whole way, but liked the cooler-head he had even when things got a little physical. He can can flat-out score and will continue to grow I feel sure. The improvement being preached is there… on an individual basis. I saw a young group of guys that just can’t find the one person to follow. If there is one thing I think the players are at fault for, it is the lack of leaders. There are no chiefs and way too many indians. Late in the game when we get flat-footed and seemed dejected, no one man stepped up and got vocal (miss you L.D.). The coaches should see this too and make sure they get these guys fired up to the point they focus on the task at hand until the guys find their own leaders.

I will get of the Buzz-kill bandwagon after today. Personally, I don’t care for his Sendek-like style, but that in no way makes him a bad coach. We all have opinions and which ever side you may take is just fine, but in my heart I can’t think of another school where fans are as kind to one another and the buildings feel like a family gathering. I can’t justify my love for this type of fan-base if I constantly bash one of our own, so I plan to cool it off on the angry, fire Bzdelik rants.

If we never win another game, it sure will be fun being a fan with you gentlemen. As always go deacs!! Keep playing hard, and getting better. It’ll all work out!

The family-oriented nature of Wake Forest is really what makes us so unique. We may disagree with each other on here, but we all want to see Wake Forest succeed in every way possible. There are just differing viewpoints on how we need to make that happen. None are really right or wrong, and Ron Wellman is really the only one making the decisions (with help of course from his “cabinet”/AD).

I get very emotional during games and I have said things on here, and at the Joel that I probably should not have said. That is why I have tried to take a step back and not live and die with each play/game. Today was actually a very enjoyable day for me despite Wake losing by 25 points. A year ago I don’t think that would have been possible. Bottom line is—these are sports and not a matter of life or death. There is no sense in getting worked up over things that we cannot control.

Jeff Bzdelik will come and go. Ron Wellman will come and go. The players will come and go, and Wake Forest will still be Wake Forest. It will all work itself out in the end one way or another, and I’m going to support us/write articles on here about us for as long as I possibly can. Go Deacs!

The only highlight I can think of for this game is that possibly, just possibly it wakes up Wellman and the folks on this blog who keep talking about how much improvement we’ve shown to the reality of the situation.

As much as I would not like to see anyone lose their job- I do hope beyond hope that maybe this was the game that sealed Jeff Bzdelik’s fate.

There has been a ton of individual improvement and that is showing in some games, and not showing in other games. Once that comes around and we grow as a team I think that we will see a lot more wins in the next couple of years.

Some of our higher star recruits are playing like 1 and 2 stars. If they are going to play at that level, replacing them with 2-3 stars is an improvement in my mind because they will buy in to the team and also perform at a level that Coach Bzdelik wants them tho perform at.

There is a lot of maturing going on this year. I am not going to say that we will improve tremendously next year, but I think 5-6 ACC wins is certainly possible. NIT next year, NCAA the year after that.

We have a lot of the pieces in place. As Dan Collins has reported, a lot of these kids are hearing things for the first time. Some have never had to play defense, some have never been told “no” before. These things take time to adjust to and Wake Forest isn’t always the most comfortable place for athletes either (in terms of situations that they have been in before).

This morning, I posted this comment which was almost immediately deleted, quoting two newspaper reviews (here & here) of the NC State game:

NC State, scoring the most points since defeating Wake 90-69 at the RBC Center in January, piled up the school’s third-largest margin in an ACC road game since the league opened for business. The other two blowouts on that list — 40 points at Clemson and 29 points at South Carolina — both occurred in the inaugural 1953-54 season, long before either school pretended to operate an authentic basketball program.

That got deleted, and Deac Dad’s post, which is essentially a lengthy verbally complicated attack, was praised. Why is this?