Game Recap In Haiku: Heels Dominate Deacs, 68-53
by SamuraiFoochs on Feb 1, 2012 2:19 PM EST
in Wake Forest Basketball
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PrintCouldn't hit a shot
I hate Bzdelik's offense
Save us Super Six
Another ACC game, another blowout. Admittedly, other than the BC game, our schedule has been pretty tough, but this is just painful. Look, I understand the firing of Coach Gaudio, especially since there seemed to be so many off-the-court issues, but it's getting borderline impossible for me to call this coaching hire anything other than frustrating at ABSOLUTE best and an unmitigated disaster at worst.
I understand that a motion offense is complicated, and as a result, takes a while for guys to learn, but there comes a point when things are failing so habitually that it's probably a good idea for a coach to re-evaluate himself before someone else does it for him. I don't wish failure or have any ill will towards Jeff Bzdelik. But even I, one of his staunchest defenders on this site, begin to tire of the state of the basketball program.
My heart goes out to the players. C.J. Harris managed to have another deceptively good game. Travis McKie, despite offensive woes, played his heart out and crashed the boards like crazy. Chase Fischer, Carson Desrosiers and Ty Walker all made some good plays and honestly played their hearts out. But news flash: if you struggle to score 60 points week in and week out with a 1-2 punch like Harris and McKie, it might be time to start rethinking some things about your offensive scheme. At least rework things. Try things. I'm begging you here.
Go Deacs. We'll get through.
--SF
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Nice Recap, but I do disagree with you in this part...
But news flash: if you struggle to score 60 points week in and week out with a 1-2 punch like Harris and McKie, it might be time to start rethinking some things about your offensive scheme. At least rework things. Try things. I’m begging you here.
Travis McKie is a very limited player offensively. He is a great “garbage man” (I use that term very endearingly), but he just doesn’t have a very good skill set on offense. He is at best a below average 3-pt shooter, and he can’t create his own shot (as CJ can). Much like AFA did before him, he relies on rebounds and putbacks for the majority of his points. When you are a team that is already limited offensively, having a guy like Travis as your #2 scoring threat just isn’t going to win that many games.
That is certainly not to say that we could not try other things. Last night was a conscious effort to slow the game down and take the air out of the ball throughout the whole game. I thought we succeeded at that at times, and ran some pretty good sets. It was ugly because we wanted it to be that way. When UNC got out in transition they scored at will because we were unable to find our men when they did it.
Wake Forest '12
Mother So Dear
Yes. but...
As an example, our guys are taught not to go for offensive boards, or at least the offense is not designed to have guys in position for that. If we tried a scheme where we changed that for example and facilitated Travis’s ability to get “garbage baskets”, things might improve some.
Point well taken though,
Contributing Writer for Blogger So Dear, SBN's Wake Forest Blog
by SamuraiFoochs on Feb 1, 2012 3:12 PM EST up reply actions
I would really like to see Travis at the 4 more, and Nikita out of the game. I know that's not going to happen...
but Nikita offers no long-term prospective success. We’re already getting blown out. Put the players with a future in. Losing by 20 instead of 15 doesn’t mean much, but you can’t make up minutes that aren’t getting played. I’m fine with seeing Ty out there as he is still improving and playing to get himself in a position to make money at the next level (Europe or otherwise), but Nikita is a black hole.
Get Chase and Green more minutes down the stretch and use this as a starting point. Give Fields a shot to at least audition for other programs.
Bah da da da da da da da, Go Deacs.
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I completely agree with this.
I just can’t stand to see Nikita play so much. If we’re going to continue to get crushed like this, we need to let Chase and Anthony play a lot more, just like you said.
Yes please
No more Nikita…for the sake of my sanity. I can’t handle watching him catch the ball on the perimeter, pump fake and try to create off the dribble any more. I can’t.
Offense
It is difficult to construct an offense when you are playing 3 on 5. Our PF and C basically offer nothing in the half court so teams over play the perimeter. One of Carolina’s staples is to penetrate and dish to Zeller/Henson at the rim. Walker and Carson do not offer this.
I agree with the suggestion to play McKie at the 4 and take our chances. We also need more cuts into the lane so there are options coming off the ball screens and movement away from the ball to create space. I would also like to see CJ and Chase be more aggressive in shot taking. Too often we turn down shots early and end up with worse ones later.
The end of the schedule offers some winnable games. We’ll get there.
We ran several good sets off inbounds plays last night but could not hit the shots (except for CJ)
It is sad
When people now look back on the Staak era with nostalgia. My time at Wake was during the Tacy era, so the basketball was excellent. The glory days of the Odom/Duncan/Childress era seem a distant memory. Its going to take a lot of work to get back to being even close to that. Bzdelik is NOT the guy capable of making that happen. Sorry to all who continue to give benefit of the doubt. A good coach modifies his system to the talent of his team. Not seeing it here. Until there’s a change for the better, even mediocrity will remain a pipe dream for this program…..
by TBlalock '86 on Feb 2, 2012 8:44 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
Welcome TBlalock '86!
+1 to your comments
by Grand Tanyon Sturtze on Feb 4, 2012 12:14 AM EST up reply actions
Agree with all of that, except . . . .
Nostalgia for the Staak era? I am certainly not wistfully yearning for a return to the days of Air Kitley (I say that tongue in cheek, because by all accounts, he is a nice guy). The point is well taken though, in that we seem to be continually trying to cram a square peg in a round hole.
That was in jest, of course
I have no desire to go back to that, at all. Now Odom was a solid coach. Unfortunately for him, his personality was too bland in the end for the boosters, etc. My personal hope is that once this experiment is done, the Athletic Department goes after an up and coming young coach. Not that I have any recommendations, but that’s what I hope. We will see. If this team somehow manages to win the “winnable” games remaining, they will finish at 15-15 which will make a change less likely.
I know for a fact that we went after a young coach.
It just didn’t work out like we had planned. I think that the AD was a little quick to jump to Jeff Bzdelik after he was rejected a couple of times by his top choices. It would have also helped if he had allowed more input from the people around him. I have heard that it was not a very inclusive search, and was comprised of mostly Ron Wellman.
Wake Forest '12
Mother So Dear
I will confess
That I am not able to follow things as closely as I might. I currently reside in the DC metro area, so its all Terps, Cavs and Chokies around here (ACC wise, that is). Maybe the young coaches didn’t want to step into the mess that was Wake hoops a couple years ago. Anyway, I hope I’m wrong about our current coach, but I don’t think I am.
As always, I move on the next game and hope we’ll win. State is beatable, provided the team shows up and plays their best game.
This is the song that never ends...
and it goes on and on my friends…
by Grand Tanyon Sturtze on Feb 3, 2012 2:57 AM EST reply actions
Agree too
We have the same team that we have had all year. Things aren’t going to change drastically over night.
Wake Forest '12
Mother So Dear
by RAJohnston on Feb 3, 2012 9:59 AM EST via Android app up reply actions
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