For Deacon fans, basketball season couldn’t come fast enough.
A 40 point shellacking of Guilford before the season opener against Stetson provided a spark of hope for the Wake faithful, only to be followed by the very first home opener loss in the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum to the Stetson Hatters, 89-79. New coach Jeff Bzdelik unfortunately became the first coach since Jack McCloskey in 1966 to lose his first game on the Deacon sidelines.
Even worse, true freshman point guard Tony Chennault broke his foot in last week’s debacle, the Deacs only player that really belongs at the 1. The graduation of Ish Smith, now playing for the Houston Rockets, and injury to Chennault leave the Deacons playing point guard by committee, with sophomore CJ Harris handling the bulk of that responsibility.
There, are, however, bright spots. Even in the loss freshman JT Terrell scored 26 in the loss, looking exactly like the dynamic scorer expected during his recruitment. Terrell is part of a five man class ranked eighth in the country by ESPN. Wake Forest also managed a win over Hampton last night in the first round of the Preseason NIT tournament, 63-56.
Further bright spots include junior Ty Walker and freshman Travis McKie (rhymes with mc-sky). Ty Walker, averaging barely 3 minutes the past two seasons, is now a necessary part of the Demon Deacons after the graduation of Chas McFarland and dismissal of classmate Tony Woods earlier this fall. Though Walker's offensive game looks limited in the first couple games, defensively he is a shot blocking force. During the Stetson game, particularly in the second half, Walker managed to block or alter nearly every drive into the lane, finishing the game with 7 blocks; in last night's win over Hampton, 6. If Walker can develop his offensive skill set and learn to better decide when to go for a block he will be a tremendous asset to the team.
Travis McKie ended with 10 points before fouling out against Stetson, but looked like an absolute phenom against Hampton. The dynamic freshman ended with 21 on 8-11 shooting, including several beautiful turn around jumpers at the elbow that forced Hampton out of their zone and back to man-to-man coverage. McKie also racked up 8 rebounds, one assist, two steals and two blocks. Mark it down: McKie is the real deal.
Realistically, though, McKie's box score shows a glaring problem with the Deacs: turnovers. McKie ended with four, contributing to a total of 19 for Wake Forest. This is not totally unexpected, given the extremely thin situation at the point, but if Wake as a team can't control the ball better moving forward by the time ACC play rolls around it will be an absolute nightmare. Granted, CJ Harris sat on the bench more than Coach Bzdelik would prefer last night with early foul trouble, necessitating the insertion of walk-on guard Aaron Ingle (who, by the way, has had zero turn overs in a combined 28 minutes including the scrimmage against Guilford). Many among the Deacon faithful are hoping freshman JT Terrell can provide some help at point as he displays great handles, though five turnovers against Hampton do little to back that point up.
Tonight Wake Forest faces VCU, the victor over Winthrop last night. VCU is a veteran laden and experienced team that shoots the 3 well, and brings a lot of full court pressure. Jamie Skeen, a former player for Wake, finished the game with 3 points and 8 rebounds, and may cause issues for the Deacons less physical big men. The Deacs already defend the three well, though, and if they can limit turn overs against the Rams will have a good shot at winning. Wake and VCU tip off at 7:00pm EST.
