Enough to drive you MAD!

Can you believe after the Deacs beat GA Tech on Feb. 13th, we were 18-5 and 8-2 in the conference?! 5 losses to non-Tournament teams later (except for FSU) and here we are! Look, I don't want to pile on Dino, but he has no control over this team. Lack of discipline has been the biggest problem for Wake since the sudden loss of Coach Prosser. And even under Skip, we had more of a killer instinct closing games out but were counting too much on flying up and down outgunning teams with a total disregard for defense, which (along with nut punches) kept us from sustaining anything. Last year we were mired with 2 alpha dogs (Teague & Johnson) jockeying for control of the team and each other's girlfriends, allegedly, and when Teague would miss a couple shots or come out of the game with foul trouble he pouted like a 5 year old who didn't get to stop for ice cream. Say what you want about Coach K, but he wouldn't have allowed that for a second. In every Duke timeout, every single eye in the huddle is fixated on him. He has mastered what it takes to succeed in this era: bring in hard-working, disciplined, unselfish players who a.) are just good enough to keep the team consistently competitive but not quite good enough to jump to the pros early, b.) annoy the piss out of you, and c.) can shoot 3's, take charges, and slap the floor on defense. Wash, rinse, repeat. Jim Grobe has taken a page from ol' Rat Face's playbook and we see what he's accomplished. So why have the Dukies been flaming out in the Tournament as of late? When they have to play teams who are bigger, stronger, and more athletic, away from the friendly confines of Cameron Indoor, their strengths get diminished significantly (i.e. Redick torches the whole league all season long his senior year but can't get a shot off againt the length of Ty Thomas and LSU in the Sweet 16). But if you can keep giving yourself chances, eventually you'll break through, a la the 2004 Title Game run ending in a 1-point loss to UCONN. Dino's a great guy who knows the game and to be fair, was put in an impossible situation. We all know how hard it is to either follow a legend or follow someone who was lost suddenly. But some guys like Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel, Lane Kiffin, Tony Almeida, and Pauly D are just cut out to be second bananas. No doubt Dino would be a positive influence on our team, especially defensively, but doesn't have the chops to be the head honcho.

We all remember how Wake's 3 most recent heartbreaking NCAA defeats went down:

2003: #2 seed, after ESCAPING #15 East Tennessee State by 3 in the 1st round, the J-Ho led Deacs flame out to #10 Auburn in the second round. Silver lining: didn't have to get embarassed by Melo's Cuse team of destiny in the Sweet 16.

2005: #2 seed, we get "Pittsnoggled" in OT by #7 West VA in the 2nd round after being up 40-24 at halftime leading to this depressing sequence of events: a defeated Chris Paul leaves early for the pros, the Hawks pass on him after he publicly stated he wanted to play in Atlanta, we all have the same look on our faces on draft night like we just realized one of the dogs just farted.

2009: #4 seed, we fall behind 9-0 to a school none of us even knew existed, #13 Cleveland State, before CBS even has the camera focused on the court and never recover despite having two 1st round picks and an All-Freshman 1st teamer on the squad.

But I think the bigger concern, as Jeffrey alluded to before, are the ACC tourney struggles which demonstrate we aren't playing our best ball at the end of the year when you have to be and we're nowhere near ready to face the bright lights and intense pressures of the Field of 64:

2010: #5 seed, lost to Miami 83-62, 1st round

2009: #2 seed, lost to Maryland 75-64, 2nd round (after a BYE)

2008: #8 seed, lost to FSU 70-60, 1st round

2005: #2 seed, lost to NC State 81-65, 2nd round (after a BYE, CP3 suspended and in street clothes helplessly watching us choke away our NCAA Tourney #1 seed that the committee confirmed we secure with just 1 win in the ACC Tourney which would've kept us away from that underrated West VA team so early) -- best Wake Forest hoops team since TD21 laced 'em up in Tobacco Town

The Deacs made the cut this year for one reason and one reason only, this is the weakest "at-large" field in years. Bids that are normally reserved for the likes of UNC, UCLA, UCONN, and Arizona were up for grabs, and for the most part the best teams won their conference tourneys. If Miss St. hadn't pooped themselves in the last 3 minutes of the SEC final on Sunday, it would've been interesting to see which team would have gotten bumped. No teams really stand out as being dominate because of all the one-and-dones. It's the same reason Kobe and LeBron will DEMOLISH all the pro records, they had a 3-4 year head start over the past greats who actually went to and stayed in school and took pride in gunning for National Titles every year. As college hoops fans, this parody is awesome and will be super exciting to watch the next few weeks. While it's still top-heavy (mmmm, top-heavy), I love the 2 seeds and even a couple 3's this year just as much as the 1's. What happened to the one good team in recent memory that was able to keep their nucleus together? The Gators posted back-to-back Nattys, one of the hardest thing to do in sports, proving the 2 most important things in order to survive the gauntlet of the NCAA Tourney (other than Steve's favorite, guard-play) are team chemistry and leadership, which Florida had in spades. Meanwhile we had Teague and Johnson mean mugging each other on the court last year.

Moreso than any other sport, coaching matters in college basketball. Teams get like 20 timeouts per half and coaches are in constant communication with every player. Look at the perenially sorry UGA Dawgs, they had no business beating Tennessee, GA Tech, Vandy, and Florida this year but they got the right hire (snagged Mark Fox from Nevada in case you were wondering) and things got turned around instantly. So things can change under the right leadership. Gaudio's contract extension doesn't bode well for us unless he can suddenly be more authoritative and get these guys to stop underperforming and get on the same page. It's not just about securing top-rated recruits (or buying them if you're Calapari) but it's about developing them once they get to your program. Aminu regressed this season, supposed blue chip center Tony "don't call me Tiger, unless you're giving me his little black book" Woods STILL hasn't caught a post entry pass cleanly, and Ish continues to have misadventures at the charity stripe. Effective head coaching should've been able to fix all those problems. In the meantime, look on the bright side, at least this year we probably won't have to worry about friends/family/co-workers blowing us up with angry calls/texts/emails about how Wake totally effed up their brackets this year! Unless of course they shock the world and somehow get out of their own way long enough to beat Texas and Kentucky. In which case you will still get those same calls but we'll be delirious in Vegas baby and won't even care!!

Let the madness begin...

Ahhh, Spring is in the air...

Look, we all know Wagner, Glaus, and Saito will be sharing HGH sammies all through Spring Training and that we're one "Chipper was out in front of a Santana change-up" swing away from Omar Infante being our starting third baseman, but anything that takes my mind off of the Deacs averaging 23 points a half and LOST giving me gray hairs is fine with me. A full year of Hanson, Prado, and McClouth should help the Bravos stay in the hunt this season but I hate the fact that we're one significant injury away from irrelevance again. This eerily reminds me of a couple seasons ago when we were counting on Smoltz, Glavine, Hampton, and Hudson to carry the load in the starting rotation coming out of Spring Training, and they all went down one by one. Let's just hope McCann fixed his eye problem over the winter and Escobar got his wild bat throwing and violent stretching antics out of his system. With the Jay-Hey kid (680's nickname, I love it) set to play now and big Freedie Freeman waiting in the wings for 1B, along with a couple of strong young arms and (gulp) Schafer on the verge of storming the pro roster, the Braves should still be in good shape going forward post Cox and Jones. Considering the Falcons fizzled, Kovalchuk was given away, the Deacs are on the verge of either getting beat by 40 by Syracuse in the 2nd round or securing a 1 seed in the NIT, and the Hawks are destined to get swept by Cleveland in the 2nd round (again) then lose Joe Johnson in free agency, I could use some Braves magic this summer!!

Meanwhile, I want some dap for THIS little gem of a prediction I wrote in an email to Colin and Steve way back on 11/09/09: "What REALLY sucks is normally at this point we can say, well at least we've got hoops season around the corner, but this year could be ugly with only a half-asleep Aminu back in the fold. Luckily Duke and Carolina lost a lot too. You heard it hear first, watch out for the Terps this year - fear the turtle."

Anybody who wants me to fill out their brackets for them this year, I will do so at a nominal fee.

Nothing says March Madness like....Jennifer Hudson?

CBS has had Jennifer Hudson re-record "One Shining Moment," and her version will now be the one played at the end of the tourney. How are they gonna do Luther Vandross like that?!

http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=47209&zoneid=3

Wake the Nation?

Can someone please put in a last minute request for Gus Johnson to announce Wake's opening round ACC matchup against Miami? Something about hearing "Aminu steps outside to take a 3 pointer from the corner" and stats about Ish's FT percentage in his March-worthy voice will make it go down much easier. They should all treat it like a warm-up.

Ravens Host Steelers Opening Monday?

This little news tidbit is intensifying my itch for September football.

Analyst Ron Jaworski said that ESPN has requested a Steelers-Ravens showdown for their opening Monday Night Football doubleheader next year, according to a tweet from WNST.

Gregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk said that game would be played in Charm City.

Apparently the request is in, but we shall see if it is granted.