By Al Featherston for theACC.com
It took Harvey Hale weeks to come to grips with the unexpected death of Wake Forest basketball coach Skip Prosser in late July.
"At first it was devastating," Hale said. "Even after two weeks, the feeling was, 'This isn't true ... this can't be happening.'"
In the end, it was the memory of Prosser's life lessons that helped the junior guard accept the tragedy and move on with his life.
"After a while, you saw people getting stronger about the situation," Hale said. "We knew Coach Prosser wouldn't want us to [give up]. He was a tough guy. He'd want you to be tough guy, too. My father is a preacher and he says, 'You've got to rejoice. Coach Prosser is in heaven. You've got to rejoice and see what happens this season.' That's what we're going to do, take the bad and make it good."
Hale and his Deacon teammates will try to use the 2007-08 season to honor their former coach through their play.
"We've got to try to make this the greatest success story in college basketball this year," new coach Dino Gaudio said. "That's our mission. We have a tremendous cause. Those kids and I have a great drive to complete what he started."
Gaudio, who worked under Prosser for 17 of his 27 years as a basketball coach, has tried to make it an easy transition. The new head coach spent the last six seasons as Prosser's top aide at Wake Forest and he's not contemplating any major changes in the program.
"He's pretty much the same person as Coach Prosser," Hale said. "Maybe he's a more straightforward guy. Coach Prosser, if he saw something he didn't like, he wouldn't say it [right away]. He'd tell you on the sideline. Coach Gaudio will stop practice and 'Boom!' It's, 'You got to do this or that.' But that's about the only difference between them."
Gaudio will try to cope with the challenge of continuing Wake Forest's climb out of the ACC lower division. After spending 2002 through 2005 among the league's elite teams (winning a regular season championship in 2003), the Deacons have struggled for the past two seasons, finishing 12th and 11th in the ACC standings with a combined overall record of 32-33.
Hale is convinced that this year's Deacon team can improve on that record.
"My prediction is that we're going to be a lot better than last year," he said. "I've never been to the [NCAA] tournament - that's my goal this season."
To accomplish that goal, Wake Forest will have to replace two 2006-07 starters, including senior center Kyle Visser, who led the team in scoring (17.0) and rebounding (7.4) - both by wide margins. Also missing is former walk-on Michael Drum, who was the team's No. 3 scorer (8.5) and top 3-point percentage shooter (47.5 percent).
Gaudio does inherit a host of young talent, including a number of young players who endured a rough transition to ACC basketball as freshmen, but should be better suited to handle league competition as sophomores.
Ishmael Smith
|
"I really think we're pretty talented in a lot of areas," the new coach said. "We're talented and deep at point guard. On the wing we have Harvey and [freshman] Gary Clark - he can really fill it up. Plus, [freshman point guard] Jeff Teague will play a lot in the backcourt alongside [sophomore point guard] Ish Smith. At small forward, we have depth - I don't think there's a better defender in the league than L.D. Williams. He can guard point guards, two-guards and small forwards."
The hardest part, Gaudio concedes, will be finding the production in the post to replace Visser. But he's happy with his building blocks - 6-10 sophomore David Weaver displayed his strength and agility late last season, while 6-8 Jamie Skeen started 24 games as a freshman last season and was the team's second-leading rebounder.
Also in the mix is slender 6-8 freshman James Johnson, a highly rated prospect from Cheyenne, Wyo., who will also see action on the wing, and the team's biggest player - 7-0 sophomore Chas McFarland.
McFarland is one of the true wild cards in the league. A year ago, he saw almost no action (a total of 13 minutes in ACC play). But the Illinois big man has impressed his teammates with his early play in pre-season practice.
"He's a really skilled guy," Hale said. "He'll surprise people."
Gaudio is confident that he'll get the production he needs from the post to balance the depth of talent that he inherits on the wing. But he also understands that this is still a very young team - 6-6 Cameron Stanley, a red-shirt junior, and the 6-2 Hale, a third-year junior, are the only two upperclassmen on the roster.
The truth is that Wake Forest is still growing up.
Nobody symbolizes that growth more than Ishmael Smith, the tiny jet of a point guard who led the ACC in assists as a freshman who also topped the Deacs with 112 turnovers. Experience should help the Deacons' talented playmaker cut down on his mistakes and do a better job managing the offense.
Experience should also help a talented, but inconsistent player such as Hale, who demonstrated both aspects of his game in an ACC Tournament victory over Georgia Tech. After scoring just one point in regulation, Hale exploded for 21 points in the two overtimes, hitting 5-of-6 3-pointers.
Gaudio would like to see Hale and Smith develop the same kind of relationship on the court that made Justin Gray and Chris Paul such a formidable tandem a few years ago.
Harvey Hale
|
"Where Harvey gets in trouble is when he's dancing with the ball - I tell him that when he's doing that, I can guard him," Gaudio said. "He's got to spot up and let Ish Smith or Jeff Teague make his life easier. It's like the year when Justin was first-team All-ACC [in 2004]. He'd spot up, Chris Paul would drive, draw defenders and kick out."
That's just one area where this Deacon team can grow. It will grow even more a year from now, when Prosser's last three recruits - a trio of highly rated big men who committed to him over the summer - arrive on campus to bolster the Deacons in the post.
So the future of Wake Forest basketball appears bright. That makes it easier to handle the recent past and the memory of the coach who left so abruptly.
"These kids and I, we have a great drive to complete what he started," Gaudio said. "He thought that we could take this program to the Final Four and win a national championship. He believed that, and I believe that."
STRENGTHS: An abundance of talented young players, especially on the perimeter. Smith has the potential to be one of the best playmakers in the ACC.
CONCERNS: Lack of proven players in the post. Overall inexperience.
NEWCOMER TO WATCH: James Johnson stands 6-8 and has a measured vertical leap of 41 inches. Not many great players come out of Wyoming, but his play on the AAU circuit attracted a lot of interest from big-time programs.
EARLY TESTS: The Deacons will venture away from home for the first time Nov. 26 at Iowa in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Wake Forest also hits the road early in December to play at Vanderbilt and at Georgia. The Deacons get a shot at a little revenge on December 30 when Air Force visits Lawrence Joel Coliseum - a year ago, the Falcons routed Wake Forest by 36 points in Colorado Springs.
