Sports > November 13, 2008

By Martin Rickman | Staff writer

The Demon Deacons’ men’s basketball team had little trouble handling Division II opponent Mount Olive Nov. 6 in their exhibition game, winning 97-62. The score was tied 16-16 after the first few minutes, but the team’s advantage in size, speed and athleticism overwhelmed the Trojans, as the Deacs went on a 28-0 run, forcing 12 straight stops on defense.

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Freshman forward Al-Farouq Aminu rises over a Mount Olive defender in the Deacs 97-62 victory Nov. 6. (Joel Ang/Old Gold & Black)

Wake Forest’s 35 point margin of victory was not as large as it could have been, as the Trojans went on a 16-2 run near the end of the game. The Deacs dominated both defensively and offensively, holding Mount Olive to just 31.3 percent shooting and 25 percent from beyond the arc.

“This year, we’re really trying to concentrate our defense on not giving up threes,” Head Coach Dino Gaudio said. “We’ve really been working to cover three-point shooters. We’re also trying to funnel stuff to the big guys. For the first time since I’ve been coaching, we’ve got some shot blockers.”

The shot blockers have arrived in the form of the freshmen class. Al-Farouq Aminu had 12 rebounds, Tony Woods had eight and Ty Walker had five. Between the three of them, there were 11 offensive rebounds and 32 points. The team combined for 11 blocks on the day and 11 steals, both statistics that led to forcing 25 turnovers as a team.

The Deacs played without two of their starters: Junior Ish Smith is still recovering from a fracture in his foot. He had the boot taken off last week and is hoping to be cleared to play Nov. 17. Sophomore James Johnson was suspended for the game due to a violation of team rules.

“(James) came up to me on Tuesday and goes, ‘Coach, this is the game I’m not playing right?’ and I didn’t remember, but said yeah. It was nothing grave; we’re just going to really keep things tight with this group,” Gaudio said.

Stepping in the starting point guard spot was sophomore Jeff Teague. He showed good court vision and finished with eight points, 12 assists and three steals in 24 minutes. Senior Harvey Hale started for Johnson and had nine points.

“There were a lot of times last year even when Ish is in there, every set we run. If we call one-out we can call two-out when Jeff is the two,” Gaudio said. “We played without two starters tonight, two pretty good players, and I think it bodes well for those guys who were in there. I didn’t think we played great, but we played hard.”

Junior Chas McFarland scored on all six of his shots and finishing with 12 points. He had to be stitched up at halftime though, and sat out the second half. Redshirt junior David Weaver played arguably his best game as a Deac, making his case to earn more minutes in the rotation, as he racked up eight points, nine rebounds and three blocks. Aminu had 15 points with his 12 rebounds, on just 7-16 shooting. He forced a few shots early and took a little time to settle down, but he is very quick and has deceptive handles with the basketball, causing all kinds of match-up problems for his defender.

“We’ve really been focusing on the offensive boards,” Gaudio said. “We aren’t the greatest three-point shooting team in the world. When you have Farouq and James, we really need to get on the offensive glass. Farouq has a real proclivity around the offensive glass.”

Woods finished with five offensive rebounds and 15 points on 6-9 shooting. He was constantly around the hoop. Woods is as physically gifted as any freshman in the country and will be a real force as he continues to improve offensively.

“(Tony’s) a post-to-post player who will rebound the ball and he tries to dunk everything,” Gaudio said. “He knows who he is and that’s encouraging. He’s been practicing very, very well; we are very pleased with him and he’s done a great job.”

This team is easily one of the deepest in the ACC, with, as Gaudio indicated, nine or 10 guys pushing each other for minutes. The luxury that Gaudio has in being able to slot in combo players like Teague, junior L.D. Williams, Aminu and Johnson. This year is a real chance to take the next step forward from the 17-13 record last year.

“A lot of people use the excuse that we were still dealing with Coach Prosser’s death,” Williams, who led all Deacon scorers with 22 points said. “It’s still in the back of heads, but we have a task at hand. We want to do big things this season; we have the guys that can do it. We wanted to make a statement tonight, not only to the Wake Forest family that we have a good team, but to the world.”

The Deacs first official chance to make that statement is against N.C. Central on Nov. 14.