Sports > February 7, 2008

By Ryan Durham | Senior writer

Chas McFarland has had a more than impressive season so far. Last year, the freshman played in 15 games and started none. However, as a sophomore this year, McFarland has played in all 22 games, starting 19 of those.

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(Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black)

He is averaging 7.4 points per game and is second on the team in rebounds, averaging 5.5 per game. Last year, he averaged 0.7 points per game with 1.6 rebounds per game. With eight more regular season games left on the schedule, McFarland has already played at least five times the minutes that he did as a freshman. It is obvious that McFarland has worked hard during this past off-season and that his commitment to improving has paid off. McFarland is quickly becoming the team’s go-to guy down low. Constantly improving each game, McFarland looks to only solidify his role as the big man on the team in the future. The Old Gold & Black’s senior writer Ryan Durham sat down with McFarland to talk about what he’s worked on for this season, losing L.D. Williams to injury, meeting anyone of his choice and his favorite game he’s played this season.

On not playing basketball at Wake: If I wasn’t playing basketball at Wake right now, I’d probably just be going to school somewhere and trying to get my education.

On his favorite game this season: My favorite game would have to be against Virginia Tech. It was the first ACC game I got to play in and was able to make an impact in, and we got a win.

On the team this year: I feel like we’re playing a little bit more together this year. We’re working harder at it, so hopefully good things will happen for us.

On meeting anybody (dead or alive): I’d probably like to meet my grandparents if I could, because I just never got to meet them.

On L.D. Williams's injury: He brings a lot of energy to the whole team. He’s a great defensive player and he contributes to offense too. He’s a great loss, but hopefully we’ll have him back here pretty soon so we can bring that energy back that he has.

On how he’s improved this year: I’ve just been working really hard on improving my strength, skills and rebounding. I’ve just tried to focus on everything.