Traveling Violations: No pint-sized effort
Day 9: Traveling Violations | Florida
NEW YORK – Back in the Wake Forest coaches' locker room, after two overtimes, 66 rebounds, 22 turnovers, 34.7 percent shooting and, somehow, some way, five more points (78-73) than Texas Tech, Skip Prosser gathered his things for the flight back to Winston-Salem, N.C.
"You know what I could use right now, Danny?" he asked.
A pint of Guinness?
"Real cold," he said. "Just one. Just one."
Skip Prosser wouldn't get his Guinness on Friday night, but it was understandable why he might need one. His Demon Deacons are an up-and-down, back-and-forth work in progress. For every great play there is a terrible one. For every made shot, there are two clankers.
Yet after showing plenty of fight in the consolation game of the 2K Sports College Hoop Classic here at Madison Square Garden, they are 3-1.
"We just have to keep getting better," Prosser said. "Last year we didn't win a single overtime game. We've already won two this year."
Chris Paul made things look easy last year, but he's in the NBA now. The Justin Gray experiment at point guard still is, well, an experiment. Wake has a whole bunch of guys who play hard, but it won't be the most talented bunch in the ACC.
"I think if you look at the rebounding stat [a 66-45 edge for Wake], that reflects a really tremendous effort on the part of the kids," Prosser said.
Wake is going to win games the hard way. But they will win games. No matter the toll on their coach.
"I came into the season with red hair," Prosser said. "I might leave with gray."
Someone buy the man a Guinness.
NOTES
Bob Knight wasn't pleased that Texas Tech kicked away a chance to beat Wake Forest on Friday, but he at least was happy with the effort. After Syracuse pounded the Red Raiders by 35 in the semifinals, Tech (2-2) played much better, even if it still struggled to shoot (31.7 percent).
"I think we improved with our effort," Knight said. "I thought our competitiveness improved. We still make some mistakes in the technical part of the game. The improvement we wanted most was competitiveness. I thought the couple times we were down, we came back."
Tech isn't a very athletic team, but forward Martin Zeno is a big-time player who seems to have a knack for being in the right place at the right time. He is going to have to carry the Red Raiders some nights. The good news is he looks capable of it.
So Justin Gray shot 5-of-18 and committed 10 turnovers, a pretty ugly effort. But with Wake needing a three to tie the game in the first overtime and Gray 28 feet from the basket, he never hesitated and drained it.
"As we all know, he has never met a shot he doesn't like," Prosser said.
Lots of people criticize Dick Vitale for his, shall we say, vocal style behind the microphone. But to see the excitement in his eyes at the start of the season – the man was downright giddy when we visited with him pregame – is to see a man who truly loves his job.
We long have defended the man (we even have argued he should be in the Naismith Hall of Fame as a contributor), and this is why. You can't fake what he does, and if being too enthusiastic is the worst thing you can say about someone, then that is pretty good.
Someday Vitale is going to retire, and college hoops will realize how much it misses him. Personally, I am enjoying it while I can.
Luminaries in the stands included Iona coach Jeff Ruland. His team is favored to win the Metro Atlantic this season, and he should be favored to be the next coach at Seton Hall if (or when) Louis Orr gets replaced at season's end, which the Duke debacle pretty much assured. Rules knows New York and knows how to win with less, the two most critical traits a Pirate coach can have in the new, mega-powerful Big East.
The staple of Jim Boeheim's tenure at Syracuse has been his 2-3 zone. So it was a blue moon moment Friday when the Orange played man-to-man to try containing a hot-shooting Florida team. Lo and behold, SU played it pretty good.
"Our man-to-man was respectable," Boeheim said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
Valued reader email of the day:
No East Coast bias? OK, I understand that you don't want to drive from the Northwest to the Arizona desert, despite the great stories you are missing (like what ever happened to Bill Frieder?).
But once again (your emails of the day) prove your bias: Albany, N.Y., Terre Haute, Ind., New Hartford, Conn., Melbourne, Fla, Philadelphia, Pa.
You can't find one good email from a Pac-10 city? Come on.
Karl Triebel
Chicago
(OK, I know, I know, Chicago!?! But I just moved here from out west, so I can still complain about the East Coast bias).
A letter just absurd enough (does anyone care what happened to Bill Frieder?) to win the final copy of "Runnin' Rebel: Shark Tales of Extra Benefits,' Frank Sinatra and Winning it All." And proof I still love the West.
Tour stops tomorrow: Home
