104-70

Basketball season has (sort of) officially begun, or at least it has around here. The funny thing about it is that I've gotten so used to writing about football that It's a little bit difficult to shift into basketball mode. Hopefully within the next week or so I'll get it down.

That being said, Wake beat Mars Hill 104-70 last night in front of a decent crowd, considering the opponent and the fact that it was a scrimmage. The Screamin' Demons were out in good force, at least for the first half, and I'd say that other than that the stadium was about half full.

Since I was left out in the cold for the Gold and Black game, this was the first time I've gotten to see the freshmen play. James Johnson is going to be fun to watch. 17 points and 12 boards along with several assists and 3 blocks is a great start in my mind. Coupled with continued solid play by L.D. Williams and you've got a pretty powerful duo.

I was less impressed by Teauge and Clark. I don't know if they were nervous playing in the Joel for the first time or what, but they never did much of anything that caught my eye. Apparently Teauge scored 11 points and had 6 assists, but I don't really specifically remember any of them, probably because 7 of his points were from the line. That being said, someone who actually makes most of their freethrows might be a good thing for this team. I think he can be a valuable guard of the bench, but we'll see how he develops over the first few games.

Clark played for 20 minutes and only had 2 points and 2 rebounds, never connecting from beyond the ark. Nothing too impressive for his first outing.

The Deacs came out playing hard at the beginning of the first half. They put up some quick points and played strong defense. I felt like the defense began to break down as the half wore on, allowing them to some easy buckets that shouldn't have been allowed. Dino agrees with me, saying after the game that "I thought we played pretty well the first ten minutes of it. Then I think it was too good too early. I thought we did a good job of sharing the ball. Our kids played unselfishly. Although we forced 28 turnovers I was little disappointed in the last 30 minutes with our defense. It's something we have worked so hard at that during our last practices."

I'm gonna be the first one to say it...Bobby Hoekstra for surprise of the year.


Just kidding (I think)