I think it's quite clear what the mission is today, and that's to beat Duke. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, we MUST WIN. It doesn't matter how, because I think at this point, we'll all be willing to take a victory in some way, shape, or form.

Also on a side note, the Men's Basketball Team debuts at #21 in the pre-season AP Poll. This is about where this team should be to start the year, and hopefully we'll move up.

Now let's beat Duke, so we can all celebrate. Go Deacs!

Read More...

I don’t have much time, but I figured I’d let you guys know that Wake has opened up at #24 in the USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll.

This is the first official poll that has been released for the upcoming season. I think it’s a perfect spot for this team, especially when you consider the Demon Deacons didn’t even make a post-season appearance last season.

Hopefully, everyone is getting excited for basketball season because I know that I am.

Read More...

You all did a great job providing feedback regarding the starting lineup for the upcoming basketball season, and some great reasons behind your selections. First, let's take a look at who got the most votes at each position:

Point Guard: Ishmael Smith
Shooting Guard: Jeff Teauge
Forward: James Johnson
Forward: Al-Farouq Aminu
Center: Chas McFarland

Teague had 3 votes to Ish's 5 at PG, and L.D. Williams got a couple of votes at Shooting Guard. Johnson and Aminu were unanimous forwards, and appear to be pretty much interchangeable. Walker picked up 2 votes to Chas's 6 at center. Although I think that's possible eventually, I'm pretty sure Chas will start the season as the starter.

One thing this does make clear is how much depth this team will have. L.D. Williams is a heck of a player to have coming off the bench, as are (hopefully) Walker, Woods, and maybe Clark and Hale if their shots are looking good.

I'm looking forward to getting a first look at these guys tomorrow.

Read More...

I got an email from John this morning suggesting we talk about our ideal starting five on the basketball court this season. John suggested "Teague at point, Williams at SG, Johnson & Aminu at forwards, w/ Walker at center."

While I appreciate the sentiment, I think I'm going to have to wait until at least Saturday after the Black/Gold scrimmage to put Walker in my starting five. I also think Ish still has to be in there. There are several tough decisions to make with all the depth, but I think I'd go with Ish at the point, Teague at the two (Williams isn't a bad choice, but I think Teague fits this role a little bit better), Johnson & Aminu at forwards, and Chas playing center. I can't kick him out of that job yet.

Your turn. Leave you're starting 5 in a comment, and assuming we get a decent number of comments I'll try to tabulate our consensus starting five. The floor is yours.

Read More...

Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman is systematically releasing his preseason top 25, and yesterday Wake came in at #22. I think he gives the team a pretty fair assessment.

It seems far-fetched to have a team that went 7-9 in the ACC and one that didn't even make the NIT in the Top 25. However, the Demon Deacons picked up some much-needed experience a year ago — and also added arguably the top overall recruiting class in the country.

Click here for the full writeup.

It's definitely time to start getting in to the swing of basketball coverage, with the Black/Gold scrimmage coming up on Saturday. I'll start doing some previews in the very near future.

Read More...

It's another midterm week for me, so I apologize for the low post frequency. I'm working through the Clemson replay and hope to get it done in the next 24 hours.

Furthermore, I'm going to the beach with some friends this weekend and may or may not have internet access. I think I had one or two people mention they could help this week - shoot me an email if that was you, or even if it wasn't you and you're interested.

Couple quick links to things of interest:

Dan Collins just started doing a blog - "My Take on Wake." It's really good stuff and allows him to cover stuff he wouldn't get to talk about in his regular articles. Check it out.

In the aftermath of Bowden's firing/resignation at Clemson, Jim Grobe is not interested in the job. I think most Wake fans were confident of that anyway, but it's good to have him confirm it.

Swank is still questionable for this weekend's game at Maryland.

Basketball media day happened recently, and we're starting to get some coverage. Here's an AP preview, and SI also lists Wake as the #8 front court in the country. Andy Katz puts Wake at #16 in his final preseason top 25, at the bottom of his "second tier" of teams.

Read More...

I didn't get a "Wake up call" up yesterday morning, so I'm going to catch up on a couple of items from yesterday and hit today's news.

Yesterday:
A great feature on Aaron Curry and his draft stock, both past and future.

Edward Robinson from Raleigh takes a look at Navy.

Aaron Curry was named the Lott Trophy IMPACT player of the week, but the funny thing is I don't think he was even the defensive players with the greatest impact in the game. Still, a nice honor.

Today:
John Delong has written an excellent feature on former basketball coach Dave Odom and the rest of the 2008 Wake Forest hall of fame inductees. A great read.

A Dan Collins feature on center Trey Bailey.

Some interesting tidbits from the Wake notebook.

According to the associated press, Brandon Pendergrass needs to step it up.

Heather Dinnich recognizes Ryan McManus as the ACC's unsung hero so far this season, mostly for the timeout call at the end of the FSU game. I bet he never expected to get so much mileage out of standing up and putting his hands together in the shape of a "T"

Read More...

Yesterday afternoon the conference released the 2008-2009 ACC basketball schedules, meaning we can finally see the entire schedule, including dates and most times. It's great to be more prominently featured in the national spotlight this season, including nine ABC/ESPN networks games and four FSN games.

I don't think there's any real complaining to do about the schedule. The home game against UNC falls the day after students return to campus for the spring semester (January 11). There's only one really difficult turnaround, when Wake plays at Boston College on Wednesday, January 14 and then at Clemson Saturday, January 17. We can all hope no one is at the Joel for the game on Saturday, December 6 against Bucknell. I'd much rather us all be in Tampa for the ACC Championship game that day.

Assuming ACC Select picks up the games that don't have TV coverage I think Wake fans will be able to see all the Demon Deacons they can handle. I'm sure we'll analyze this schedule more as the season approaches, but we'll leave it at that for now.

Elsewhere in the news, Dan Collins previews the Baylor game. Mine will be up later today.

Did this story really get published? I'm sorry, but the fact that someone in Corpus Christi thought that would pass for a legitimate story is rediculous. I realize it's Associate Press copy, but as you can see from SportingNews, there's a lot more to the story that was cut out.

Yesterday I received an email from Brian, a reader, pointing me towards some 2008 bowl projections by WhatIfSports. The projections have Wake playing Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, and Clemson playing in the Orange bowl. The only way this scenario could possibly play out would be for Clemson to go undefeated and Wake to only lose to Clemson. Even so, I have trouble imaginining an undefeated Clemson not being good enough to play for the national championship. Lots of interesting factors here, I had fun spending a few minutes analyzing the thing.

Brian sets a good example...if you ever see something around the interent you think belongs here on Old Gold & Blog send me an email and let me know.

Read More...

In another indication of Wake Forest football's arrival on the national scene, Kansas is looking towards Wake as an example of how to build a successful program and keep a coach.

I'll be honest, the feature stories that talk about the personal lives of players aren't always my favorite, but I did enjoy this one about Chip Vaughn and his family.

Here's an audio interview of Chris Paul after he won his gold medal yesterday. (The audio may only work in Internet Explorer, I had trouble with it in Firefox)

Yesterday the athletic department officially announced "Game Night" at BB&T Field on Thursday. Sounds like a fun event and a great opportunity to tour the Tower.

Read More...

In what turned out to be a very exciting game, the USA defeated Spain in the gold medal basketball final, 118-107. In the process, Wake Forest standout Chris Paul secured himself a gold medal and place in olympic history.

Paul contributed 13 points and 5 assists in 24 minutes of play, and the coaches looked to him to control the flow of the game and manage the ball when the game was on the line.

Congratulations to Paul and the whole USA Basketball team on their accomplishment; it was an impressive body of work this Olympic games.

Read More...

Want cheap tickets to see Wake Forest play Baylor on the 28th? As long as you can bring yourself to type "beatwake" into a website and have seats that aren't in the Wake section, it will only cost you 20 bucks.

We knew Grobe would not be hugely impressed by what he saw offensively from Saturday's scrimmage, but I was slightly surprised to see him mention Riley Skinner specifically.

Some basketball coverage from ESPN yesterday, including a variety of positive Wake Forest mentions.

Look for practice coverage this evening, although depending upon some timing issues it may go up pretty late - I've got a lot going on this afternoon/evening. My apologies if it gets put on a back burner for awhile.

Read More...

Yesterday was a sad day for the Wake Forest family, as assistant basketball coach Jeff Battle's wife, Joyce Battle, passed away after battling lung cancer for some time. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the team as they go through this hard time.

I apologize for not having a report from last night's practice. It ended up being a late day for me and the report just didn't quite come together. I don't plan on having that happen too often, and there should be a report once again tonight. Hopefully this report from the official site will get the job done for last night.

A little over a week ago I linked to a photo gallery with some great pictures of the exterior of Deacon Tower. For an excellent idea of what's going on inside the tower, check out this gallery. Pretty exciting stuff, I can't wait to see it all in person.

Read More...

I'm guessing most of you heard about Tony Chenault's commitment earlier in the week, but I hadn't had the chance to really write about it and decided this would be a great time to do so.

Philadelphia native Chenault is a great pick up for the 2010 recruiting class. Point Guard was definitely a position the coaching staff was looking to fill for 2010, and Chenault was one of the best available. It's great to see that the coaching staff has the ability to go up to a place like Philadelphia and grab one the best players there.

I've only ever seen Chenault in short highlight clips, but everyone who has seen him play has glowing things to say. I get the impression that he's the type of PG who likes to attack the basket and is very powerful; he may not be quite as quick as Ishmael Smith or Jeff Teague, but his ability to get to the basket is impressive.

Since Smith will have graduated and the possibility exists for Teague to leave early as well, a 2010 point guard was very important, and I believe the Deacs got a good one. He and J.T. Terrell are the start of a great class. Interestingly enough, the 2010 class is now well ahead of the 2009 class, but that isn't necessarily something to be concerned about.

Congrats to Tony on making a good decision. See you in Winston-Salem.

Read More...

Just some quick links this morning. It went up very late last night, so if you missed it here is the practice report from yesterday.

Al-Farouq Aminu will plead guilty to BB gun charges and will face three years probation. It should not affect his basketball career.

Here's a random Wake football preview from Olympia, WA. Go figure.

HD ranks Jim Grobe the #1 coach in the conference. The rest of the list makes me scratch my head a bit, though.

Grobe says he's found a snapper - Greg Bechtel. Good news.

Read More...

This morning basketball takes the spotlight, as yesterday Philadelphia point guard Tony Chenault verbally committed to play basketball for the Demon Deacons, joining the class of 2010. Chenault is currently a three star prospect according to Scout.com. I'll publish my own take on this commitment in the next day or two, but here are some other stories until then.

Speaking of basketball, the pairings for the Anaheim Classic have been announced, and Wake Forest will face Cal State Fullerton in the first round, Thursday, November 27, on ESPN2. UTEP and St. Mary's are the other teams in Wake's bracket, and Wake would face the winner/loser of their game Friday on ESPNU. The final games are set for Sunday the 30th, with the championship being played on ESPN2. This doesn't exactly set Wake up for the matchups they would have most wanted from a strength of schedule perspective, but it does set them up well to have a good shot at winning the tournament.

Of course we can't totally ignore football, so here is Dan Collins' usual football notebook, as well as this feature on Josh Adams.

I'm traveling today, so if I'm slow to answer emails or anything like that I apologize. I expect to still have a full practice report up tonight.

Read More...

Wake's 2008 basketball recruiting class has received plenty of praise. ESPN's Andy Katz continues that trend with this article about the trio Al-Farouq Aminu, Ty Walker, and Tony Woods.

He definitely has high praise for them and their decision to keep their commitments to Wake after Skip Prosser's passing, but more than that I love to see how complimentary the guys are of each other.

It's going to be a good year for Wake Forest basketball.

Read More...

I'm guessing this will be the last post to talk about Skip Prosser for awhile, but this video from MyFox WGHP from the Quad at midnight is a must see for any Wake fan. It's great to see what went on, plus it's a well edited piece. The bells at the end had me tearing up. Over at ESPN.com Andy Katz talks about Skip, Dino Gaudio, and the program as a whole one year later.

Speaking of ESPN, ACC bowl projections from Heather Dinnich - Wake to the Gator Bowl, which sounds about right if there's no ACC Championship game for the Deacs. Hopefully there is...

ACC coaches rankings with Grobe at the top, although I'm not sure I'm in too much agreement with the list as a whole.

Read More...

That was the scene last night on the Quad, as Wake Forest fans showed up to roll in memory of Skip. I applaud all of you who were able to make it out, and I hope to see the tradition continue in the future. I'll try to get a daylight picture up when there's a good one available later today.

Those who have been looking for them have probably already found most of these, but I thought it would be good to point out some of the better ones.

I was proud of the Winston-Salem Journal for their excellent coverage the last couple days. Thanks for making sure Skip's legacy is recognized.

There were other good pieces out there, and some good responses from fans and fellow bloggers.

All in all, I think the sports community did an admirable job respectfully remembering coach, and I think Wake Forest fans can be satisfied.

Read More...

Read More...

It's hard to believe 364 days have come and gone since the passing of Skip Prosser. Tomorrow, July 26, will mark the one year anniversary of that unfortunate day, and Wake Forest fans will never forget the impact he had on the university.

One of the most amazing things about Skip was that his presence was not felt only at Wake Forest. He had a positive effect on every campus, every coach, every player, every media member, and every person who spent considerable time with him.

Though time may have dulled the pain for many of us, an anniversary like this is never easy. Many tough memories return, and many happy ones seem to hurt, too.

My path didn't cross Skip's for very long. I only spent one season paying close attention to him: my freshman year, his 2006-2007 season. Though it wasn't Skip's most successful season on the court, that brief glimpse provided all I needed to see the strength of his character.

Because I had spent such little time around him, I did not anticipate the effect his passing would have on me. I hadn't been around Skip long enough for him to have a huge personal effect on me, but seeing the impact he had in the lives of those who had been around him longer, I couldn't help but feel the pain of losing a great man.

Just yesterday, when listening to senior guard Harvey Hale and current head coach Dino Gaudio talk about Skip and the anniversary, I was reminded of the tremendous impact Skip had had on the lives of everyone around him. Not only did Harvey share how much Skip had meant to him on the basketball court, but he also expressed how much Skip had contributed to the development of his character. Coach Gaudio expressed similar sentiments, and talked about how difficult parts of this summer have been as he has traveled the country recruiting in all the same places Skip used to recruit.

There is no doubt about it; Skip was a great man who passed long before anyone on this earth would have liked. His presence is still felt in the Wake Forest basketball program and in the Wake Forest community as a whole. The Demon Deacons he touched will never forget him.

Although I will be unable to attend, I encourage all who are able to head to campus tomorrow night at midnight to throw a roll for Skip. I would love to see this become a yearly tradition, as it is exactly the type of memorial I believe Skip would enjoy.

Furthermore, in honor of Skip, Old Gold & Blog will be silent tomorrow, save for a single image. Feel free to leave your thoughts, memories, or anything else Skip-related in the comments section of this post today or that post tomorrow.

Coach Prosser, you are missed.

Read More...