Final - Wake loses, 83-89. Ugly last few minutes cost it

0:29 - Teague tried alley-oop Johnson under the basket and it was deflected for a turnover. Wake now has to foul and after the freethrows trails 88-83. Not good. Wake can't hit a shot and this one is just about over.

1:10 - 2 FTs for Teague, GT calls time out with Wake trailing 83-84.

1:21 - GT hits a three, foul on GT but they have one to give. Chas hits the ground after the play but nothing is called. Wake ball down 3, 84-81.

2:05 - By hitting the offensive glass the Deacs have come up with quite a few second chance points tonight, most importantly the 2 Weaver just got off of a Chas McFarland miss followed by a Harvey Hale miss to tie the game at 81. Most amazing right now is that Wake is shooting almost 60% this half and GT is shooting 57%. It has turned this into a very high scoring game.

4:29 - Big 3-pointer by Harvey, and the Deacs switch to what looks like a Triangle & Two defense, causing a turnover. Momentum looks to be shifting back, Wake leads 79-77

6:01 - Harvey Hale was just called for a charge, but it certainly didn't look like one to me. Media Timeout, Deacs still trail 74-75.

6:23 - Harvey Hale knows how to shoot when he plays Georgia Tech, that's for sure. The Deacs are trailing right now, but not by much. With Georgia Tech shooting almost 65% from the field in the 2nd half, they're making themselves difficult to keep up with, and Wake's foul trouble is not helping matters. GT's lead is only one, 75-74.

8:29 - Johnson just picked up another foul. Not good, and he's out.

9:42 - The ugliness only got worse, and except for a basket by Jamie Skeen Wake hasn't been able to come up with much of anything. The poor shooting has returned and the Deacs seem to be missing defensive assignments and giving up easy buckets. As a result, Wake trails 66-64.

11:25 - Impressive run by Georgia Tech to cut into the lead. Wake turned the ball over several times and GT was hitting their shots. It's been sloppy all night, but it has gotten a bit worse. Some of the dumb fouls and mental mistakes have returned. A 7-0 run has cut the lead all the way down to 62-61. Deacs take a timeout to regroup; something needs to change.

15:57 - Nice run for the Deacs, including 3-pointers from both Harvey Hale and Chas McFarland. Wake's doing a little bit better making smart plays and avoiding dumb fouls, although Weaver's charge wasn't great. Regardless, the Deacs have built a bit bigger lead, 55-44.

2nd Half: 18:00 - Quick 3rd foul on Jeff Teague could cause some problems, he'll be pretty worthless on defense for awhile. I wouldn't be opposed to putting Clark back in there for a few minutes to buy some time. Deacs lead 47-42.

Halftime - Other than a handful of very sloppy plays and some unnecessary fouls it was a pretty strong half for Wake. The scoring was very well distributed, with Teague being the only Deacon in double figures. Gary Clark has had about 8 minutes of playing time and has 8 points, which is nice to see. I"ll be interested to hear what Dino has to say about him after the game.

With a little more of the same it could turn out to be a great win for the Deacs.

1:27 - HUGE dunk by Teague on a fast break off a steal.

1:45 - Clark is now 2-2 from beyond the arc and made both of his freethrows, but he's clearly nervous because he's having trouble holding on to the ball and has 2 turnovers. Timeout, GT. Wake leads 41-32. Causey is absolutely fuming on the bench.

3:57- GT's closed the lead with some pretty good shooting, and in my opinion some help from the refs to get to the line. The crowd is getting pretty ugly towards the Jackets, primarily Causey after the intentional foul and then Aminu, thanks to his brother. Clark is seeing some significant minutes here tonight and is headed to the line after the timeout with the Deacs leading 34-30.

7:47 - Things have gotten ugly out here, and after that intentional foul/technical situation I think things will be getting pretty chippy. Wake needs to keep avoiding fouls and concentrate on smart offensive play. Wake holds onto a five point lead (and the ball) 23-18.

9:14 - Teague just did one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. GT's Matt Causey was called for an intentional foul on James Johnson and Teague got in his face and basically threatened him. There is an intentional foul on Causey, but Teague picked up a technical for his antics. Very Very dumb. Johnson will shoot the intentional foul (of which he misses both) and Tech now shoots a technical 2 shot foul, makes both, and gets the ball. Really dumb series there, mostly due to Teague. Wake leads 23-16.

11:24 - The Deacs are hot from beyond the arc! Both Harvey Hale and Jeff Teague have hit a couple of big ones. Gary Clark is also seeing floor time for the first time in awhile and hit a 3 of his own with his first shot. Hale got his second foul on a really stupid play defending an inbounds pass in the backcourt. Already Wake has 7 team fouls and Georgia Tech is in the bonus. Won't be very helpful the rest of the half. Things got a little sloppy in the last minute, with two straight turnovers. Still, Wake leads 20-12.

15:28 - Sloppiness all over the made for a very bad start. Lazy passes and other seemingly mental mistakes are not going to do us any good. A couple of quick fouls aren't going to help much either. Definitely looked like the refs missed a goaltending call which cost the Deacs a couple of points, too. Thankfully, things started falling and Wake has built a small early lead thanks in large part to a Jeff Teague 3-pointer. Wake leads 9-3.

Getting ready for tip-off, time to extend the home streak to 17! Check back throughout the game for updates, and if you're interested to hear what Grobe said about the recruiting class today, scroll down to the previous post.

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Grobe started early, so I missed his opening remarks, other than the fact that he knows that we'll be ranked "13th out of 12" in the ACC again this year, but he's okay with that.

Recruiting in Florida has evolved, 6 of 16 from Jacksonville. ACC Championship experience helped that, but Tom Elrod's experience in Florida helps a lot. Everyone knows him.

Grobe says we really only have room for the 16 we got, so the fact that it's a "small number" doesn't bother him. Could have taken one more, but that's about it. The people who take 30 don't actually get all of those - academically ineligible, etc. The Fact that we have lots of 5th year seniors have a lot to do with this.

Grobe obviously doesn't worry about the "numbers" from the "scouting experts." Wants to find football players who can win in the ACC but can also graduate from Wake Forest.

"I'm sure there's somebody on there" who won't redshirt next fall. Most likely one (or more) of the guys who are here now grey-shirting.

Dixon is here and good, Looney is here and "looks great."

In this class Grobe was looking primarily "just for balance." Made sure each coach got someone he wanted, the only problem late was making sure they got a DE. This is what Kevin Smith is for.

Hoping Dixon can help at TE pretty quickly, Parker could be really good too. Playing early has a lot to do with positions too.

Tries to avoid "stashing" guys at prep schools, really only done it once.

Coaching staff changes "might have" had an impact on recruiting, maybe not. Tries not to keep coaching changes "hush hush" like some schools do, thinks it's better to be up front with guys.

Does not send out more LOIs than he can accept - Wellman gets mad of we do these things.

Gaines was willing to wait a semester to enroll because he really wanted to play for Wake. He's here now and is doing well, both athletically and academically.

Chris Givens can't be talked about, Grobe saying only that he's "recruiting Chris Givens."

Kenny Okoro - great cover guy, like an Alphonso Smith, 4.0 high school student, also ran a 4.49 at camp last summer. Can also play WR and Special teams. Kind of tall, which they like for corners (like Brandon Ghee).

Joe Looney - Wonderful kid, great family, ended up with over 30 offers but he came to campus 3 times and the current players were great with him and he felt really comfortable here.

Lovell Jackson - can really run, in fact he really loves track. Good academics

Class is characterized by athleticism and speed, which Grobe loves.

Team has increased credibility in Florida thanks to Skinner and Alphonso, everyone there knows about them.

Lambert has not yet decided who exactly he wants to coach. He wants to stay with the guys he's got, but may not happen.

Grobe thinks we could possibly sign another one but we'll see. Still working a little bit. Nonetheless, still very happy with the class.

Stachitas - throws the ball great but also very very fast. Dual-Threat player.

Regarding disappointments - can't really talk specifically, but sometimes in these situations you second guess some things if you'd done things differently, but all-in-all expects things to work out and feels pretty good.

There are seven to nine guys who are ready to play physically, but not mentally so they probably won't be playing much right away.

Really like Terrence Davis, but most likely Kenny's roll will be filled by people like Devon Brown.

Most players bring up the fact that they will probably be redshirted at Wake, because other schools have told them Wake will do that, but Grobe tells them that they're not going to waste a year of eligibility for 5 snaps a game, but if they're good enough they will play.

The 06 Championship season actually probably helped with recruiting this season more than it did last year.

Coach doesn't feel like they have to sell players on being able to win football here anymore, the kids already know.

Lots of juniors will be on campus this coming weekend, of course he can't mention any by name.

Team is moving towards being more of a power football team, but we've actually gotten too big and need to get weight back down for some lineman. Rather work from being too big to a little smaller rather than from too small but can't get big enough.

And that's all there is. The video should be up on the school's site later, and I think I might be able to get my own audio up but I'll see about that.

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4:00 pm: It looks like the Deacs are done for signing day. The one the Deacs were hoping for, Ed Imeokparia, decided to go another direction (FSU) and the class sits at sixteen, plus previous commits Steven Chase and Chris Givens who I expect to greyshirt and enroll a year from now.

Not a bad class, but for all the promising things heard coming down the stretch it ended in a slightly disappointing way. A half hour from now Grobe wil be having a press conference and I'll try to keep everyone updated on what's he saying. Come back in a half hour for that.

1:10 pm: It looks like most of what's coming is in now. There's been a good number of LOIs since I last posted, so here are the most recent ones:

• Garrick Williams OL 6'4" 314 Columbia, MO
• J.T. Dixon TE 6'4" 230 Chandler, AZ
• Chance Raines OL 6'2" 270 Jacksonville, FL
• Joe Looney OL 6'3" 315 Lake Worth, FL
• Kenny Okoro CB 6'0" 185 Greensboro, NC
  

Williams, Dixon, Raines, and Looney are actually already enrolled, as greyshirts from last year. Good to have them officially on board.

These five guys bring the total to 16 commits, which is almost all we can expect, although I anticipate there may be one more. We'll have to wait and see. Based on the fact that the official site says Kevin Smith will be the only commit from Texas, it does not look like Christopher Givens will be signing today. I doubt this means we lost him, probably just that he'll be coming a year for now. Since I don't think Grobe can talk about someone who doesn't sign a LOI, we probably won't have the official word on him today.

11:15 am: We can add Lovell Jackson, a 5'7" 170lb running back from Tampa, FL to the list. Nice to see them keep rolling in!

10:45 am Update: Wake's commits have been working hard already this morning, as there are already 10 letters of intent confirmed by the school:

• Andrew Parker TE 6'5" 225 Jacksonville, FL
• Terence Davis WR 6'1" 180 Lilburn, GA
• Gabe Irby OL 6'3" 315 Mt. Airy, GA
• Ted Stachitas QB 6'3" 185 Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
• Derricus Ellis DE 6'2" 225 Rome, GA
• Joey Ehrmann LB 6'4" 210 Baltimore, MD
• Ramon Booi DL 6'6" 330 Jacksonville, FL
• Scott Betros LB 6'1" 220 Jacksonville, FL
• Riley Haynes LB 6'1" 225 Jacksonville, FL
• Kevin Smith DE 6'4" 210 Plano, TX
  

This is definitely a great start to the day, and it was nice to see all the Jacksonville/Nease HS names come in as expected. I think the most exciting guys right now are the guys on the defensive side of the ball, particularly Booi, and Betros. Also, filling a hole at Tight End is great with Parker. He's going to be very solid.

The Wake website is saying Kevin Smith is the only member of the class from Texas, which surprises me because I was expecting to be getting a LOI from Christopher Givens today as well. This may mean he won't be coming until a year from now (Spring 2009), but I'm not exactly sure what to make of this right now.

For a little biographical information on all of these guys, the Official Wake Forest Website is doing a great job keeping this updated and providing information. Definitely worth checking out.

The day has finally arrived, and the signatures of promising young athletes will be pouring in. The beauty of football signing day.

I'm not going to lie; I don't have the access to recruiting info the guys at Scout do, but I'll do my best to keep you all updated with who the official signees are along with my thoughts on how they may fit in here at Wake.

I'll also have a full recap of Grobe's 4:30 press conference as soon as I possibly can afterwards, and I may even try to "live blog" it if possible. I'll see what I can do.

Check back throughout the day to find out what's been happening with recruits, and then come back at 7 pm for coverage of Wake vs. Georgia Tech in the Joel. It's a great day for Wake athletics!

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A month ago Wake Forest was in a 2-horse race with Boston College to have Running back/Receiver Terrence Robinson commit to play football starting in the fall of 2008. Shortly thereafter Michigan jumped in with an offer of their own and it was all downhill from there.

Over the weekend, on local Houston TV, Robinson verbally committed to Michigan and new coach Rich Rodriguez, the video of which can be seen below. He looks like a pretty nice guy, but based on his recruiting process I'm not very happy with him.



Here's to hoping he doesn't get to be the star for Michigan that he could have been for the Deacs.

(Can you tell I'm a little bitter?)

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All season long Wake coaches and fans have been harping on the shooting of the Demon Deacons. This afternoon it was a failure to box out that cost the Deacons the game. With 2.3 seconds left, Gavin Grant launched an errant 3-pointer, but “instead of boxing out we ball-watched a little bit,” said Dino, and Ben McCauley came out of nowhere to slam home the rebound at the buzzer. With the basket, NC State won the game 67-65.

From what I heard of James Johnson's statement after the game, they basically thought the game was over and he had no idea where McCauley came from anyway. Basically it sounds like they quit playing, which is a very unfortunate way to lose a game.

Although the last play may have been the one that cost the Deacs the game, the team’s 2-11 3-point shooting in the 2^nd half allowed NC State the opportunity to catch up after trailing by seven at the half.

“We talked before the game that in order to win on the road, we have to have good shot selection. For the most part this year we’ve really taken good care of the basketball, and we only had nine turnovers again today which is doggone good on the road, but our shot selection was poor at times. When we learn to recognize what’s a good shot and what’s not, our shooting percentage will go up, up enough to let us win.”

“It’s amazing that we’re in there with a chance to win these games shooting like we’re shooting from behind the arc. If we had any better percentage from behind the three, we might have beet Maryland, might have beat Clemson, might have beaten NC State, but that was not the case.”

For the third straight game the Deacs gave up a lead in the last ten minutes of the game, still holding a 7 point lead with 8 minutes left. The offense went cold, foul trouble caught up, and State climbed back in it with some excellent shooting. I would also criticize the one posession Wake went into the stalling four corners offense, which once again failed to produce any points. When the offense doesn't move and doesn't work bad things happen for this team, but unfortunately they don't seem to have fully learned this yet. The Wolfpack shot 6-10 from beyond the arc in the second half and really forced Wake to work hard to hold on to any kind of lead.

Ish Smith deserves credit for his fourth game tying or winning basket in the final seconds but when the Deacs didn’t box out on what should have been the final shot of regulation, NC State capitalized on the opportunity.

Although he fouled out, Chas McFarland had another stellar performance, scoring 9 points and grabbing 8 rebounds, however the most impressive part of his game today was his defense on JJ Hickson who struggled with only 10 points. NC State coach Sidney Lowe said that Chas “is the most improved player in the league. He’s long, active, and has good timing. He was a good match-up against JJ Hickson.”

I will admit to having not had the best view in the stadium, but from what I could tell this was one of the most poorly officiated games I've seen Wake play in this year. The refs took too much control of the game with ticky-tack foul calls, and not just on Wake. Something like 8 fouls were called of the ball today, something you don't see very often. Sometimes you just have to let them play.

There isn’t a whole lot more to say about this game. Missed shots and poor shot selection in the second half allowed NC State back in the game, and NC State made a great heads-up play to win it at the end. State deserves credit for hanging around all game long and for making some very big baskets down the stretch. They put themselves in position to win the game and made the big play when it mattered the most.

I still believe this Wake team will break through eventually on the road. With two home games this week (GT on Wednesday, UVA on Saturday) Wake can get above .500 in the league and then make that record even more impressive with a road win at Florida State.

Although some fans may want to, the team is done blaming their youth for the struggles on the road. Ish said after the game that “I don’t want to use our youth [as an excuse] because we’ve been through 20 or 21 games together. We just have to get one, it’s kind of like a monkey on our back and we’re inching closer and closer hoping we can pull it out.”

It seems like it has to happen eventually and hopefully it will come sooner rather than later. It was another heartbreaker today, but I’m a huge fan of this team and every time out they are fun to watch. They will keep improving and I think Wake fans will see some big things out of this bunch of guys, hopefully this season.

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