Tobacco Road Report

Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Division: Atlantic
2005-2006 Results: 17-17 Overall, 3-13 Conference
Head Coach: Skip Prosser
Record at Wake Forest: 111-52 (.681), 5 seasons
Record Overall: 276-130 (.679), 13 seasons

Last Year in Review
The Deamon Decons struggled last year to find chemistry on the court with star player Chris Paul playing his rookie year in the NBA. Wake Forest finished the season with an opening round loss in the NIT to Minnesota after playing very well in the ACC Tournament (2 wins). The team was led by seniors Justin Gray (18.2 ppg, 4.3 apg, 1.0 spg) and Eric Williams (16.3 ppg and 8.9 rpg), but could never find a third scoring option on a consistent basis.

The season opened with a third place finish in the NIT pre-season tourney with quality wins over George Mason and Texas Tech. The Deacs lost a tough semi-final game to eventual national champion, Florida. The pre-season also featured a victory in the Big 10/ACC Challenge over Wisconsin. Unfortunately, the season peaked at that point and league play was a struggle.

A key problem in ACC play was the defense. Wake gave up 78 points per game and allowed their opponents to shoot 46% from the floor. Offensively, Wake did not get to the foul line and also averaged 15 turnovers per game. Replacing Paul was a problem as Gray did not fit in well at the point and there were not stable options to allow him to play without the ball. The Deacons were also missing their traditional strong power forward to help control the paint. Visser and Ellis did not contribute enough to give Wake a consistent inside duo with Williams. The loss of Chris Paul had to be expected, but like Georgia Tech losing Jarrett Jack, the team did not have the personnel to stay on track.

Outlook
The outlook for the Demon Deacons starts with the key losses of Gray, Williams, and Trent Strickland, a trio which accounted for over half the offense and rebounding. When you lose three starters off a down season, you know you will have a youth movement. At Wake, a talented recruiting class will play early and often. Leading the way are two heralded recruits, Anthony Gurley and Jamie Skeen. Gurley is a shooting guard while Skeen will compete for time on the low post. Other newcomers include Ishmael Smith and Casey Crawford. Additional talented youth will enter for 2007 as Prosser has already signed two highly regarded 4-star prospects (rivals.com).

The rest of the returning roster is made up of solid role players. Michael Drum and Kyle Visser will return to anchor the frontline. In the backcourt, Harvey Hale is the leading returning scorer. After years of depth and veteran play, it will be interesting to see how Prosser establishes rotations with such a youthful team.

What do we expect from the Demon Deacons?
Prosser has gone against his traditional approach of a difficult pre-ACC schedule in favor of a weak, cupcake of the month November and December. This is definitely the best strategy for Wake Forest as it develops a youthful, but talented nucleus of freshmen. Still, there are some likely losses in the pre-season with Vanderbilt, Georgia, at Air Force, and away at Bucknell. The Deacons are not in the ACC/Big 10 competition this year.

The conference schedule has a big break as Wake only plays Duke and Boston College once each, but the TRR cannot see a successful run this year. Prosser is a solid coach who will develop the talent for future seasons, but 2006 is not likely to be memorable. TRR feels Wake has an outside shot at the NIT if all the pieces gel early, but a losing record is a good possibility in an improved ACC.