Know You Enemy - Wake Edition

Even through all of the holiday madness, Wake Forest blogger Martin Rickman made time to answer a few of my questions about the Demon Deacons. Martin's site, Blogger So Dear, is a great site and I highly advise you all to check it out. You can find my answers here.

In the 2 games I've seen live, Al-farouq Aminu has been interesting to watch. He was impressive against NC Sate doing all the things you would expect a 6'-9" athlete to do, including a very impressive dunk. However, against William & Mary, he seemed content to just shoot (and miss) a lot of three point attempts. Give me your assessment of Aminu so far this season.

Aminu has not been himself so far. That said, it is hard to ignore or discount the fact that he is averaging a double-double and has the capability to dominate games in stretches (as we saw during the NC State game).

His problems have been two-fold. His decision-making has been a bit suspect--he'll take a shot he doesn't need to when he has the lane, he will not exploit the fact that he can back down just about anybody, etc... In addition, he has been way too generous with the ball. Rather than throwing an outlet pass and running the floor on the break, he'll try to take it coast to coast. He's been sloppy in general and has been turning it over a ton.

Our fans have a tendency to exaggerate our problems and Aminu is a good example. He may have a flashy dunk here and there, but most of his plays are garbage buckets and putbacks. That's just his game. When he cuts down on the turnovers and stays within himself, he just might be the best player in the ACC.

Monday's game will be the second Wake has played in the Greensboro Coliseum this year. The first, an 89-58 win over ECU, seemed to work out pretty well for the Deacs. Do you like the idea of giving up a couple of home "money" games in order for your team to get experience playing in the Coliseum?

I love it. As I'll explain more below, Dino has done a great job of taking on these road games. The Coliseum is close and gives us an opportunity to play road games in a friendly environment. Plus, it gets us prepared for the ACC Tournament, helping with site lines and familiarizing the team with the venue in general. And this might be a bit of a stretch, but it may bring a little more exposure to the school. Hey, Wake is always looking for ways to steal some fans from the schools down the road.

Coach Dino Gaudio has taken his share of criticism. What do you like and dislike about Gaudio as a coach

Maybe I'm just optimistic, maybe I'm a bit defensive, maybe it is because I covered a majority of the games last year, but I am really not as critical of Dino as a lot of other people. He has shown that he has a plan for the team and is putting in those measures little by little.

He has transformed the defense from one that was almost nonexistent to one that is one of the best in the nation at defending the three and packing the middle, leading to a ton of blocks. We also do a great job of rebounding (especially on the offensive glass).

Another positive has been his recruiting, although it is too early to accurately judge this. He looks to be bringing in a different type of player--and this year's class of CJ Harris and Ari Stewart are good examples. Next year's class is the money class, and if they flop, Dino goes, if they succeed, well, maybe that will take the heat off of him.

On the flip side, there are some things Dino definitely needs to work on. The half-court offense is atrocious. I mean, it's bad. The vaunted big men have not progressed and there is almost no production out of them. Free throw shooting is horrendous and we turn the ball over way too much. The team is sloppy as a whole. These are things that should be easy to fix and they haven't gotten any better at it.

Wake Forest lost a ton of firepower when James Johnson and Jeff Teague left for the NBA. How was Wake tried to offset the loss of these two great players?

When the season started, I really thought Farouq would be the one taking a ton of the scoring bulk. The biggest change has been the emergence of CJ Harris. He has shown a lot of Teague in him with his ability to shoot the basketball and drive the lane. Plus, Ari Stewart has done a good job of coming off the bench and scoring. Gary Clark has shown a lot of promise in stretches.

Overall, it just is a matter of balance. When Wake gets production out of 8-9 players, they are in good shape. We don't have the "playmakers" per se like James and Jeff, but Ish Smith has definitely become more of a focal point. This is his (and in a similar regard LD Williams's) team. When he goes, the Demon Deacons go.

Do you ever get tired of hearing that Zombie Nation song?

For our team, no. When other teams use it, yes. I'd be lying if I said I do get a little tired of our fight song at times, especially when we play it after something bad happens or we're getting smoked.

Having been born and raised in Winston-Salem, I've got to witness first hand the relationship between the city and school. It seems like over the last 6-7 years that Wake Forest and Winston-Salem have really started to embrace each other. Do you agree? What do you think brought about the change?

I think so. The biggest reason for this has been Ron Wellman. I don't know if we will really realize just how much he has impacted Wake Forest athletics until he leaves (and my money is that he'll end up as the next ACC commissioner). The guy has really tried to bring the city and the school together and this is something we definitely needed to have happen.

The Dash has a lot more people than most people think and it should love this school rather than outsourcing their fandom to places like Duke, UNC and State. Wellman (and President Hatch) need to keep this up and make Winston-Salem and Wake Forest a community. It will be interesting to see what other plans are in the works.

Prediction Time. How do you see the game going? Does Wake have any holiday hangover or do they destroy the Spartans? Give me a score.

Wake starts slow, but ultimately establishes their gameplan with defense and a lot of transition buckets. The hangover might last until midway through the half, but they will be able to control the tempo. They shoot about 52% and hold UNC-G to 38%. Wake wins by some range of about 18-25.