In years past, the G:TB team has unofficially adopted players, teams, and coaches based on any number of half-baked and self-serving criteria. Robbie Hummel comes to mind, as does the 2007-8 Baylor Bears men’s basketball squad. We’re creatures of habit, so as the football season draws to a close and we begin to turn our attention more fully to the round ball, we’re once again drawn to the scrappy, unheralded gym rats, the heart and soul of the game. The object of our affection this season may seem a bit of a departure, playing in an elite league and carrying a wealth of history, but the backstory is pure Hoosiers.It isn’t often that the 4th-ranked team in the nation qualifies as an underdog, but the Wake Forest Demon Deacons fit the bill. Long Tobacco Road’s other team, the Deacs trail Duke and UNC in the national polls, their 13-0 record compiled against a cupcake schedule (ranked 243 in the country in terms of difficulty). This week’s road win over BYU served to establish a modicum of respect, but Sunday’s home contest against Roy Williams’ Tar Heels is a more apt measuring stick.
We’re not pulling for Dino Gaudio’s squad because of their record, though. Wake Forest is less than two years removed from the devastating loss of head coach Skip Prosser, by all accounts a prince of a man and an unquestionably good coach. Gaudio led – in an unusually true sense of the word – an emotionally scarred and extremely young team (not a single senior on the roster) to a 17-13 record last year.
The baby Deacs are a little older, but they still don’t have a senior starter and their top three scorers are sophomore guard Jeff Teague, freshman forward Al-Farouq Aminu, and sophomore forward James Johnson. Gaudio held on to all of Prosser’s commitments and has Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress’ alma mater (and Billy Packer’s – mumblemumblemumble) pointed in a positive direction. In our book, this counts as a remarkable thing considering the uncertainty and pain left in the wake of Prosser’s death.
We think 13-0 might be a bit of an illusion, and North Carolina may well drum Wake Forest on Sunday, but we’re believers. Go Deacs, G:TB’s adopted home team in 2008-9.
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60 comments:
Forget Hyper Gay Muppet, Teague is the best player in the ACC.
Didn't we already have Davidson on the adoption list? Or maybe it was just his mom. Either way, we'll call it G:TB:TO (The Orphanage). And speaking of Davidson...guess who takes on the Dukies tonight at Cameron? Some of you might not have to guess my loins are tickled.....
"...It's the hard-knock life for us...It's the hard-knock life for us..."
i think we're free to adopt as many as we like. teejay's still got robbie hummel sleeping on a cot in his guest room.
tribe goes to the beach tonight to take on a woeful unc-wilmington squad. a loss would be catastrophically horrific.
And hummel's gonna get a bunk mate very soon...
I saw about ten minutes of VCU's dismantling of UNCW the other night. rob's right, if the Tribe don't pummel these guys it's going to be a looooooong season.
clemson may not be a total fraud, teej.
That conclusion may appear in the post that may or may not ever get posted.
of course, beating an sec west team isn't much to jump up and down about. utah just beat lsu by 30.
Unless that SEC West team is Arkansas. You boys might want to look into them when you get a chance. Pelphrey's got things humming in Fayetteville right now.
His suit last night would've made Herb Tarlek proud.
It's still not as good as the pink suit that Brandon Spikes wore when the Gators arrived in Ft. Lauderdale for the NC game.
I think Arkansas and Illinois State need to be on the adoption list, two blue collar teams who get it done....
i watched that arkansas game - those guys can play. although they would have won by double digits if their point guard played under control the whole game.
The most overrated..... Clemson
the best thing about the duke/davidson game tonight is the announcing crew - tirico and the boys are slumming in the college ranks while dickie v calls a pro game. they picked a good day to switch.
Arkansas' pg (Fortson) may be out of control but he's only a freshman and is an absolute beast on D. He's going to be a hell of a player with a little experience under his belt.
yeah, he was fun to watch - in both a good and a bad way.
Like Yahoo Serious?
For those with ESPN Full Court, you can treat yourself to the Tribe-UNCW game at 7. Or you can stick a shrimp fork into your retina. Same feeling.
who is worse: the wizards or hot action softball team???
tribe game is also on masn for those of us in the deecee area. avert your eyes, men.
whit, not too late for a road trip.
Going to buy a couple of fish tonight. I'll have to TiVo the Tribe. What a waste of DVR space.
mark, how are you feeling?
Nervous. Excited. Pissed (that I'm not down there, long story). Tired (of waiting). Cautiously confident.
we gonna see a preview, or at least a score prediction?
Yeah, I'm gonna put something together for tomorrow afternoon.
The spirit of Gheorghe was embodied in Skip Prosser. Solid post, gentlemen. Go Deacs
Hopefully rob has no plans to travel to England.
http://tinyurl.com/8eqe5d
you know what would make the Tribe games more enjoyable? HDTV
And, maybe a camera operator with a steady hand.
only scoring 26 in a half against wilmington is a sign of a dreadful, dreadful offensive squad. the seahawks give up an average of 91.1 points per game. sweet criminy.
tribe should guard that tomko kid
This is a battle of two poo-poo ballclubs. Yeesh.
what happened to the "positive GTB" vibes for 2009?
Right...Tribe by 9. Oh happy day.
29 points in the first 11 minutes of the second half. much better. shlara, you can pipe down over there.
i've never seen team leave as many men open in the paint as this uncw team does. awful defense for a d-1 team. they've had bad luck with injuries, but they're not good.
What is uncw shooting this half - 20 percent?
I completely forgot Pat Kennedy is slumming at Towson.
davidson is making a good run at duke
AND the Wiz are digging themselves out of that hole!!
Tribe Pride baby...76 seconds from conference win #1.
Shlara, "they're digging in the wrong place!"
"It could turn their season around"
I believe!!
alright - off the schneid. big one on saturday against jmu.
This Gonzaga/Tenn game on the deuce could be very good.
Hey, did you guys hear Dickie V is doing the NBA game tonight? Yeah, me neither, I wish they had promoted it a bit more.
maryland lost to morgan state and boston college lost to harvard. not a great night for the acc.
It should be a fun day in the office after Harvard beat BC. Potential for tons of bizarre trash talk.
Coming into tonight, Harvard had a Sagarin rating of 247. William & Mary's was 243.
not to mention the fact that w&m beat harvard.
Lots of stunned BC grads. I'm adding salt to the wound by mentioning that the Tribe beat Harvard by 13. The Harvard alums don't seem to be aware that they even have a basketball team.
toss in a dash of jagodzinski for added effect.
Jags was bad but this loss is visibly painful. Half the people I work with went to BC or Harvard. A few went to both schools. Harvard obviously has the better academic reputation, but the BC folks like to talk about their better social scene, which includes good-looking students and legit sports. All Harvard had to counter that was Natalie Portman, until this win. There was a good deal of smug satisfaction after BC beat UNC, and it had done a total 180. What makes it so great is that the Harvard folks don't seem to know it happened, let alone care that it did.
Wasn't Harvard just getting a bunch of shit from the IVY league for possible academic standard bending for these new recruits?? It adds up, because I heard Van Gundy last night during the Duke game (who was fantastic by the way) talking about how astounded he was at the talent level of those Harvard players at a practice he saw...and then there's the Amaker thing. Something smells in Beantown. And it ain't just Tom Brady's finger.
rob, Smoltz is headed to your shitty baseball team.
along w/ rocco- at least we'll lead the league in players on the DL...
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