Adopt-a-Team

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.