WINSTON-SALEM -- There were seven minutes left in the game Saturday, and Wake Forest's dancing fool was on the floor exhorting the fans to jump up and down. They wanted no part of it.
That suggested two things going on with the Deacs right now. One, the dancing fool act is getting old and two, another season in Winston-Salem is beginning to run aground.
Wake Forest lost to North Carolina somehow, the third straight loss for a team that looked poised for a postseason run only a couple of weeks ago. The 77-68 defeat at home brought all sorts of demons into play, not the least of which is the specter of seasons past.
Is it all coming apart again? What in the world is going on with this program?
Dino Gaudio was asked about the future of his team in the gnawing moments after the worst loss of the year. He said he didn't want to dwell on anything in the future.
"We gotta worry about us," he said.
His players were asked about the past, particularly the last two seasons that have come apart alarmingly at the very end. Senior guard L.D. Williams said he didn't want to look back.
"The past is the past," he said. "Old newspapers are today's trash."
Wake Forest was down 10 points when the rotund tie-dyed fan came onto the floor. He normally runs on with Wake ahead and the crowd in a fever pitch. That was not the case Saturday. The fans never quite got into a fever pitch, even as the motorcycle blasted fumes into the visitors' huddle, even as the Deacs jumped to an early lead. There was something in the air. There always is with the Heels in town.
Gaudio sensed it, too.
"The crowd couldn't get in the game," he said. "They were trying. It was a great crowd. The students were terrific. We just let them down."
He said it came down to fundamentals, and that's certainly part of it. Wake missed 52 shots, didn't do the simple things like screen and make good passes and play good defense. Those are things that shouldn't be happening this late in a season.
The most troubling fact is it seems to be a trend with this program. A common refrain among coaches is that only one school ends the year with a win. Wake hasn't just ended the last eight seasons with a loss, going back to the 2000 NIT championship, the Deacs have ended seasons with nightmarish losses and cracked psyches.
It might have started with the Butler fiasco that cost Dave Odom his job, but it has carried over to the shocking losses to West Virginia and Auburn and St. Joseph's and Virginia Tech, the Chris Paul incident in 2005, the martyred team of 2008 after the death of Skip Prosser and then last year's mind-blowing losses to Maryland and Cleveland State at the end of an otherwise great year.
Another wrecked season would bring a lot of things into question, not the least of which is Gaudio's coaching. That's the nature of the business, and he knows it. But with all sorts of things swirling around this team right now, he's tried to keep emotions out of it. At halftime Saturday, he pulled up a chair inside his team's locker room and tried to get his team to calm down and take care of the little things.
The big things are looming now.
Wake might have played its way out of a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament. NCAA seedings are coming into focus, and the Deacs are once again headed in the wrong direction.
"We're not looking ahead," sophomore forward Al-Farouq Aminu said.
"We're not looking back," Williams said.
Right now, the Deacs are looking right down the barrel of another season-ending disaster, another year in which a good team cracks at the end and everyone wonders why.
The feeling Saturday was that it was all happening again.
And the sense among all who were there was that it was getting old.
Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin @news-record.com
NORTH CAROLINA (15-14, 4-10)
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Thompson 22 2-7 2-2 2-5 2 2 6
Henson 21 4-6 1-3 5-12 1 1 9
Ginyard 33 3-8 2-2 3-13 3 1 8
Drew II 33 2-6 4-12 1-2 8 0 10
Graves 23 3-8 5-6 2-4 0 3 13
Strickland 19 0-5 3-4 0-1 1 2 3
McDonald 23 6-14 2-4 2-4 1 1 16
TWear 12 2-4 0-0 1-1 0 3 4
Zeller 14 4-7 0-0 1-4 0 4 8
Totals 200 26-65 19-33 19-52 16 17 77
Percentages: FG .400, FT .576. 3-Point Goals: 6-16, .375 (Graves 2-4, Drew II 2-4, McDonald 2-5, Strickland 0-3). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked Shots: 9 (Henson 5, Zeller 2, Graves, Drew II). Turnovers: 12 (Drew II 3, T.Wear 2, Henson, Strickland, Thompson, Graves, Zeller). Steals: 3 (Ginyard, Strickland, Drew II). Technical Fouls: None.
WAKE FOREST (18-8, 8-6)
FG FT Reb
Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts
Aminu 32 2-7 2-4 2-10 1 5 7
Woods 11 3-4 2-2 3-4 0 1 8
Smith 39 5-21 1-2 2-4 7 3 12
Harris 14 0-3 0-0 1-1 1 1 0
Williams 28 3-13 7-10 2-9 2 5 14
Clark 22 2-7 0-0 1-3 0 5 6
McFarland 17 0-1 2-4 3-6 0 3 2
Stewart 20 6-16 0-0 2-7 1 2 16
Weaver 17 1-2 1-2 2-2 0 3 3
Totals 200 22-74 15-24 21-50 12 28 68
Percentages: FG .297, FT .625. 3-Point Goals: 9-25, .360 (Stewart 4-8, Clark 2-5, Williams 1-2, Aminu 1-3, Smith 1-4, Weaver 0-1, Harris 0-2). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 4 (McFarland 4). Turnovers: 11 (Aminu 3, McFarland 2, Stewart, Woods, Harris, Williams, Smith, Clark). Steals: 7 (Smith 3, Aminu 2, Clark 2). Technical Fouls: None.
North Carolina 32 45 -- 77
Wake Forest 28 40 -- 68
A--14,510. Officials--Roger Ayers, Raymond Styons, Jamie Luckie.
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