Deacs lose 8th straight, Wake F Devin Thomas blames 'selfishness'
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — “Is this what the bottom looks like?” I asked Wake Forest coach Danny Manning Tuesday after the Deacs lost big at home to Clemson, their seventh loss in a row.
Clearly it wasn’t, as the Deacs extended their skid to eight, giving up 55 2nd-half points to Florida State in a 91-71 home loss Saturday afternoon.
***Florida State seemed so turn a close game into a rout by finishing the 1st half with an 8-0 run and starting the 2nd half with six-more straight. You’d think that could possibly cripple the already fragile Deacs psyche, but they actually battled back with a 15-5 run of their own to tie the game at 48 with 13:50 left in the game.
***Wake sophomore forward Cornelius Hudson had quite possibly his best game of the season, but it wasn’t just his scoring — he tied a career-high with 17 points. He drove the ball to the basket and created contact, instead of shifting and swerving to avoid it, which allowed him to get to the line seven times. He also grabbed five defensive rebounds, often skying over the Seminoles with his superior size and athleticism. He still probably settled for too many 3-point attempts, going 2-for-6. He took 11 total shots, and in a perfect world the staff would rather a much smaller percentage of his looks be behind the arc.
***Senior guard Codi Miller-McIntyre had a solid game, which may bode well for the stretch run. He scored 12 points and dished out seven assists against just one turnover.
***Florida State became the eighth team to score more than 48 points in a half against the Deacs. (Richmond, Coastal Carolina, Xavier, NC State, Virginia Tech, Virginia and Clemson)
***Here’s some of the post-game interview with Wake forward Devin Thomas, which was pretty enlightening.
On the team struggling to start the second half
Thomas: “I think our main struggle is selfishness. We were unselfish when we started the season off 8-2. We bought into the system. Now for some reason, we’re playing selfish and we don’t play defense, even more than we didn’t play defense before. Now we’re just coming down and taking quick shots, instead of running the offense. Everyone’s not rebounding the ball on the defensive end. Then, when we take quick shots they get fast break points. It becomes hard to stop the ball. That why they pulled away in the end.”
As a senior leader on this team, what do you say to your team in regards to what you just told us
Thomas: “I only have so much power. If guys want to buy in, they’ll buy in. It’s not my job. My job is to do the the strategy I’m told, each and every game. Hopefully in the future when I’m done with basketball, I can have a job like that where I can be a coach. It’s what I’d like to do after my basketball career, but I don’t want to do that anytime soon.”
On if he can name anybody in particular in terms of being selfish
Thomas: “Just in general.”
On if it is just one or two guys
Thomas: “I think it’s all of us. It’s both ends, everybody. We’re all just worried about ourselves. Now we’re at the point where we were playing well, starting off 8-2. Coach only had to coach Xs and Os. Now he has to coach effort and energy. You can’t coach that, really. I probably would have quit if I had to coach effort and energy everyday. I don’t know how you’re supposed to coach that. Do you know how to coach that? (asks one of the reporters). Do you know how to coach that? (asks another) I don’t think any coach in the world wants to coach effort and energy, but that’s where we’re at right now.”
On if the problems gets worse as the losses continue
Thomas: “I mean, if we play with effort and energy I don’t think we’ll have any problems. That’s a complicated question to answer, because it’s the same things happening every game. It just keeps continuing.”
On the season not playing out the way he envisioned after the start
Thomas: “You’d think we’d be playing better when we have all of our guys back, but look what we’re doing. We’ve gone from 8-2 to 10-13, so I’m just going to stop myself there. You guys can make a story out of that.”