School of Hawk

In the end, it wasn’t the brilliant play of Jameer Nelson that ended Wake Forest’s season. And it wasn’t a lackluster effort by super-freshman Chris Paul either. It wasn’t St. Joe’s 12 three-pointers or Jamaal Levy’s foul trouble. And it certainly had nothing to do with Billy Packer.
No, the reason that Wake Forest will be home watching the East Regional Final is because tonight they were outsmarted by a better basketball team.
From their failure to recognize St. Joe’s screens to leaving Pat Carroll wide open on the baseline to repeatedly fouling 90% free-throw shooter Delonte West late in the game, Wake didn't play smart basketball.
A 30-second stretch late in the second-half was indicative of the Deacs play the entire night. Coming off a TV timeout, St. Joe’s had the ball up five. Wake switched to a zone defense for the possession, which contrary to Billy Packer’s repeated criticism, was a good move because the defensive set was designed to confuse St. Joe’s, who had only seen man-to-man all night. St. Joe’s picked apart the zone, however, and got the ball to Pat Carroll who was wide open from beyond the arc. He bricked the shot. As the ball was in the air, Wake’s big men were crowding underneath the basket while their guards were streaking up-court in anticipation of a fast break. This left Carroll, who had followed his shot (a rarity in any basketball game these days), with an easy long rebound, and an uncontested three that went in.
Wake ran down the court in a hurry, seemingly trying to erase their eight-point deficit in one possession, turned the ball over after a sloppy pass, and St. Joe’s regained possession up eight. The Hawks got the ball to Tyrone Bartley, who at that point was 3-4 from three-point range. Bartley had the ball at the top of the key with Vytas Danelius defending tightly. Then, without warning, Danelius backed off, essentially begging Bartley to take the three, which he subsequently did, and drained it.
So, in a span of 36 seconds, Wake was outworked for a rebound they thought they were entitled to, was caught out of position defensively, turned the ball over after an ill-advised drive, and goaded a shooter into taking his shot. They went from down five with a golden opportunity to cut the lead to three to down 11 before they knew what happened.
Of course, Wake Forest fought back in the end, just enough to tease their fans, but they were beaten to another rebound by St. Joe’s after Jameer Nelson missed a layup.
Wake hasn’t played good defense all year. Some have even joked that the team should be called the “emon eacons” because they have no “D”. That was certainly the case tonight.
Bad defense or not, Jameer Nelson showed why he was named Player of the Year in the NCAA this year. His effortless jumpshot, quickness on the drive and delicate touch shots off the glass are things of beauty. And when his teammates shoot like they did tonight, St. Joe’s will be tough to beat.
Next year Wake Forest will bring back all of their important players. Expectations in Winston-Salem will be as high as they’ve been since Tim Duncan was in town and there is no reason that the Deacs shouldn’t be able to fulfill them. But beyond hitting more shots and playing better defense, Wake Forest needs to play smarter basketball if they expect to make a deep run into next years NCAA Tournament. And if the Deacs need an example of what that looks like, they need only look at the team that beat them tonight.

Some other thoughts on Thursday night’s action:

- That Billy Packer-Phil Martelli beef was the most over hyped conflict since the one between Hillary Duff and that other hot chick from that other Disney movie. Seriously, if somebody had listened to CBS’s broadcast without knowing the back-story, they would have assumed Packer and Martelli were going to spend the off-season together looking for houses on the Cape. I guess it was probably hard to keep up with whole “St. Joe’s doesn’t deserve a #1 seed” rant while they were playing a nearly-flawless game, but mid-way through the game Packer was praising the Hawks so much he sounded like a cross between Dick Vitale calling a Duke game and Paula Abdul on American Idol.

- One last thing about the Wake-St. Joe’s game. I like Jameer Nelson. I really do. It’s not often I say that after an opposing player torches my favorite team in an elimination game, but it’s hard not to like him. But the announcers and everybody else need to get one thing straight.
As was mentioned twice during the game last night, Jameer Nelson returned to St. Joe’s last summer after declaring for the NBA Draft. When Dick Vitale or Billy Packer tells the story, they make it seem like Nelson returned to Philly because his desire to win at St. Joe’s trumped anything that the NBA could offer. Nelson came back to college for the love of the game, they say. It’s a lovely and inspiring story, but it’s also a total load of crap.
Jameer Nelson only decided to return to St. Joe’s when he was told that he wasn’t going to be a 1st round draft choice in the NBA Draft. And since 2nd round picks don’t receive guaranteed contracts, Nelson went back to school to try to move up to the 1st round.
There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. Nelson made the right move. But I can’t stand commentators trying to make him into a college basketball martyr when the only reason he returned was to make more money in the long run.

- I’m feeling more and more confident in my pick of Oklahoma State over Connecticut in the Finals. Both teams looked fantastic tonight. Uconn should have no trouble with Alabama on Saturday and St. Joe’s should find that OSU’s defense won’t be nearly as porous as Wake’s.

- Here are my predictions for today’s games. No BS, just the picks. I’m much too tired and upset to even think about writing the name J.J. Redick.

#1 Duke over #5 Illinois
#3 Texas over #7 Xavier
#4 Kansas over #9 UAB
#10 Nevada over #3 Georgia Tech

Last night’s picks: 3-1