The Problem With Prosser

Originally, I was going to answer PTI’s questions on this frigid, winter day, but after a remarkably subpar effort from the show’s writers (ie, “Toss Up! Which kicker would you fire: Doug Brien or Mike Vanderjagt?”), a miserable sub-bogey performance by Wake Forest and the fact that my new prescription pain-killing patch is making me feel like Keith Richards circa 1971 and, thus, makes writing any coherent sentence extremely laborious, here are some quick-hit Deac thoughts for your time-killing pleasure:

- Wake Forest’s loss last night at Florida State can be blamed on one person: Skip Prosser.
After a huge win against North Carolina on Saturday, it was to be expected that the Demon Deacons would start a little flat playing in the half-empty Tucker Center against an FSU team that was barely above .500 and had lost to Florida International, TCU and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, among others.
But for Wake to come out of the gates without exerting any defensive effort and unable to get anything going offensively, while looking totally uninspired is another thing.
Yeah, FSU was a trap game. But the way Wake played for the first 15 minutes, it was like they thought that their #3 ranking and win over UNC would be enough to beat Florida State.
That’s all on Prosser. He has to get his team ready. I’m not saying Wake had to win the game - after all, FSU has suddenly become a difficult place to play. But to quickly get down 19 to the Seminoles is pathetic.
Getting a team up for a game is tough. Maybe Prosser warned them about FSU, but they didn't listen. Either way, the coach didn't do his team any favors once the game began by refusing to switch up his defense after Von Wafer began tearing apart Justin Gray man-to-man.
Maybe Skip could have thrown Jamaal Levy out on the perimeter to get a hand in Wafer’s face every now and then, but instead, the FSU sophomore kept breaking free on screens and rained in 3’s like he was Reggie Miller at the Garden.
Everyone in the arena knew when Wafer was going to get the ball, except, it seemed, the Wake defenders and Skip.
Later on, Prosser brought in Chris Ellis and Trent Strickland at the same time, late in the game, which indicates to me that Skip either a) had money on FSU or b) met up with Ricky Williams before the game.
That the Deacs were out-hustled for every rebound and loose ball is the fault of the players, but shouldn’t the coaches get guys in the game who would put out some effort?
Eric Williams was one of those players getting out-hustled and out-played. The guards never got him the ball down-low and the 50 Cent look-a-like has one less rebound than 5’11 Todd Galloway. Maybe Williams was sick, or hurt. Either way, he should have been out of the game.
Like I said, I’m too loopy to write any coherent arguments here, so bear with me.

- Even after all the poor play, the Deacs had a chance to win if Taron Downey could hit a free throw at the end of regulation. The fact that Wake Forest had just broken an NCAA record by making 50 straight free throws as a team suggested that the game was as good as won.
Yet, I don’t know a single person who thought Downey was going to make that shot. I was on the phone with my old college roommate Falkow and we both said “there’s no way he makes this.” It didn’t even seem like we were jinxing him.

- The Wolfman texted me mid-way through the second half with this message: “Wake is getting some Duke calls.”
He was partly right, in theory. Wake had been the beneficiaries of a few favorable calls by the refs. But to compare them to Duke was pure blasphemy. Sure enough, no more than four minutes later, the officials turned the tables and Wake was getting hosed on some big calls.
I wrote the Wolfman back, “You spoke too soon, (expletive).”
Then, at the beginning of overtime, Von Wafer took about four steps with the ball in his hands after getting injured. Remarkably, the refs didn’t call the travel.
Now, injury or not, that’s a travel. Still, no call. If Wafer had done that against Duke, Ted Valentine would have not only called the travel, but would have given a Tech to Wafer for cursing as he pulled up lame.
After the no-call I wrote the Wolfman again: “I hate you.”
The response was swift. “I hate me too,” the hairy, ladies man replied.

- If the top-notch ACC coaches were The Traveling Wilburys, then Skip Prosser would be Jeff Lynne.

- A slumping shooter has to keep shooting, but, as Justin Gray showed yesterday, a slumping shooter shooting from five feet behind the arc will continue slumping.
- It doesn’t really need to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: Chris Paul is the truth. And maybe I’m trying to make the third time jinxing a charm, but after convincing myself that he’ll definitely go pro after this season, I’m starting to believe that Chris Paul might come back for his junior season.

- Besides Paul’s play, there was one nice thing to see yesterday: The FSU students storming the court after the win. It’s always nice to see the court stormed after your team gets beat. Granted, it’s a whole lot nicer to see the quiet shuffle to the exits after your team wins a road game, but when the court gets stormed after a loss, at least your team gets that respect.

- On a similar note, I was very proud of the Wake Forest students for not storming the court after the win against UNC. Expect to win. I love it.

- All in all, yesterday’s loss wasn’t too terrible for Wake. Just like after the Illinois loss, the team now has to come back down to earth and realize that they still need to take care of business on the court to justify the hype.
The team has a tough stretch coming up (at Cincy, at Georgia Tech, vs. Miami and vs. Duke). Three out of four wins would be great.

- Sorry for the spastic, incoherent writing in this post. Hopefully I'll become acclimated to this patch by tomorrow. Until then, I'm going to pop the third season of Curb into the DVD player, crack open a Pacific Cooler Capri-Sun and enjoy the ride.