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GREENSBORO — Eight months after closing last season with an exclamation point, the Wake Forest men’s basketball team opens this one with a question mark.
A 6-foot-9, 270-pound question mark.
The 2000 NIT champion begins the season minus leading rebounder Rafael Vidaurreta (6.9 per game), who is sidelined with fractured cartilage in his right knee. He’s to be re-examined this week and could return to the Demon Deacons’ lineup some time in December, though longtime coach Dave Odom is certain of nothing.
“There’s no argument we’re not as good a team without him,” says Odom, author of 259 career wins. “You don’t appreciate him until he’s not around. But right now, we don’t know how he’ll respond to treatment. And we don’t know when he’ll be able to play.”
Without Vidaurreta, a three-year starter and prominent space-filler, Wake will tread water until its ACC opener Jan. 2 against Virginia. “That’s all we can do,” says senior guard Robert O’Kelley, one of four additional returning starters. “This is still a pretty good team.”
It’s a team that went 22-14 overall and made its 10th straight postseason appearance a year ago, placing fifth in the conference (7-9) and capturing its last five games — the only ACC school to finish on a winning streak. The climax was a 71-61 victory over Notre Dame in the NIT final.
“The confidence we gained by going to New York and winning the championship is going to be great for us,” says O’Kelley. “We’re an improved team with high expectations. Good things are waiting for us.”
O’Kelley will carry the torch for the Deacs, while forwards Darius Songaila and Josh Howard will lug the kerosene. One of 50 national candidates for the John Wooden Award, O’Kelley begins the season with 1,508 career points, good for 14th on Wake’s career scoring chart.
“He’s already a great player,” says Odom. “Look at what he’s done. Not many coaches have a player like that. What we have asked him to do is improve his total game — not just be a shooter, a scorer.”
O’Kelley averaged 13 points-per-game last year, but that included a miserable, three-week slump in late January when Wake dropped six of seven games and lost most of the shine from an 8-1 start.
But O’Kelley’s finishing kick included a 19-point effort against the Fighting Irish, helping him earn the tournament’s MVP award. “All’s well that ends well,” he smiles. “Last year was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
Songaila, one of Wake’s three foreign-born players and its brightest rising star, is looking for an upgrade. He had a team-best 13.7 ppg average last winter and was considered one of the country’s top sophomores.
“I enjoyed last year,” he says, his words embroidered with European flavor. “But you know what? This team can do more. This team can make big, big news.”
Songaila (6-9, 245) accomplished that in a personal way last month when he competed for his native Lithuania in the summer Olympics. He played in eight international games, scored 28 points in two near-upsets of the U.S. Dream Team and returned to Winston-Salem with a bronze medal.
“I have it in a very safe place,” he says. “Not on campus. Too many people know I have it.”
They also know Songaila is a key to Wake’s season. An intense player, he needs to reduce his number of fouls after being disqualified seven times last year.
“Every time you play a game you can learn something,” he says. “Look what we learned last time. We thought we were an NCAA-calibre team, then went on and won the NIT. That proves we are ready for something big.”
How big depends in part on the effectiveness of a useful supporting cast. Sophomore Josh Howard (6-6, 191) made 34 starts as a freshman and was good for 9.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. Ervin Murray, a 6-5 junior guard, moved into the starting lineup on Feb. 15 and shot 51 percent from the floor. Wake won nine of the 12 games he started. Center Josh Shoemaker (6-9, 238), a career sub but one of three Deacon seniors, will be asked to do more while Vidaurreta rehabs.
Perhaps what makes Wake the ACC’s breakout team-in-waiting is its well-oiled group of reserves. There’s Antwan Scott (6-8, 197), the athletic forward with 55 career blocks. And guard Craig Dawson (6-5, 205), one of the nation’s best sixth-men last year. And of course, speed merchant Broderick Hicks, who spells O’Kelley when Wake goes with its up-tempo lineup. None of them will spend much time in the waiting room.
Newcomers include freshmen A.W. Hamilton — a savvy guard who averaged 18 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds as a high school senior — and 7-footer Dshamal Schoetz (pronounced Ja-mal Shetz), a German transfer who played two seasons at High Point Wesleyan Academy.
“Are we a great team? Not yet,” says Odom, injecting a word of caution. “We’re a very good team. We’re an exciting team. But the league is much tougher than it has been. The won-loss records are going to mirror those of last year, but the strength of the league is much greater.”
Where does all that leave the old gold & black? At least four preseason publications rank Wake among the nation’s top 25, including a gaudy No. 11 forecast by ESPN analyst Dick Vitale. Can a team that hasn’t danced since Tim Duncan’s senior year — a team whose future can’t arrive soon enough, a team with its foot on the gas pedal — shake off three seasons of luke-warm success and qualify for the NCAA tournament?
“I think so,” says Odom, who needs six ACC wins to reach 100. “We have the ability to be a top 20 team. Now we’ve got to play to that ability.”
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