Want cheap tickets to see Wake Forest play Baylor on the 28th? As long as you can bring yourself to type "beatwake" into a website and have seats that aren't in the Wake section, it will only cost you 20 bucks.

We knew Grobe would not be hugely impressed by what he saw offensively from Saturday's scrimmage, but I was slightly surprised to see him mention Riley Skinner specifically.

Some basketball coverage from ESPN yesterday, including a variety of positive Wake Forest mentions.

Look for practice coverage this evening, although depending upon some timing issues it may go up pretty late - I've got a lot going on this afternoon/evening. My apologies if it gets put on a back burner for awhile.

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Yesterday was a sad day for the Wake Forest family, as assistant basketball coach Jeff Battle's wife, Joyce Battle, passed away after battling lung cancer for some time. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the team as they go through this hard time.

I apologize for not having a report from last night's practice. It ended up being a late day for me and the report just didn't quite come together. I don't plan on having that happen too often, and there should be a report once again tonight. Hopefully this report from the official site will get the job done for last night.

A little over a week ago I linked to a photo gallery with some great pictures of the exterior of Deacon Tower. For an excellent idea of what's going on inside the tower, check out this gallery. Pretty exciting stuff, I can't wait to see it all in person.

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I'm guessing most of you heard about Tony Chenault's commitment earlier in the week, but I hadn't had the chance to really write about it and decided this would be a great time to do so.

Philadelphia native Chenault is a great pick up for the 2010 recruiting class. Point Guard was definitely a position the coaching staff was looking to fill for 2010, and Chenault was one of the best available. It's great to see that the coaching staff has the ability to go up to a place like Philadelphia and grab one the best players there.

I've only ever seen Chenault in short highlight clips, but everyone who has seen him play has glowing things to say. I get the impression that he's the type of PG who likes to attack the basket and is very powerful; he may not be quite as quick as Ishmael Smith or Jeff Teague, but his ability to get to the basket is impressive.

Since Smith will have graduated and the possibility exists for Teague to leave early as well, a 2010 point guard was very important, and I believe the Deacs got a good one. He and J.T. Terrell are the start of a great class. Interestingly enough, the 2010 class is now well ahead of the 2009 class, but that isn't necessarily something to be concerned about.

Congrats to Tony on making a good decision. See you in Winston-Salem.

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Just some quick links this morning. It went up very late last night, so if you missed it here is the practice report from yesterday.

Al-Farouq Aminu will plead guilty to BB gun charges and will face three years probation. It should not affect his basketball career.

Here's a random Wake football preview from Olympia, WA. Go figure.

HD ranks Jim Grobe the #1 coach in the conference. The rest of the list makes me scratch my head a bit, though.

Grobe says he's found a snapper - Greg Bechtel. Good news.

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This morning basketball takes the spotlight, as yesterday Philadelphia point guard Tony Chenault verbally committed to play basketball for the Demon Deacons, joining the class of 2010. Chenault is currently a three star prospect according to Scout.com. I'll publish my own take on this commitment in the next day or two, but here are some other stories until then.

Speaking of basketball, the pairings for the Anaheim Classic have been announced, and Wake Forest will face Cal State Fullerton in the first round, Thursday, November 27, on ESPN2. UTEP and St. Mary's are the other teams in Wake's bracket, and Wake would face the winner/loser of their game Friday on ESPNU. The final games are set for Sunday the 30th, with the championship being played on ESPN2. This doesn't exactly set Wake up for the matchups they would have most wanted from a strength of schedule perspective, but it does set them up well to have a good shot at winning the tournament.

Of course we can't totally ignore football, so here is Dan Collins' usual football notebook, as well as this feature on Josh Adams.

I'm traveling today, so if I'm slow to answer emails or anything like that I apologize. I expect to still have a full practice report up tonight.

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Wake's 2008 basketball recruiting class has received plenty of praise. ESPN's Andy Katz continues that trend with this article about the trio Al-Farouq Aminu, Ty Walker, and Tony Woods.

He definitely has high praise for them and their decision to keep their commitments to Wake after Skip Prosser's passing, but more than that I love to see how complimentary the guys are of each other.

It's going to be a good year for Wake Forest basketball.

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I'm guessing this will be the last post to talk about Skip Prosser for awhile, but this video from MyFox WGHP from the Quad at midnight is a must see for any Wake fan. It's great to see what went on, plus it's a well edited piece. The bells at the end had me tearing up. Over at ESPN.com Andy Katz talks about Skip, Dino Gaudio, and the program as a whole one year later.

Speaking of ESPN, ACC bowl projections from Heather Dinnich - Wake to the Gator Bowl, which sounds about right if there's no ACC Championship game for the Deacs. Hopefully there is...

ACC coaches rankings with Grobe at the top, although I'm not sure I'm in too much agreement with the list as a whole.

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That was the scene last night on the Quad, as Wake Forest fans showed up to roll in memory of Skip. I applaud all of you who were able to make it out, and I hope to see the tradition continue in the future. I'll try to get a daylight picture up when there's a good one available later today.

Those who have been looking for them have probably already found most of these, but I thought it would be good to point out some of the better ones.

I was proud of the Winston-Salem Journal for their excellent coverage the last couple days. Thanks for making sure Skip's legacy is recognized.

There were other good pieces out there, and some good responses from fans and fellow bloggers.

All in all, I think the sports community did an admirable job respectfully remembering coach, and I think Wake Forest fans can be satisfied.

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It's hard to believe 364 days have come and gone since the passing of Skip Prosser. Tomorrow, July 26, will mark the one year anniversary of that unfortunate day, and Wake Forest fans will never forget the impact he had on the university.

One of the most amazing things about Skip was that his presence was not felt only at Wake Forest. He had a positive effect on every campus, every coach, every player, every media member, and every person who spent considerable time with him.

Though time may have dulled the pain for many of us, an anniversary like this is never easy. Many tough memories return, and many happy ones seem to hurt, too.

My path didn't cross Skip's for very long. I only spent one season paying close attention to him: my freshman year, his 2006-2007 season. Though it wasn't Skip's most successful season on the court, that brief glimpse provided all I needed to see the strength of his character.

Because I had spent such little time around him, I did not anticipate the effect his passing would have on me. I hadn't been around Skip long enough for him to have a huge personal effect on me, but seeing the impact he had in the lives of those who had been around him longer, I couldn't help but feel the pain of losing a great man.

Just yesterday, when listening to senior guard Harvey Hale and current head coach Dino Gaudio talk about Skip and the anniversary, I was reminded of the tremendous impact Skip had had on the lives of everyone around him. Not only did Harvey share how much Skip had meant to him on the basketball court, but he also expressed how much Skip had contributed to the development of his character. Coach Gaudio expressed similar sentiments, and talked about how difficult parts of this summer have been as he has traveled the country recruiting in all the same places Skip used to recruit.

There is no doubt about it; Skip was a great man who passed long before anyone on this earth would have liked. His presence is still felt in the Wake Forest basketball program and in the Wake Forest community as a whole. The Demon Deacons he touched will never forget him.

Although I will be unable to attend, I encourage all who are able to head to campus tomorrow night at midnight to throw a roll for Skip. I would love to see this become a yearly tradition, as it is exactly the type of memorial I believe Skip would enjoy.

Furthermore, in honor of Skip, Old Gold & Blog will be silent tomorrow, save for a single image. Feel free to leave your thoughts, memories, or anything else Skip-related in the comments section of this post today or that post tomorrow.

Coach Prosser, you are missed.

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Per an official release from the athletic department this evening, Wake will take on the Indiana Hoosiers at home in the 2008 ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

The game is scheduled for Wednesday, December 3, 2008, with tipoff time still to be determined.

Last season Wake traveled to Iowa and defeated the Hawkeyes in the Deacs only appearance of the season on the ESPN networks.

Although the Hoosier basketball program is still reeling from last year's debacle with Kelvin Sampson, I think this is still an exciting match-up for Wake. Indiana has a great basketball tradition, and to bring them to Winston for a nationally televised game sounds pretty good to me. Hopefully it will serve as a coming out party for AT&T and the rest of the 2008-2009 team.

There are four other games being played that night, including:
North Carolina vs. Michigan State (Ford Field, Detroit, Mich.)
Michigan at Maryland
Florida State at Northwestern
Penn State at Georgia Tech

UNC vs. Michigan State is obviously still the biggest of the five games, but I think Wake/Indiana should be the second. This would lead me to believe that the game will either be a 7:30ish tip on ESPN2, or if they decide to show a doubleheader on ESPN it could fall on either side of the UNC game.

Either way, I'm quite satisfied with this outcome for the challenge and am looking forward to a great early season game in the Joel.

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About a week ago I was contacted about a very cool event being put on by a group of Wake Forest students who wanted to do something to honor Coach Skip Prosser. I thought it was a great idea and a great cause, so I decided to let all of you know about it.

The Classic is a basketball tournament being held a week from tomorrow (April 19) at noon on the Collins basketball courts, an all proceeds from the event will go the American Heart Association in memory of Skip Prosser.

The 12:00 tipoff of the event is one hour before the beginning of the spring football game, so I highly encourage all of you who are coming to the game to come one hour earlier and stop by the basketball courts. The basketball team and Coach Dino Gaudio will be there for the tip, and I believe Dino will say a few words. It should be a beautiful day and a great event.

One final thing: I need to check on the possibility of doing this (it may be student-only sign ups) but if there are people interested in playing in the tournament send me an email and let me know. I'd be happy to have the blog sponsor a team or two to play.

Details:
When: Saturday, April 19th at noon (Rain Date is Sunday, April 20th at 1pm)
Where: Collins Basketball Courts
Who: ANYONE AND EVERYONE
Cost: $15 per team
Sign-ups: Outside the pit starting Thursday, April 10th until Wednesday, April 16th, or in the Intramural Office in Reynolds Gym.

Come out and support this great event, and let me know if you want to play!

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There was some new news out of Atlanta yesterday concerning the future of incoming Demon Deacon Al-Farouq Aminu. This article [AJC] reports that the next step for Aminu is to have evidence presented for indictment "which could come at any time," and that it will be another 6 to 12 months before a court date is set.

Based on all that this could be a pretty long and drawn out process. If the process really does take that long then it's very hard to say how this will affect Aminu's plans here at Wake Forest. As long as he has not been convicted of anything they may very well still let him come and just play things by ear. It's possible, I suppose, that next year's entire basketball season will be over before he even has a trial. I'm very intrigued to see how this works itself out.

Also, I have heard rumors that Aminu was neither the shooter nor the driver. If true, that has to bode well for his future.

In even better news, Aminu has been named to the USA Basketball Junior National Select Team, according to this report [Times News]. It's an honor for him to be named to this team, but I what I think is even better about this is that it shows the basketball community isn't ostracizing him because of the incident. Hopefully that's an indication of how Wake may handle this, too.

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Information regarding Al-Farouq Aminu's arrest has been trickling out throughout the weekend. After the initial story broke, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published more information regarding the nature of the situation, including comments from the Women's husband.

His quotes even included this zinger: "I'll tell you, his shooting at my house was much better than his shooting at the McDonald's game." Nice. That AJC article can be read here.

USA Today has now published an article with comments from people close to Aminu. According to his AAU coach Aminu was not the shooter.

One would assume that not being the shooter, if true, would be a very good thing for Aminu in this situation. Hopefully he wasn't the driver, either.

That's about it for now. I'm cautiously optimistic that this won't end up being too huge an issue in the long run, but Aminu certainly isn't out of the woods yet. We'll continue to hope for the best.

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Headline? Check.

Criminal Charges? Check.

Mugshot? See picture to the right.

What does it add up to? Certainly nothing good for high school standout, McDonald's All-American and Wake Forest basketball recruit Al-Farouq Aminu.

Aminu turned himself in to the Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department Friday evening and appears to have since been released on bail. He has been charged with felony aggravated assault and misdemeanor trespassing stemming from a March 14 incident in which Aminu allegedly shot a female with a BB gun from a car.

Georgia law states that "The exclusive, original jurisdiction of juvenile courts extends to delinquent children under the age of 17 and deprived or unruly children under the age of 18," indicating that Aminu will be treated as an adult in this situation (http://www.georgiacourts.org/juvenile.html).

The aggravated assault charge appears to be automatic in situations where someone fires a gun from a vehicle towards another person (http://www.georgiacriminaldefense.com/georgia-violent-crimes.html):

Aggravated Assault – O.C.G.A. 16-5-21

Aggravated assault occurs when an assault is committed one of three ways: 1) with intent to murder, rape or rob; 2) with a deadly weapon (includes any instrument which, when used against a person is likely to or actually does result in serious bodily injury) or 3) by discharge of a firearm from within a motor vehicle toward a person or people.

Punishment - Felony: 1 to 20 years in prison unless:

Furthermore:

If the aggravated assault involves discharge of a firearm from within a motor vehicle toward a person or people, the punishment shall be 5 to 20 years in prison

At this point no explanation has been provided for the trespassing charge, so we'll leave that alone for now.

Obviously I am no legal expert, but in my mind firing some kind of BB gun is quite different than firing just about any other kind of gun. Obviously it is a very very very dumb thing to do, but that doesn't seem nearly as serious as firing a much deadlier weapon. Still, the law may see it differently and that's what will ultimately matter.

Once again, Aminu has not been convicted of any crime. I certainly hope that he is cleared of all these charges, and that at a minimum he loses the felony charge. This will have plenty of time to play out in court. In the end we may be freaking out about something that won't be a huge deal; that would certainly be the hope.

This does have interesting implications with his status at Wake Forest. Something like this could certainly have an affect on his ability to be admitted to the school or receive his scholarship. I haven't seen an issue like this before so who knows where it will go, but I think Aminu's scholarship to Wake will be in serious jeopardy if he's convicted of a felony. If it drops to a misdemeanor or is dropped entirely then there may be a minimal affect on his Wake career, perhaps only a brief suspension from the athletic department if anything.

This will have plenty of time to play out and I'll be doing my best to stay on top of the issues as they unfold. I don't know how the athletic department will handle this situation and it will not surprise me if A.D. Ron Wellman and head coach Dino Gaudio decline to comment on the issue right now. Nonetheless, I'll do some digging and see what I can come up with.

Crap.

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Drew Markham, a prominent member of Wake's online community, has archived video of an impressively large amount of Wake Forest sporting events. Although the majority of his collection is from the 1980's, 90's, and 2000's, he recently obtained some 1960's basketball footage and posted screenshots of some of the action. The screenshots themselves are pretty impressive, and it makes me really want to check out the full video.

Here's some of the stuff he posted:

I have no idea what the ref is up to in this picture, but the thing I thought was cool about it was the old "WFC" logo at center court. Definitely hard to imagine something other than "WFU" for Wake people my age, but it's neat to see every once in awhile. I like the way they connected the three letters up at the top. This picture was from Duke/Wake game in the 1960's.

Two things stand out to me about this image from a Wake/NC State game in Raleigh. In keeping with the theme of the first picture, the first thing I notice is NC State's mid court logo. I've seen a lot of basketball and a lot of basketball courts, but I've never seen a mid court logo that face the baseline instead of the sideline. Anyone know how long NC State had their logo like that? Or why?

The other thing I notice about this picture is that Wake appears to be ahead of its time when it comes to their uniforms. You know those much maligned Wizards alternates with the gold top and black shorts? Unlike many people I happen to like those Wizards uniforms, but regardless it appears they may have drawn their inspiration from the 1960's Deacs. Awesome.


This last picture is said to be from a Wake home game against Duke on February 3, 1960. I am immediately struck by the "H" and "V" painted on the floor on either side of the lane. I have never seen these before, and if I had to guess they indicate that one side of the lane is for one team and one for the other. If this is correct, this rule has entirely changed in today's game. It seems like a set up like that would create an interesting strategy for missing freethrows. Anyone ever seen this anywhere else? Was that really the rule? When did it change? If you have answers to these questions I'd love for you to share.

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And there's absolutely nothing going on in Wake athletics.

Okay, I lied. The tennis team is playing in Chapel Hill. I really should try to get out and watch them at some point.

The baseball team was supposed to play Elon, but that's been postponed, I guess due to weather. We probably don't want to talk baseball anyway seeing as how they lost to App State 22-6 yesterday. Yeesh.

For you soccer fans, the spring schedule gets underway tomorrow out at Spry Stadium against Duke at 7:00. I was actually really hoping to be at that one, but I've got a club baseball game at NC State and won't be able to make it. If, however, any of you are going to be there and would like to write a quick recap I'd be happy to put it up. Just leave a comment or email me.

So that's about it for now. I need to do some sort of Basketball season recap, and I may actually turn that into a series of posts that grade players and such. Spring football starts next week so I think things will pick up a little bit then. If I'm feeling motivated I may write some about the tournament, but I'm going to be out of town for Easter Weekend so I may not post too much.

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All along I never wavered about Wake making the NIT. It seemed like a no-brainer. Obviously the struggles down the stretch cost us the chance to have a home game or two, but only a month ago we were taking NCAA Tournament. Now we’re stuck without an NIT bid (and apparently turned down the chance to play in the new CBI).

I don’t know exactly what happened. NITology.com, the only site I know of that projects these things, always had us in their bracket. We were on their bubble-but-probably-in list for the last week or two, but they never seemed to think we wouldn’t get in. They got 30 out of 32 NIT teams correct. We were one of their two misses.

So now we know the importance of playing well down the stretch. Wake collapsed and completely destroyed their chances not only for the NCAA’s but for any post season basketball at all. I am surprised and somewhat disappointed to be “snubbed” by the NIT. Heck, they put Cal in who was 16-15 and 6-12 in conference. It would have been fun to see these guys get at least one more game in a tournament setting. They have been fun to watch all season long and I would have loved to have the opportunity to cheer them on one more time.

I’m intrigued by what may or may not have happened with the CBI. The CBI (College Basketball Invitational) is a brand new 16 team post season invitational that is unique because of its 3-game championship series. They were hoping to compete with the NIT for teams, but it appears that everyone chose to stick with the well-known NIT rather than gamble on an upstart.

In Wake’s case there wasn’t even an option. Without an NIT invitation the CBI was the only thing left. Based on the field the CBI has I have to imagine Wake was invited to play, but turned down the invitation. AD Ron Wellman said a few days ago that he’d much rather play in the NIT, but did not completely rule out the CBI. I guess he did yesterday.

The buzz is that some teams didn’t want to play because the schools hosting games are required to pay $50,000 to do so. I understand how that could be tough for some schools, but Wake could sell $10 tickets (like UVA is) and only 5,000 people would have to show up to cover that cost. Obviously the actual cost would be a bit more than that, but I think a bit more than 5,000 people would show up.

Dan Collins’ article in today’s Winston-Salem Journal includes quotes from Dino about how all the kids have been coming over to the Miller Center wanting to work out and play. He hints that they would have liked the opportunity to keep playing. It makes me wonder why the school wouldn’t give them that opportunity in the CBI.

In the end it won’t be that big of a deal. It appears the CBI is going to struggle and may not last past this year. I’m not saying we should have played because it would provide prestige, but I think we should have taken the opportunity to keep practicing and get a few more games of experience.

What’s done is done. Thankfully spring football is starting soon.

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If we can briefly take a look at the ACC tournament from a non-Wake (really non-anything) perspective, I think we’d have to agree that it was really a pretty good tournament.

Obviously Thursday wasn’t the most exciting day ever, but it probably never will be. There were a few good matchups Friday, but obviously we hadn’t reached the main event yet. Saturday/Sunday was about as awesome as it could have been. Both Saturday matchups provided plenty of excitement, and for the majority of the country it’s always fun to see Duke lose.

Yesterday’s championship was a great game as well. Sure, it would have been nice to Clemson pull it off the upset, but it was still a great exciting game and that was all I really wanted from it.

Other than the leaky roof on Saturday things seemed to go without a hitch all weekend and, at least from what I saw on TV, having the tournament in Charlotte was a success. I understand wanting to have it in Greensboro to fit a few thousand more fans, but generally Charlotte seemed like a pretty good location.

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The ACC Tournament started today at Noon. By about 2:05 Wake Forest was no longer an active participant. In a disappointing 70-60 loss to Florida State, a team Wake has beaten twice in the regular season, Wake was eliminated from the tournament.

It was definitely a frustrating afternoon. Wake never looked awful but also never looked good. There were flashes of brilliance from some players and disappearing acts from others. Sometimes the offense looked like it could beat anyone in the conference, other times it didn’t seem to exist at all. The same pretty much goes for the defense.

The season isn’t exactly over. All expectations are that Wake will make the NIT, and maybe even get to enjoy a home game or two (although I think the home part is in jeopardy now). Even though Wake would have had to win this tournament to make the NCAA Tournament, it would have been nice to at least have the honor of losing to UNC in the 2^nd round.

Florida State actually played a reasonably good game. Jason Rich was almost unstoppable. They shot relatively well and also played good defense. None of that made them untouchable today, though. Wake had opportunities and didn’t capitalize. The explosiveness and fire just wasn’t there.

All season it was clear the talent level on our team wasn’t at the top of the ACC, and by most accounts they still overachieved. Still, there were flashes that showed Wake was capable of more, and it’s hard to see them not reach that potential.

The NIT could still be fun, but it won’t have the passion the NCAA’s could have had. Most Wake fans will probably start looking forward to what next season could hold. It’s hard to blame them. I doubt there’s a Wake fan around that doesn’t expect to buy NCAA Tournament tickets next season, and quite possibly even Final Four tickets. That’s just the way preseason (or in this case postseason) hype works.

Nonetheless, I still hope people stick around and support the team in the NIT. They deserve it.

So that’s that. Wake has now lost 5 of 6. A promising ACC start turned in to this. Sometimes that’s just how the cards fall with a young team in the ACC. We’ll be back.

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