All things considered, faithful Wake Forest basketball fans could probably forgive coach Dave Odom for his team's somewhat disappointing 1997-1998 campaign that ended in a second-round loss to Vanderbilt in the National Invitational Tournament.
After all, the team's 16-14 season was the beginning of the post-Tim Duncan era in Winston-Salem, and the Demon Deacons' goals were a bit more modest. The term "rebuilding year" was commonly heard before the season began.
Despite the loss of Duncan, however, Odom had envisioned a team with a core of veteran players meshing with a highly touted recruiting class that would challenge for the upper rungs of the ACC. After all, Wake was second only to UNC in conference wins over the past six seasons and had been to the Big Dance for seven consecutive years.
Unfortunately for Odom and the Deacons, almost nothing went according to plan.
Veteran Tony Rutland and sophomore Loren Woods, the highly touted big man asked to fill the big shoes that Duncan left, struggled from the very start. Woods even took a month-long leave-of-absence in the middle of conference play.
Odom, desperate to get back on the winning track, was forced to use his freshmen almost immediately, and they responded quickly to the challenge.
Led by flashy guard Robert O'Kelley, the freshmen were thrust into the lineup and received a sort of baptism-by-fire playing the usual ACC games as well as a brutal non-conference schedule.
"I think every once in a while, every coach should have a team like ours last year," said Odom. "It makes you coach. It makes you reexamine what you're doing. It can be a lot of fun."
Despite all the unexpected turn of events, Wake remained in contention for an NCAA berth by coming on strong during the stretch run of the season. To many observers, the Demon Deacons should have been included in the tournament instead of a Florida State team that slumped down the stretch.
Not too bad for a team that unexpectedly had to count on its freshmen during the stretch run of the season.
Now, the incumbent sophomore class will be expected to do even more and won't have the advantage of sneaking up on anyone this year.
"I think looking at our roster, it is self-explanatory," Odom said. "We've got five freshmen and six sophomores. I'd say that we have one of the youngest teams, if not the youngest, in college basketball. It's a daunting thought, but yet last year we started four freshmen almost every game. There's got to be some sort of improvement [this year]."
Joseph Amonett is the lone senior that will see any on-court action this season. Woods, who would have been a junior this year, transferred to Arizona during the offseason.
That means that O'Kelley and other sophomores like Niki Arinze, Rafael Vidaurreta and Josh Shoemaker will be counted on to provide the nucleus of the team's leadership.
"Our six sophomores are much better [this year]." said Odom. "They've done a great job of commanding leadership."
Indeed, of the sophomores, it is O'Kelley that will have the highest expectations to deal with.
At the end of last year, O'Kelley was voted ACC Freshman of the Year, beating out the likes of Duke's Elton Brand and Georgia Tech's Dion Glover.
O'Kelley averaged 16.6 points a game last season, becoming the highest-scoring freshman at Wake Forest in 45 years. Quite an impressive feat when one considers the former Demon Deacons that O'Kelley bettered-Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress and Rodney Rogers are just a few big names that come to mind.
While leading the team in scoring, O'Kelley also hit an impressive 42.1 percent of his three-pointers and ranked among the top-10 players in the ACC in four statistical categories.
"I think I'm going to have a better season this year than I did last year," said O'Kelley. "I've made an improvement in a lot of areas."
O'Kelley will have his work cut out for him this season as opposing teams will focus much of their defense on stopping him. To avoid a sophomore slump he will also have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. A glaring problem that was generally overlooked last year was O'Kelley's 53-71 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Since O'Kelley is more of a scorer than a true point guard, Odom will look to utilize either Broderick Hicks or Ervin Murray, both freshmen who played the point-guard position in high school, to help out with the ballhandling responsibilities.
Freshman Craig Dawson could also see significant playing time in the backcourt. He averaged nearly 30 points per game as a high school senior and is considered an excellent perimeter shooter.
Given the maturity of the sophomore class, and Odom's uncanny ability to produce winning teams, Wake could surprise many people that have them picked as low as sixth or seventh in the conference.
O'Kelley and the rest of the Demon Deacons seem to like their chances.
"I think that last year's experience really did us well," said O'Kelley. "We know what to expect this year and what to prepare for. We'll be ready to play."
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