Grading the season

RC...just because people disagree with you doesn't mean they are wrong or don't get it. I know you're a DM homer and the difference between us is that while I wanted NIT when the season started we played well enough to be in a position to far exceed what we ended up with. I'm tired of going through coaches so I want him to succeed.

My question to you.... if JC doesn't return what would you grade DM next year if we finish 10th or worse and no NCAA bid?

Would love you to go on record here....

Across the board: C-.

This team is slightly below ACC average. If not for the four gimmes against the league bottom feeders, this team would have been solidly in the CBI.

donaldross said:

I give Manning credit for taking Wake basketball from an F to a C- in 3 years. That's not easy. Must keep getting better.

Wellman on the other hand has us at a C- after 26 years and is proud of it. He must go so someone else can evaluate Manning after year 5 and make long term facility decisions for our school.

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Facilities are the best they have ever been at Wake Forest with football, baseball, tennis, soccer and the LJVM is getting ready to get a major overhaul inside, just like Clemson & GT have undergone and make it totally up to date. The LJVM is a great facility! We have the best football, basketball & baseball parking in the country and they are all basically on-campus facilities. There is no room on the actual Reynolda Road campus for a basketball arena & never has been. Nor has there ever been any traffic flow or infrastructure that would have made any sense for that site. We are in perfect shape on Deacon Blvd. Luckily we have had the access to $$$ and donations to buy and do what we needed at all those facilities. Basketball will be done right. Hopefully around 10-11,000.

John Collins = A- (gotta learn to play defense, not picking up fouls is not a good excuse)
Bryant Crawford = A- (the one guy on the team that fans hate on they winds up with 20 and 10. Needs to learn to finish at the rim for next year)
Keyshawn Woods = B- (disappeared in some games, gotta be there for the 3's)
Austin Arians = B+ (when the season was on the line he started drilling 3 after 3, if he didn't step up we'd be watching the NIT right now)
Sam Japhet-Mathias = C (limited exposure but seems to have gone from lost on the court to playing some reasonable defense)
Dinos = C+ (Giving him credit for buying into DM's message, clearly changed his game for the benefit of the team)
Brandon Childress = B- (went from 'he shouldn't play more than 5 min' to 'why is Brandon not on the floor during the press and for defense', some questionable decisions at times)
Mitchell Wilbekin = C (would be higher if he just learned to drive and dish and not take long 2's)
Doral Moore = D (Seems to have lost his confidence and is a foul machine)
Greg McClinton = C- (got himself off the bench down the stretch)
Rich Washington = I
Donovan Mitchell = I
Danny Manning = A- (never thought I'd be watching the selection show to see if our name was called this year)
Team Offense = A- (it's not perfect but, we were never out of games because we could score)
Team Defense = F (60%+ FG shooting for three straight halves to end the season, who cares if we can't guard the wing, VT and K-State spent 60 minutes driving down the lane uncontested, that's why we are sitting at home now)

B-.

Offense: A
Defense: D

The team exceeded every preseason expectation I had with regard to won-loss record. It is a top forty team in RPI, BPI, Kenpom and Sagarin. Most importantly (to me),the Deacs were one of 36 at-large teams (out of 319 ) selected to participate in the NCAA championship tournament.

After finishing last year 11-20 overall and 2-16 in conference, I believe the Demon Deacons showed improvement this year.

They also established a floor for next years expectations.

Junebug said:

Why in the world wouldn't whether a coach got the full potential out of his team be a relevant consideration to his grade?

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Is it relevant to any grading system you've ever experienced in life?

Besides, the only coaches who get the full potential out of a team full 18-22 year olds are the one's that have teams full of players that max out their potential as 18-22 year olds.

If coach A doesn't do his work in the recruiting/player development part of the job leaving his team's absolute ceiling at 19-13, #30 in KP, he doesn't deserve a higher grade than coach B who increased his team's ceiling to 24-8, #15 in KP but then failed to reach that ceiling finishing exactly where coach A finished.

Junebug said:

Why in the world wouldn't whether a coach got the full potential out of his team be a relevant consideration to his grade?

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At every school I went to the genius who didn't study and scores an 85 on a test (well below their potential) got a B. The kid with average intelligence that worked their ass off (maximizing their potential) and scored an 85 on the same test also got a B.

We got more out of our team than anyone thought realistically possible. I bet if you looked at a hundred preseason projections, you wouldn't find more than two (if that) who said Wake would make The Dance. I doubt you'd find any who would have said JC would be runner-up for ACC POY. I seriously doubt you could find a single expert who would have said Wake would have a Top 10 offense in the nation.

We greatly exceeded expectations and all realistic projections. These factors show our staff excelled this year.

Sorry, but I don't actually count losing the NCAAT play-in game as "making the Dance."

It's more like just getting asked to go....

We made The Dance. We played a game in the NCAAT.

Everyone: F

F for failing. You get nothing.

Good day, team.

I just learned that we are not supposed to grade the team or Coach Manning on a season by season basis. We are supposed to grade them each day, to determine whether they won or lost that specific day.

So all of your rankings are fucking bullshit, losers.

deacinpoland said:

Across the board: C-.

This team is slightly below ACC average. If not for the four gimmes against the league bottom feeders, this team would have been solidly in the CBI.

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This is a dumb take, IMO. Those bottom feeders are only bottom feeders because they are worse than us - because we are better than them. You'll note that those bottom feeders managed to beat some other teams - one good thing we did this year was avoid the inexplicable loss to a really bad team. You have to give credit for that because even our good teams have historically made a habit of losing a game or two to teams they should never lose to.

The bolded is like saying 'without John Collins we would have really sucked'. Well, no kidding, but we had John Collins.

deacinpoland said:

Across the board: C-.

This team is slightly below ACC average. If not for the four gimmes against the league bottom feeders, this team would have been solidly in the CBI.

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Given the logic can we take away the four losses against the three teams as the most favored to cut the nets down in the NCAAs? Duke x2, UNC, Nova?

or the seven losses to top 20 teams?

I'm probably old school as it relates to the NCAA tournament but for me making the dance means I get to watch my team either on Thursday or Friday and have the opportunity to write their name in my bracket.

This is now year number 7 that I cant find a bracket anywhere where I can write in Wake Forest to advance to the round of 32.

The last 7 years have absolutely killed the passion, drive and expectations of our fan base.

Lastly the K State was the most important game of the season because if we win that game the majority of our fan base would be united, supportive and optimistic heading into the off season. Even if Cincy would have beat us by 20 it would not have mattered.

Beat K State and the entire mood changes around here.

If we beat KState and lost to Cinci, the same people who are bitching about losing to KState would say, "We shouldn't have lost to them. It's on Danny." THis group , like you, doesn't give the credit that was earned this year and wouldn't unless we beat UCLA.

Junebug said:

Why in the world wouldn't whether a coach got the full potential out of his team be a relevant consideration to his grade?

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At every school I went to the genius who didn't study and scores an 85 on a test (well below their potential) got a B. The kid with average intelligence that worked their ass off (maximizing their potential) and scored an 85 on the same test also got a B.

Shake said:

I'm probably old school as it relates to the NCAA tournament but for me making the dance means I get to watch my team either on Thursday or Friday and have the opportunity to write their name in my bracket.

This is now year number 7 that I cant find a bracket anywhere where I can write in Wake Forest to advance to the round of 32.

The last 7 years have absolutely killed the passion, drive and expectations of our fan base.

Lastly the K State was the most important game of the season because if we win that game the majority of our fan base would be united, supportive and optimistic heading into the off season. Even if Cincy would have beat us by 20 it would not have mattered.

Beat K State and the entire mood changes around here.

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Yeah, this isn't true at all.

I think that's definitely true. There's a huge difference between losing a play-in game and getting beat by a higher seed on Friday night.

PhDeac said:

I think that's definitely true. There's a huge difference between losing a play-in game and getting beat by a higher seed on Friday night.

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Beating K-State in a high scoring game and then getting nailed by Cincy isn't going to make people all warm and fuzzy inside.