We're 5-2 at home vs. the ACC but a miserable 0-fer on the road with most being blowouts and two very close losses against cellar dwellers.  Seriously, how is it possible to be so bad on the road?  What does the coach say to the guys on the road that he doesn't say here?  I cannot come up with any explanation that makes sense.

Bzdelik has mentioned several times that we don't play with the same intensity on the road as we do at home.  At home we've got the home crowd (which has been decent compared to the last 2 years) on the road we've just got Bzzz and it's pretty evident he has no ability to inspire and motivate his players.

Let's not forget that we had the opportunity to win 3 games on the road (VT, BC, Richmond). So, we are not getting it done but there is positive out there.

I think the type of offense we run is a factor. The open post offense is very pretty and effective when you are shooting a high percentage, but it isn't an offense that is going to maximize scoring when you aren't shooting well because it limits your offensive rebounding opportunities. You generally aren't going to shoot as well on the road.

I also wonder how effective of a tournament offense it is.

ChrisL68 wrote: I think the type of offense we run is a factor. The open post offense is very pretty and effective when you are shooting a high percentage, but it isn't an offense that is going to maximize scoring when you aren't shooting well because it limits your offensive rebounding opportunities. You generally aren't going to shoot as well on the road.

I also wonder how effective of a tournament offense it is.

I don't have any numbers in front of me, but I would put money on our home vs. road shooting and defensive numbers deviating far, far beyond the mean which is what leads me to the question of "why?".  I don't think I've ever seen a team quite as bipolar as this one. 

I do believe the team feeds off the crowd pretty considerably (at home) and credit some of the NCSU victory to the team for recruiting so many student orgs to come out and support the players, which the students did in droves.  That was the best "home court" I've seen under the Bzz-experiment.

If that becomes the conclusion, then we are winning at home in spite of our uninspiring coaching/coaches.  I personally think our FB team did that this year against UNC, too.

Does this post beg the question how can we be a good team away from Joel Coliseum? Or is this a rhetorical question of why we don't show up? The announcers during the Miami game brought up the point that Wake's defensive effort was so much greater at home. Don't look to me for answers, I am as hopeful and frustrated about our program as anybody. Better to beat #2 than look like #2!

When we shoot poorly in this offense, the poor shooting % will be exacerbated by limited offensive rebounds and easy putbacks.

Unless you are built with a high powered offense the only way to consistently win on the road is with good defense and rebounding.  See UM and DUke.  You know you usually won't shoot as good on the road as in the comfort of home and have to limit the other team and keep them from too many 2nd possessions. 

UM started the ACC season redhot on O and had a great D so they were blowing everyone off the court.  The last few weeks their O has struggled, but they kept winning on the road with great D and rebounding.  Until WF where they probably had their worse D game of the season allowing CJ open shots as well as a lot of fastbreak points which was very uncharacteristic for them, but some of that credit is due to great game by Deacs.

If not for DT we would be absolutely the worse rebounding team in ACC, but unfortunately we are still bad as Moto/Cav aren't being coached (or shall I say don't appear to be coached since they are allowed to roam around perimeter all game) to play paint and focus on the glass.  Given the zero contribution those 2 have generally given on the road on offense and D, I really think this team's play could have been better by forcing them to focus on boards and at least increasing our possessions for road games.  Moto could be an absolute garbage machine and get easy buckets w/ his size and athleticism and has shown spurts of great board play but then will disappear for large spells when he begins to think he is Rusty Larue.

Good D and solid rebounding is a must to win on road and right now we are one of the worse in both categories which I think exarcerbates our road losses.

Eddie Fogler was doing the color commentating of the game and he said that if he knew the answer to the home and away disparity then he'd still be coaching! 

At FSU this week will be interesting.   FSU is not a good team this year, we pounded them at home.   I don't think there's anything he can do this year to make me BzzzIn, but if we go out and play well and best FSU on the road I'll accept that he is our head coach for at least another year and quit complaining about it.

PS- It will be tough though, it is a Tuesday night game, at 9pm, on the road and we all know Tuesdays are the toughest academic............ well you guys know the rest.

7 Freshmen in the top 9 rotation probably has a lot to do with the blowouts..especially if shooting is as critical as some say in the offense we run (although we were missing layups too). The home/away thing is something most teams experience as Fogler noted. Well...at least the ones that don't have conference refs on their side all the time.

We could be winless on the road in the ACC, but if they were mostly competitive losses I'd feel differently.   What bothers me is the complete lack of ability to compete in a lot of those losses.   No reason we should get blown out by Ga. Tech, Maryland, Clemson and UNC on the road this year.   You can't play all your games at home, so you have to be able to be at least somewhat successful on the road.   Heck, a coach that could manage a 25 or 33 percent winning percentage in conference would be a huge improvement.

I think a lot of it has to due with being so young, If wecould just break thru with a win on the road I feel like it would give us that needed confidence to at least become competitive on the road. if could just get to .500 on the road we would be a 9/10 ACC win team.

I am bz on the fence, but he does somethings that I love, for instance I thought a key play against Miami was when Gamble got his 3rd foul, our next time  down court we cleared space down low and went right to Thomas. 4TH foul and Gamble when to the bench. Seems like a small thing, but it never seemed like we would try and expolit that in the past. I think x's and o's , Bz is pretty sharp. Does he have the abilty to reach/motivate seems to be my major concern. I guess that concerns comes from the consistently pour road play.

pourman wrote: 7 Freshmen in the top 9 rotation probably has a lot to do with the blowouts..especially if shooting is as critical as some say in the offense we run (although we were missing layups too). The home/away thing is something most teams experience as Fogler noted. Well...at least the ones that don't have conference refs on their side all the time.

This is correct IMO.  I have coached and played on many teams and I will tell you that a coach can do some things to develop a mentality of winning; but it takes time.  There is another hard to quantify issue which I have seen on different teams-- when you are blessed with a leader who refuses to lose and influences others with his mind set, it picks up the level of the whole team.  Childress was this way. The tandem of Phonse and Curry in football had this kind of impact.  A great player who is a great leader affects the whole team.  IMO, a coach affects this process, but does not have complete control over it.  Bzz talks about the right mind set, but players must own it and embrace it and lead others to own the right mind set.  There are other things Bzz might be able to do, but since I have never seen a practice, I cannot comment here.

liveanddiedeac wrote: What bothers me is the complete lack of ability to compete in a lot of those losses.   No reason we should get blown out by Ga. Tech, Maryland, Clemson and UNC on the road this year.

So you're saying 7 of the 9 player rotation being freshmen who are notoriously up and down, and lack confidence, is not a reason for the home and away difference?   Really?   Bz may have created the situation....I blame Wellman....but it is what it is.

pourman wrote:

liveanddiedeac wrote: What bothers me is the complete lack of ability to compete in a lot of those losses.   No reason we should get blown out by Ga. Tech, Maryland, Clemson and UNC on the road this year.

So you're saying 7 of the 9 player rotation being freshmen who are notoriously up and down, and lack confidence, is not a reason for the home and away difference?   Really?   Bz may have created the situation....I blame Wellman....but it is what it is.

Yes, I'm saying there is no reason whether it be youth or whatever to get blown out like we did against Ga. Tech, Maryland, Clemson, and UNC on the road.   We were not even remotely competitive in the those games is the point, not that we lost.   It is how we lost those games, it one thing to lose by 20 when you're down by 10 at halftime and end up losing  by 20.  You can still be playing somewhat competitively and lose like that.  It's the fact we just got blown away almost right from the start in those game, except for maybe Clemson, seems like the first half wasn't terrible.   Those teams I referenced are not that good and there is no excuse in losing in the fashion we did.

liveanddiedeac wrote:

pourman wrote:
So you're saying 7 of the 9 player rotation being freshmen who are notoriously up and down, and lack confidence, is not a reason for the home and away difference?   Really?   Bz may have created the situation....I blame Wellman....but it is what it is.

Yes, I'm saying there is no reason whether it be youth or whatever to get blown out like we did against Ga. Tech, Maryland, Clemson, and UNC on the road. 

Then I think you have completely unrealistic expectations for what can and often happens with a team of freshmen.  They're one year out of high school.  Would you expect the same guys as high schoolers last year (and you can add McKie and CJ in college) to be competitive at UNC, Md, Clem, GaTech?

pourman wrote:

liveanddiedeac wrote:

pourman wrote:
So you're saying 7 of the 9 player rotation being freshmen who are notoriously up and down, and lack confidence, is not a reason for the home and away difference?   Really?   Bz may have created the situation....I blame Wellman....but it is what it is.

Yes, I'm saying there is no reason whether it be youth or whatever to get blown out like we did against Ga. Tech, Maryland, Clemson, and UNC on the road. 

Then I think you have completely unrealistic expectations for what can and often happens with a team of freshmen.  They're one year out of high school.  Would you expect the same guys as high schoolers last year (and you can add McKie and CJ in college) to be competitive at UNC, Md, Clem, GaTech?

Yes I would and here's why, we've shown we can play with anyone in the ACC, we gave Duke all they could handle at home and just beat Miami.  So, our team has shown they have the ability.  If we just didn't have the ability it would be different, but we do and there is no reason to lose in the fashion we did.  Losing one game like that is one thing, losing as many as we have like that (throw in the Iona game as well), is another and there is no excuse.   I'm surprised you have so little confidence in our players that you obviously think they're incapable of going on the road and at least playing a competitive game against mediocre at best teams.   Also, you do realize some of those teams are also young and have freshman, yes?

liveanddiedeac wrote:
Yes I would and here's why, we've shown we can play with anyone in the ACC, we gave Duke all they could handle at home and just beat Miami.  So, our team has shown they have the ability.  If we just didn't have the ability it would be different, but we do and there is no reason to lose in the fashion we did.  Losing one game like that is one thing, losing as many as we have like that (throw in the Iona game as well), is another and there is no excuse.   I'm surprised you have so little confidence in our players that you obviously think they're incapable of going on the road and at least playing a competitive game against mediocre at best teams.   Also, you do realize some of those teams are also young and have freshman, yes?

It's not about me having confidence in them, it's about freshman having confidence in themselves on the road.  The fact they play so well at home sorta proves it's a confidence problem and classic freshmen issue.  Why does that bother you?  Would it be better for them to suck at home too?

None of our opponents play 7 freshmen of top 9 (3 tops I believe).  That's 7 likely mistake makers on the floor to deal with and cover.....with 2 players.  A team playing 3 freshman in a 9 player rotation will have 3 likely mistake makers on the floor to deal with and cover...with 6 players.  Ginormous difference.

pourman wrote:

liveanddiedeac wrote:
Yes I would and here's why, we've shown we can play with anyone in the ACC, we gave Duke all they could handle at home and just beat Miami.  So, our team has shown they have the ability.  If we just didn't have the ability it would be different, but we do and there is no reason to lose in the fashion we did.  Losing one game like that is one thing, losing as many as we have like that (throw in the Iona game as well), is another and there is no excuse.   I'm surprised you have so little confidence in our players that you obviously think they're incapable of going on the road and at least playing a competitive game against mediocre at best teams.   Also, you do realize some of those teams are also young and have freshman, yes?

It's not about me having confidence in them, it's about freshman having confidence in themselves on the road.  The fact they play so well at home sorta proves it's a confidence problem and classic freshmen issue.  Why does that bother you?  Would it be better for them to suck at home too?

None of our opponents play 7 freshmen of top 9 (3 tops I believe).  That's 7 likely mistake makers on the floor to deal with and cover.....with 2 players.  A team playing 3 freshman in a 9 player rotation will have 3 likely mistake makers on the floor to deal with and cover...with 6 players.  Ginormous difference.

It's not just this team, in fact it's more of a concern for me because of the coach.   Jeff Bzdelik is 2-45 (in conference games) I think or so on the road at Colorado and here, defend that????  

Why shouldn't it bother me or any other Wake fan to see us lose repeatedly in humiliating fashion on the road?