ESPN Men's Basketball

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(Information in this team report is as of October 1.)

Sometimes, it's just best to start over from scratch. In essence, that's what Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser and his program will do after a disastrous 2005-06 season, in which the Deacons went from a 13-3 ACC record in 2005 to last place in the conference standings with a 3-13 record in 2006.

It was a terrible, unprecedented turnaround for a program that was supposed to be celebrating a century of playing college basketball.

And it was as inexplicable for Prosser as it was surprising for the rest of the league to watch the Demon Deacons, who had reached the school's first No. 1 ranking in the basketball polls a year earlier, falter to such a degree.

Prosser had five seniors to work with, including two who entered the season with first-team All-ACC credentials. But neither center Eric Williams nor shooting guard Justin Gray could drag the Demon Deacons up from the bottom of the standings. And even though Gray, Williams, Trent Strickland, Chris Ellis and four-year walk-on John Buck helped Wake win 90 games in their careers, their final year was pretty much a bust.

Truth be told, the Deacons' issues weren't as much with talent and experience as they were chemistry and attitude. Throw in the fact that the Deacons lacked a real college point guard, thanks to the early departure of first-round NBA pick Chris Paul, who went on to become the 2006 NBA Rookie of the Year.

Prosser had no legitimate replacement, and out of necessity turned to a pair of freshmen to run his team. But neither Harvey Hale nor Shamaine Dukes were up to the challenge. To be fair, Hale was playing out of position; he's a shooter and not a playmaker.

Gray also spent some time at the point, but he racked up 111 turnovers (the second most of any ACC player) for the season, which basically offset his team-high 141 assists. So the Deacons were a half-court team that didn't have a real playmaker. No one could get the ball to Williams on a consistent basis, and for the second year in a row the defense was practically non-existent. There was no such thing as an easy basket, and the whole team was a plodding mess.

"A lot of times, I felt like a football coach, calling a play every time down the floor or sending in a play on every possession," Prosser said. "That's not the way I like to do it. What we would like to do is be more aggressive, run more transition and be a better offensive rebounding team."

It wasn't until the very end of the regular season that the Demon Deacons got it together enough to go on a roll, beating NC State in the regular-season finale for both teams and then winning two games, including another over the Wolfpack, in the ACC Tournament.

That was enough to get the Deacons into the National Invitation Tournament, to extend their ACC-best postseason streak to 16 consecutive seasons. But, truth be told, Prosser doesn't believe this year's team will get much of a lift from that end-of-the-season success.

"So many of those guys who played key roles in that late-season run are gone now," Prosser said. "Some of these guys watched it on TV and that is about it. I think it was important for that set of guys and I think it was important for Wake Forest basketball.

"I would question, however, whether it had a lot to do with this current team."

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