Roy Williams has scouted Wake Forest’s basketball team extensively the past couple of days, studying films of the Demon Deacons’ recent wins over Fresno State and Minnesota and a loss to Syracuse.
“One tape I’m not watching,” KU coach Williams said Monday, “is our game (against Wake) last year, because I don’t think that will show me one blessed thing except how to roll over and play dead.
“I don’t need to have any other teaching or reminding me of that game because that’s what we did.”
Lifeless in an abysmal 84-53 loss to Wake last year in Winston-Salem, N.C. the fourth-worst loss in school history the Jayhawks will seek redemption tonight against the Demon Deacons. Tipoff is 8:05 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse and it’ll be shown live on cable channel 48.
“Human nature that was back on my stomping grounds. I don’t have any bragging rights there whatsoever,” said Williams, who was humbled back in his home state of North Carolina during last year’s December drubbing.
“You don’t like to revisit nightmares. That was a nightmare if I’ve ever seen one. They beat us by 31. It was about as close as we were the whole game. I never thought we were competing with them at all. I never thought we were making a comeback. I probably can’t remember saying that one or two times in 14 years. It was chaos.”
A year later, KU takes a No. 4 ranking and 4-1 record into tonight’s clash against 5-1, No. 23-ranked Wake. The Deacons return five of their six top scorers, including 6-foot-9 Darius Songaila, from last year, but have a new coach in Skip Prosser.
“You can’t get so caught up in this revenge stuff. You need to get caught up in playing and doing well,” Williams said. “It’s hard not to. Think about it 31 points is a pretty severe rear-end kicking right there.”
Revenge is something “in the back of our minds,” senior forward Jeff Carey said. “You don’t want to be motivated by revenge, but the fact they did really whip us is something you don’t forget. I wouldn’t call it revenge. I don’t know a good word. Make a ‘right’ right a wrong.”
The Demon Deacons realize they also can’t do anything about last year.
“The result of the game is the result of the game,” Prosser said. “We can’t deny it didn’t happen. It’s really out of our control. We have to worry about Wake Forest, playing Wake Forest basketball.”
Prosser, whose Deacons have beaten UNC Wilmington, Arkansas, Fresno State, Elon and Minnesota and lost to Syracuse in the NIT finals, realizes Wake will catch a focused KU team.
“I think it’s self-explanatory. It will be a factor,” Prosser said of the Jayhawks’ revenge motive. “It certainly would be if the roles were reversed. It’s self-evident it will be a factor among competitive people. Coach Williams and his playes are very competitive.”
Prosser compiled a 148-65 record in seven years at Xavier before taking over for Dave Odom at Wake last spring. He has never coached a game in Allen Fieldhouse, but he did make a trip to town early in Williams’ KU tenure.
“When I was an assistant at Xavier, the women’s coach and myself spent a day with coach Stallings to talk Kansas basketball and learn some things,” Prosser said of former KU assistant Kevin Stallings, who was on Williams’ original KU staff. “I took a tour of Allen Fieldhouse. I’ve never been there with 16,000 people screaming for your neck, but I have been in the facility.
“Obviously we’ll have to play with poise and a measurement of intensity. You have to fight fire with fire. Kansas’ kids will play with great emotion. They always do. We’ll have to play with great emotion as well.”