Gaudio Builds Wake Forest Legacy One Defensive Stop at a Time

Were Wake Forest ever to erect its own coaching Mount Rushmore, exactly two faces, Bones McKinney and Skip Prosser, would qualify for a place in oversized granite. Every one else would get patted down for so much as trying to get into the souvenir shop.

McKinney, who led the Deacons to their only Final Four appearance in 1962, was the perfect confluence of coaching and charm. Had the State Department opted to have McKinney oversee that Cold War business, he might've brought the two sides together and had Brezhnev telling knock-knock jokes.

Prosser, who led the Deacons to their only No. 1 ranking in school history and a record 27 wins, was a larger-than-the-sidelines, self-described "renaissance man," some parts Neitzsche, some parts Nitschke.

There have been other coaches, like Carl Tacy, who led the Deacons for 13 years but never quite elevated the Deacons to the nations elite, and Dave Odom, who won back-to-back ACC titles with Randolph Childress and Tim Duncan in the mid-90s, but made tax code read like Tom Clancy by comparison.

So when Prosser's longtime assistant Gaudio was thrust into the coach's chair following the coach's sudden death in July, 2007, he could hardly have had a stiffer challenge ahead if he'd had to do the whole thing blindfolded.

It wasn't just a friend Gaudio replaced, he took the place of a man who redefined Wake Forest basketball, from the fans, to Lawrence-Joel Coliseum and the very DNA of the way the Demon Deacons were supposed to play.

In Prosser's six seasons, the Deacs topped 100 more than a Saturday golfer, and made for the kind of thrilling television you usually have to squint between scrambled lines to make out. But they played defense with all the gusto of a two-year old staring down a plate of peas and when it mattered most in the NCAA Tournament, the Deacons were back on campus before they had to change spring-break plans. Prosser's finest team, with sophomore point guard Chris Paul at the helm, bowed out in the second round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed, falling in double overtime to West Virginia.

So as Wake Forest grabbed another Boston College turnover Wednesday and point guard Jeff Teague finished home another highlight fast break that might as well have been diagrammed by a SportsCenter producer, it couldn't be more clear that, with all due respect to the legacy of Prosser, these are a different breed of Deacons altogether.

And with all due respect to Teague, Al-Farouq Aminu, James Johnson and the rest of the players, this isn't so much a team success story. It's a Dino Gaudio success story.

Like Prosser, whom he first worked for just out of college, Gaudio sweats enthusiasm. Spend time in his huddle and you'll forget all about which play you're suppose to run and jump right to which beachhead you're taking.

But when it comes to coaching priorities, the comparison between the two comes to a screeching halt.

Gaudio might've been forgiven for following in Prosser's crowd-pleasing all-offense style, but the coach opted to focus on defensive tenacity. He switched his team to the pack-line defense innovated by former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett, a defense that concentrates on limiting penetration.

It was a gutsy decision considering that, compared to Prosser, Dick Bennett basketball makes trigonometry seem riveting. It was gutsy and it couldn't have been more right. Yes, Gaudio might've been forgiven for staying the course and following in the footsteps of one of Wake Forest's finest coaches.

But this is just as certain: He wouldn't be undefeated.

After last night's win over Boston College, the Deacons are fourth in the nation in adjusted defensive efficiency, allowing just 83.1 points per 100 possessions. Seven times they've held an opponent to 63 points or fewer. Only twice has a team managed an efficiency rating over 101 against the Deacons, and then just barely. Richmond earned a 101.8 and Brigham Young upped it to 103.8. Prosser's 2005 team, by comparison, finished 72nd the nation in defensive efficiency and yielded a number over 120 four times, including a staggering 139.5 against Duke and a 123.6 against West Virginia.

They scored in bunches, but those Deacons had about as much chance of stopping a top offense as they had stopping a tsunami armed only with a sand pail..

That was then.

Under Gaudio, these Deacons block one in seven two-point attempts hoisted by their opponents. They make sure that anybody who drives the paint finds themselves in a cul-de-sac. They're limiting opposing shooters to 28.8 percent behind the 3-point arc, even in a defense whose primary weakness is allowing open shots from the perimeter, a tribute to the long, athletic personnel assembled by Prosser and Gaudio.

They force opponents to turn the ball over on 22.6 percent of possessions. Against Boston College, they pried 13 turnovers from the Eagles' backcourt alone. Eagle point guard Tyrese Rice, who almost single-handedly knocked North Carolina off its No. 1 perch 10 days ago, committed eight all by himself in the face of Wake's defense.

And after the 83-63 demolition on the road, the Deacons broke the school record for best start in history, set in 1928.

Let that sink in for a moment because even Greg Oden thinks that record looked old.

And then take a moment to give Gaudio his due, for punching every right button in a difficult coaching situation. And heck, nevermind that he's doing all this in the place of Prosser, but if you ever think you've got bigger brother issues, unless you were at some point simultaneously adopted by Mamas Obama and Woods, you've got nothing on a school that plays have a tank a gas from three schools with nine national titles and 33 Final Fours.

And sure, credit Teague for his play. Credit the team for believing. Credit the whole organization for getting a roster full of talent to play without a whiff of dissension. But first credit Gaudio and for making all the difference, one step in coaching philosophy, one step from one Wake Forest legacy to another.