Early? Sure. But have you seen Wake Forest play basketball lately?
| DOUBLE DIPPING | |||||
| Worst Combined Single Season Football and Basketball Records in ACC Competition (Academic Year, League Games Only, ACC Tournament Included) |
|||||
| Year | Total W-L | Win Pct | School | Ftball W-L | Bball W-L |
| 1986 | 1-21 | 04.5 | Wake Forest | 1-6 | 0-15 |
| 1960 | 1-19 | 05.0 | Virginia | 0-5 | 1-14 |
| 1955 | 1-17 | 05.6 | Clemson | 1-2 | 0-15 |
| 1987 | 2-18-1 | 09.5 | Maryland | 2-3-1 | 0-15 |
| 1961 | 2-19 | 09.5 | Virginia | 0-6 | 2-13 |
| 1975 | 2-17 | 10.5 | Wake Forest | 0-6 | 2-11 |
| 1958 | 3-19 | 13.6 | Wake Forest | 0-7 | 3-12 |
| 1974 | 3-15-1 | 15.8 | Duke | 1-4-1 | 2-11 |
| 1974 | 3-15-1 | 15.8 | Wake Forest | 0-5-1 | 3-10 |
Well, if you have you'll understand why the Demon Deacons already are sparking press room speculation about their limited prospects in ACC competition. Very limited. So limited we agreed to investigate how bad things could get.
So we decided to look at the worst cumulative records for athletic programs in ACC play in both football and men's basketball in the same academic year.
Get ready, Wake fans, unwelcome history is on your side. Of the nine worst combined ACC football-basketball winning percentages posted to date, four belong to the Deacs.
Wake already is off to a solid start in the wrong direction, what with its 1-7 record in ACC football in 2010. Virginia likewise was 1-7 in football. (So was Duke, but combined with basketball its record of woe excludes it from the chart.)
We can't quite see the Cavaliers, who visit Wake on Jan. 29, sinking as far as the Demon Deacons. They've already got an ACC basketball win, after all, and they've only played twice within the conference.
Things have been ugly in Winston-Salem, where Jeff Bzdelik's new club warmed up for ACC play by losing at Joel Coliseum to Stetson, Winthrop, and Presbyterian, among others. Observers say players may have been overconfident after beating Guilford, a Division III club, in an exhibition contest prior to the season.
Bzdelik, an accomplished coach, is having difficulty herding a flock he didn't collect - wings of various talents and dimensions; several untested, slender but willing young big men; and a few players clearly not inclined to receive the coach's teachings with enthusiasm, shall we say.
After his team got walloped at N.C. State, Bzdelik said his message to his disorganized and outhustled team consisted in part of a reminder. "That's life, it doesn't always go the way you want it to," he said. That could be a useful consolation in 2010-11 for Wake coaches, fans, and athletic administrators.
Through Jan. 10, UVa's combined football-basketball tally was 2-8 this academic year. The Cavs have at least 15 games left to play, starting with a visit to Duke on Jan. 15. At Wake the mark is 1-8, with a minimum of 16 games to go, starting with a visit from Maryland on Jan. 12.
There's one hopeful note for these teams: The rest of the league isn't all that formidable, either.
Note: Georgia Tech did not compete in ACC football until the 1982-83 academic year (1982 football season.) The Yellow Jackets were 1-9-1 in football in the fall of 1980, when they did play North Carolina and Duke, and 0-15 as a full member in basketball during the 1980-81 season, Dwayne Morrison's last gasp as head coach.
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