Wake Forest Releases Tony Woods

Tony Woods has been released by Wake Forest, just a few weeks after assaulting the mother of his child. This incident actually happened before the LaceDarius Dunn incident (which I have spoken about here and here), but didn't get as much press because Woods isn't in the same class as Dunn as a player.

Woods was part of Wake Forest's big 2008 recruiting class, the last that Skip Prosser put together before passing away. Woods hasn't been the player that fellow '08 recruit Al-Farouq Aminu is, but he was actually going to be one of the key returners on a Wake Forest team that had already lost a ton since last season, in addition to fired head coach Dino Gaudio.

Wake Forest lost three starters to graduation, and a fourth (Aminu) to the NBA. The only returning starter is C.J. Harris, an athletic scoring guard who is great at getting to the rim. With Woods gone, 6'7" swingman Ari Stewart is the only other returner who earned double digit minutes per game last season. The man expected to replace Woods will probably be Ty Walker, another '08 recruit who is a 7-footer still struggling to add the strength needed to bang in the paint in the ACC. 6'4" Gary Clark is the other good returner.

Wake Forest does have a very deep recruiting class coming in. None are super-freshmen, but shooting guard J.T. Terrell and swingman Travis McKie are both among the top 75 recruits in the nation. Point guard Tony Chennault might be the most important freshman, though, because he's going to be the only point guard on the roster and will be expected to do a lot of the ball handling duties.

But Jeff Bzdelik knew that this was going to be a bit of a rebuilding job when he took it. And even though I've questioned whether Bzdelik's coaching style is going to be popular in the ACC, he is a good coach and he's off to a good start by hanging onto Dino Gaudio's 2010 recruiting class. Wake Forest will struggle in the ACC this year, and they're at best a bubble team. They probably weren't going to make the NCAA Tournament in 2011 anyway, but losing Tony Woods doesn't help the cause.