Wake Forest Athletics
Josh Shoemaker Knows What the Deacons Need
6/21/1999 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
January 25, 1999
By Jay Reddick
Josh Shoemaker thinks he knows exactly what the Deacons need to find further success the rest of the season.
"We've been playing hard, but there have been times that the intensity hasn't been there," Shoemaker said after Wake Forest lost in Atlanta to Georgia Tech. "I'm as guilty as anybody, but we've just got to get more intensity, and that will keep us from being such an up-and-down team."
As one of the most experienced players on the roster, Shoemaker knows he'll need to be a big part of that rise in intensity if the Deacons are going anywhere. The 6-foot-9 sophomore has been a fixture in the starting lineup for most of his two years on campus, and Wake Forest coach Dave Odom has depended on him to provide rebounding, defense and a presence underneath the basket.
In recent weeks, the Gate City, Va., resident has shown a different side of his game, stroking baseline jumpers and venturing out from the basket a little more. This has all been by design.
"My role hadn't changed much the past two years," Shoemaker said. "I was supposed to play hard, rebound, play solid defense and score a little bit. The last couple of weeks, though, I've changed positions to the three, and it's taking me a little time to adjust."
On Jan. 2, when the Deacons faced Virginia, Odom started what has become his regular lineup for the first time. It included Robert O'Kelley and Ervin Murray in the backcourt, Rafael Vidaurreta at center, Darius Songaila at power forward...and Josh Shoemaker at small forward, his first time getting significant time at that position.
Suddenly, rebounding may not be his first priority, though it is certainly still important. The switch is taking some time to stick.
"I'd rather face the basket more (than I was doing)," Shoemaker said, "but I'm not really comfortable with it yet. I've worked hard at it, and I still play the post somewhat, but it threw me off a little. It's a little harder to rebound at the three spot."
Shoemaker made an impact on the 1997-98 Deacons, although his numbers don't show it very well. He averaged 20 minutes a game but only scored three points and pulled down 4.2 rebounds per contest. He hoped those numbers would rise this year, but more than that, he wanted to get more accustomed to playing basketball at the ACC level - not so easy for a player from small-town southwestern Virginia. His days of passive play, he says, are over.
"I'm starting to get more comfortable with this team and my role," Shoemaker said. "I don't know why I wasn't stepping up with more aggression, but I'm starting to feel the team needs me to do that now, so I'm working hard on it."
That hard work started in earnest this summer after Odom and the coaching staff told him they wanted to see more offense from him during the 1998-99 campaign.
"I was here during the first session of summer school and was able to get in a lot of time on the courts, playing and getting more comfortable offensively. When I went home for second session, I did a lot of that and worked on my jumper a lot. It's gotten better, but I'm still not satisfied."
Shoemaker, like his classmates, is having to deal with being an elder statesman for the squad as a sophomore - only senior Joseph Amonett is older among the scholarship players. The NCAA tournament, considered almost birthright for the Deacons over the past 10 years, would be the first for Shoemaker and his classmates if the team makes it this season.
"There's only one player on this team (Amonett) who's been there, who knows what it's like," Shoemaker said. "Last year, we made the NIT, and nobody was happy with that. We're looking past that now, and I'm looking forward to my first NCAA tournament experience this year."
