Sean Allen Found His Place at Wake Forest
3/9/2020 11:45:00 AM | Men's Basketball
His 6-foot-8 frame laying in a ditch, wearing a camouflage hat and covered with twigs and brush, Sean Allen was finally about to videotape what he needed.
As a private investigator for a disability insurance company, his once feeble-looking subject suddenly became Herculean, picking up a cinder block and launching it across the street in perfect hammer-throw form.
Unfortunately for Allen, the cinder block was headed directly his way. It cleared the street and rolled down the ditch straight toward his nether region, before taking a funky hop and bouncing harmlessly away.
Allen was momentarily frozen during the incident, but got it all on tape.
"If I were you I would take the first thing that comes to you in terms of a professional deal," current UC Irvine head coach and former Demon Deacon assistant Russell Turner advised Allen after the defensive-minded forward graduated from Wake Forest in 1997.
Allen did just that, playing basketball first in Finland, then having stints in Holland, Israel and Sweden.
He took a couple years off when he came back to America after playing in Holland, and that's when he answered the newspaper advertisement for the private investigator job, tackling insurance fraud in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina.
"I've been all over the south in a Jeep Cherokee with tinted windows listening to NPR and waiting for someone to leave their house," Allen joked.
After basketball, Allen worked in IT and marketing for about 10 years, and now lives in Spain where he works in investment sales. He made it back to Winston-Salem and was able to reunite with many of his teammates for the 1995 ACC Championship celebration in mid-February.
"It was really good," Allen said about the reunion. "It was refreshing. It was really nice to see some of the young players there and see how much the facilities have grown since I was gone. I really haven't been back in 20-plus years since I left.
"When I was there, the weight room was on top of track, women's soccer and men's soccer. It had to be scheduled pretty tight to get in and out. Now it's specified to the sport, so it's great for those guys. It's interactive. Even the seats in the viewing room and food service area blew my mind. It's great for the athletes. It's all positive in my mind."
Though the group that included Allen, Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress, Tony Rutland, Jerry Braswell and Ricky Peral hadn't all been together in many years, they are mostly able to keep up with each other through social media.
"Some of the guys keep in touch and follow each other's lives," Allen said. "Seeing them physically, you'd think it would have been a little more disjointed because of the length of time. I haven't seen Tim (Duncan) since we graduated.
"You get busy in your lives and live on other sides of the world, time flies. People start families and have careers. It was a really great opportunity, but it was like we really didn't miss a beat. Guys joke the same way, laugh the same way and have the same sense of humor. They look at things the same way. It reiterates what a good core we had as a team, the way things can come together like that."
After starting his basketball career at South Florida, Allen realized he wanted a change.
"I figured out real quick that it was a football state at that time," he said. "I wanted to transfer. I wasn't going to make it to a competitive team with my stat line from there, so I went to Anderson College, basically a basketball school that allowed me to be recruited again."
He had to sit one semester and finish up one class at Wake Forest, becoming eligible in the middle of the season.
"I immediately started practicing with the team," Allen said. "It was a young team. It essentially came down to who could guard Tim (Duncan) in practice. He didn't want Ricky (Peral) to be banging with him, because he wanted to maintain him with the perimeter skills level.
"I thought it was going to be difficult to guard Tim, but there just are certain situations where you just won't be able to stop him, especially around the cup. He has long arms, and just doesn't stop playing. He uses that to his advantage. Folks would foul him and then stop playing, and he would just rise up through the contact and dunk the ball. I learned a lot from him in that short amount of time."
Allen played just four games that first season, as the Deacs ran all the way to the 1995 ACC Championship. But he was able to get a medical redshirt and play two more seasons.
"I played a few games until I got mono," Allen said about his first season in Winston-Salem. "I ended up sleeping all the time and had a severely sore throat. I was on pain killers and lost 30 pounds. That and the enlarged spleen led to the decision to give me a medical redshirt. I ended up sitting the rest of the year out and was in street clothes when Randolph went crazy in the ACC Tournament."
Despite the adversity, Allen never really had second thoughts on his move to Wake Forest.
"It wasn't that bad, because it all happened so fast," he said. "I didn't have a preseason, but still arrived in decent shape. I came in during Christmas break and stayed with Randolph for the first couple weeks, until we moved into the team house. It was a quick transition for me, and I didn't really have time to think about how hard everything was. Practice went quick and then it was about recovery."
Allen was happy to be in the building as coach Dave Odom's banner was raised into the rafters of LJVM Coliseum.
"He keeps it real," he said. "He's open and he's going to tell you how it is. He's definitely a coach that I think a lot of coaches in the ACC would be better served trying to model their tactics after him. There's nothing crazy there. Just solid, fundamental Xs and Os."
He'll soon be traveling back to Spain, where he's enjoying what he calls a 'great' co-parent situation with his 9-year old daughter.
"I love it," Allen said about Spain. "It's great weather. I walk my daughter to school every morning."
As a private investigator for a disability insurance company, his once feeble-looking subject suddenly became Herculean, picking up a cinder block and launching it across the street in perfect hammer-throw form.
Unfortunately for Allen, the cinder block was headed directly his way. It cleared the street and rolled down the ditch straight toward his nether region, before taking a funky hop and bouncing harmlessly away.
Allen was momentarily frozen during the incident, but got it all on tape.
"If I were you I would take the first thing that comes to you in terms of a professional deal," current UC Irvine head coach and former Demon Deacon assistant Russell Turner advised Allen after the defensive-minded forward graduated from Wake Forest in 1997.
Allen did just that, playing basketball first in Finland, then having stints in Holland, Israel and Sweden.
He took a couple years off when he came back to America after playing in Holland, and that's when he answered the newspaper advertisement for the private investigator job, tackling insurance fraud in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and South Carolina.
"I've been all over the south in a Jeep Cherokee with tinted windows listening to NPR and waiting for someone to leave their house," Allen joked.
After basketball, Allen worked in IT and marketing for about 10 years, and now lives in Spain where he works in investment sales. He made it back to Winston-Salem and was able to reunite with many of his teammates for the 1995 ACC Championship celebration in mid-February.
"It was really good," Allen said about the reunion. "It was refreshing. It was really nice to see some of the young players there and see how much the facilities have grown since I was gone. I really haven't been back in 20-plus years since I left.
"When I was there, the weight room was on top of track, women's soccer and men's soccer. It had to be scheduled pretty tight to get in and out. Now it's specified to the sport, so it's great for those guys. It's interactive. Even the seats in the viewing room and food service area blew my mind. It's great for the athletes. It's all positive in my mind."
Though the group that included Allen, Tim Duncan, Randolph Childress, Tony Rutland, Jerry Braswell and Ricky Peral hadn't all been together in many years, they are mostly able to keep up with each other through social media.
"Some of the guys keep in touch and follow each other's lives," Allen said. "Seeing them physically, you'd think it would have been a little more disjointed because of the length of time. I haven't seen Tim (Duncan) since we graduated.
"You get busy in your lives and live on other sides of the world, time flies. People start families and have careers. It was a really great opportunity, but it was like we really didn't miss a beat. Guys joke the same way, laugh the same way and have the same sense of humor. They look at things the same way. It reiterates what a good core we had as a team, the way things can come together like that."
After starting his basketball career at South Florida, Allen realized he wanted a change.
"I figured out real quick that it was a football state at that time," he said. "I wanted to transfer. I wasn't going to make it to a competitive team with my stat line from there, so I went to Anderson College, basically a basketball school that allowed me to be recruited again."
He had to sit one semester and finish up one class at Wake Forest, becoming eligible in the middle of the season.
"I immediately started practicing with the team," Allen said. "It was a young team. It essentially came down to who could guard Tim (Duncan) in practice. He didn't want Ricky (Peral) to be banging with him, because he wanted to maintain him with the perimeter skills level.
"I thought it was going to be difficult to guard Tim, but there just are certain situations where you just won't be able to stop him, especially around the cup. He has long arms, and just doesn't stop playing. He uses that to his advantage. Folks would foul him and then stop playing, and he would just rise up through the contact and dunk the ball. I learned a lot from him in that short amount of time."
Allen played just four games that first season, as the Deacs ran all the way to the 1995 ACC Championship. But he was able to get a medical redshirt and play two more seasons.
"I played a few games until I got mono," Allen said about his first season in Winston-Salem. "I ended up sleeping all the time and had a severely sore throat. I was on pain killers and lost 30 pounds. That and the enlarged spleen led to the decision to give me a medical redshirt. I ended up sitting the rest of the year out and was in street clothes when Randolph went crazy in the ACC Tournament."
Despite the adversity, Allen never really had second thoughts on his move to Wake Forest.
"It wasn't that bad, because it all happened so fast," he said. "I didn't have a preseason, but still arrived in decent shape. I came in during Christmas break and stayed with Randolph for the first couple weeks, until we moved into the team house. It was a quick transition for me, and I didn't really have time to think about how hard everything was. Practice went quick and then it was about recovery."
Allen was happy to be in the building as coach Dave Odom's banner was raised into the rafters of LJVM Coliseum.
"He keeps it real," he said. "He's open and he's going to tell you how it is. He's definitely a coach that I think a lot of coaches in the ACC would be better served trying to model their tactics after him. There's nothing crazy there. Just solid, fundamental Xs and Os."
He'll soon be traveling back to Spain, where he's enjoying what he calls a 'great' co-parent situation with his 9-year old daughter.
"I love it," Allen said about Spain. "It's great weather. I walk my daughter to school every morning."
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