Wake's Desrosiers develops, gives Deacons hope for future

This has felt like a lost season for Wake Forest, with one ACC win  and a new coaching learning the league and his personnel. But there may be more hope for the Deacons longterm than one believes.
The Deacons lost 91-70 at Maryland Saturday, dropping them to 8-15 overall. But the Deacons started two freshmen and two sophomores, and one of those freshman, center Carson Desrosiers, is starting to show potential. Desrosiers is a slender 7-footer but he is a decent shooter and should improve rapidly.

He scored 11 points and had five rebounds against the Terps. Those are hardly All-ACC numbers, and he is averaging only 4.4 points and 3.5 rebounds for the season. Tall players take time to mature, though, and Desrosiers may be a center Wake can build around.

“In a quiet way Carson is slowly becoming one of the the elite freshmen in this league,” Wake coach Jeff Bzdelik said Monday. “Down the road as he acquires the necessary strength to finish around the rim and be able to hold and contest his position around the rim, he will develop into one of the elite big men in the ACC in the future.”

Elite? That’s a strong word, and Bzdelik used it later in the ACC teleconference when referring to freshman point guard Tony Chennault. But the idea that Wake could have high-level players at those two critical positions is important.

Desrosiers, the first native of New Hampshire to play at Wake, had already committed to the Deacons before Bzdelik was hired.

“He could have reneged and gone somewhere else. But a the same time whwne we met, it took him abut 10 mintues to say coach, ‘I’m in.”

“I’m sure glad he did. He’s a cornerstone of our program.”