College basketball coaches always find themselves under the gun to have their programs winning games and moving forward.

At Wake Forest, a big part of that process this season means no more firing blanks from long range. The Demon Deacons sat 11th in 3-point field-goal percentage last winter, their 32-percent accuracy better only than Virginia’s 31.6 effort.

Still, coach Dino Gaudio admitted being a little uneasy with how his staff went about trying to change those numbers.

“We have this thing – and in hindsight I gave it a bad name – it’s called the ‘Gun Club,’ ” Gaudio began with a smile.

The “gun” in this case is a practice tool that fires basketballs, not bullets, at players in a pre-programmed arc along the perimeter. Gaudio said every time one of the Deacs took 500 shots in a practice session, they passed along the news to an assistant coach, who in turn came up with velcro head shots of each player to stick on the “Gun Club” scoreboard.

That chart, measuring some 20 feet, was divided into 500-shot increments out to 20,000. And, Gaudio added with a laugh, “They had to have either a teammate or a manager or a coach with them – to make sure their addition was good. We had several guys shoot between 10,000 and 15,000 shot attempts before school started.”

The winner? Freshman C.J. Harris, the former Mount Tabor High School star.

KEEPING HER DISTANCE

Alyssa Gaudio, who performed on state championship basketball and cross country teams at Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School prior to June’s graduation, decided to attend Wake Forest.

But you won’t find her hanging around the basketball offices.

“I think right now where she is, she’s trying to get a little separation from Dad,” Gaudio said. “At first she didn’t want to come to Wake Forest, and I didn’t force her. Of her own volition she decided to come and I think she’s embracing it.

“She’s a bright kid – smarter than her dad – so she’s doing well,” Gaudio added with a laugh.

REACHING A HIGH POINT

North Carolina coach Roy Williams said during Sunday’s ACC Operation Basketball that he was pleased to see Scott Cherry land his first head coaching job.

Cherry, a senior on the Tar Heels’ 1993 NCAA championship team, took over the High Point University men last spring and later hired former Tar Heel Wes Miller to join his Panthers staff.

“We talked about it, visited with some people during the job search,” Williams said. “I think it’s great he hired Wes Miller to go with him, and Scott will do a great job.”

Williams, while a reference for Cherry over the past decade, never interacted with the player at UNC. Williams said his last recruiting class at UNC included Hubert Davis’ group, one year prior to Cherry entering the picture and Williams leaving for Kansas.

FOLLOW THE LEADER

After being picked to finish last in the ACC preseason poll, N.C. State will be looking for help this season from anywhere and everywhere.

Can a sophomore with limited experience make it happen? In the case of C.J. Williams, coach Sidney Lowe hopes so.

“I think C.J. knows the right things to say and the right things to do,” Lowe said of the 6-foot-6, 218-pound wing who played forward and shooting guard last winter in a year that included several starts – and several games never leaving the bench.

“Will he emerge as a leader? I’m not sure,” explained Lowe, point guard for N.C. State’s 1983 NCAA championship team. “It didn’t matter who was here (during Lowe’s playing years): Hawkeye (Whitney) was a senior, Clyde (Austin) was a senior, guys were juniors. It didn’t matter – I was going to tell them what to do. That’s the way I was – and they turned around and listened, they would go with it.

“It’s something within that person they have to have,” Lowe continued. “The other part of being a leader is you have to do it every time. I can’t tell you not to take that bad shot if I’m taking a bad shot. I can’t tell you to stop turning it over if I’m turning it over. If you’re going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.”

If Williams – or anyone else – speaks loudly enough in that capacity, perhaps the Pack can prove its doubters wrong this season.