Like his team, T.F. North's Nick Wood aims for consistency

CALUMET CITY | In the athletic world, bravado runs rampant.

No one wants to admit weakness, lest an opponent seek to exploit it. The eyes don't deceive, however, and that air of superiority is sometimes misplaced.

Coaches tend to be more honest than players in their evaluations, and one of the more straightforward leaders in the area is T.F. North basketball boss Tim Bankston. The veteran coach doesn't mince words when describing what's missing from this season's 8-13 club.

"My thing about this team is (lack of) consistency," Bankston said. "A lot of it is mental. The mental approach to the game. They think it's going to be easy."

That's only been true occasionally. Ironically, it's the tougher assignments that have brought out the best in junior Nick Wood, one of the Meteors' most battle-tested players entering the season.

Like his team, though, Wood has been somewhat unsteady. Offsetting his excellence versus foes such as Marshall and Crane were less-impressive outings against supposedly weaker opponents, but unlike many of his peers, Wood isn't afraid to admit he remains a work in progress.

"This season, I've been a little up and down," he said. "I'm just trying to get used to doing what I got to do to help my team and not being selfish, but looking out for them more than myself.

"Including myself, the whole team's got to play a lot tougher and smarter. That's the only way we're going to win -- playing together and playing smart and executing what we like to do."

What Bankston typically likes his clubs to do is play solid defense. That, too, has frequently been a missing ingredient.

"We're not taking pride in not letting people score," he said. "Nick's guarded some of the better 3s and 4s on different teams and done a good job containing them, and (also) done a good job of rebounding and scoring inside. He'll do that to some teams, and some games you don't even know he's out there."

Again, Bankston gets no argument from his player.

"On defense, we don't fight good enough," Wood said. "I've probably been taking too many people lightly."

One team that will get T.F. North's full attention is District 215 sister school T.F. South, which enters tonight's South Suburban Blue contest on the heels of recent wins over Rich East and Tinley Park.

A Bankston-coached team has never lost to the Rebels, and Wood doesn't want to be part of a squad that can't maintain the spotless ledger.

"(Beating South) will set a tone to win our last five games," he said. "People are going to be talking about our record and underestimating us, but we're going to be ready to play."

Bankston hopes so, and he thinks Wood is fully capable of leading the way for the Meteors.

"The only thing that's stopping Nick is Nick," Bankston said. "If he wants to become the player we think he can be, he needs to get a dog mentality. I don't beat around the bush when I tell him that he has to get hungrier."