A Life Reset

Wake Forest’s basketball team has become one of the early surprises of the NCAA basketball season. While the team garndered much praise in the pre-season for the potential of being a great team in the future based on the incoming freshmen class and the previous year’s freshmen’s class, no one expected the team to be among the elites of the teams in the rankings. With a 13-0 record, the team is now ranked 4th in the nation in the AP and USA Today/ESPN polls.

There is some questions on whether the team is getting too much a favorable bias in the rankings as the opponents they have faced so far this season like Radford and UNC Wilmington are not exactly in the top elite schools. But winning the 76 Championship in November and beating BYU on the road, ending BYU’s 56 game home winning streak, the Deacons have proven that are up to the challenge.

They are a young team but one that will prove itself over time. Of course the time is now as the team starts ACC conference play starting with a premiere matchup this Sunday against North Carolina. North Carolina is looking to recover from its loss to Boston College which knocked the Tarheels out of the number one ranking it held for the entire season until this week. The Tarheels are loaded with veterans like Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson but as BC demonstrated, the team can be beaten with the right kind of play. The Deacons will counter with Jeff Teague and James Johnson.

Both teams have plenty at stake in this match. A win by either team will move them into the number two ranking while a loss will put the other team somewhere around the 8th through 10th position. For Wake Forest, a victory will almost ensure a tournament selection in March.

The pressure will be on the team and media spotlight on the game featuring two of the top ranked teams in the nation will be intense. Let’s see if the team is up to it.

Game Time: 11th Jan 2009
TV: FSN