GREENSBORO, N.C. - Wake Forest, the best team in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season, has all the components for making a long run in March.
In senior forward Josh Howard, the Demon Deacons have a national Player of the Year candidate. Freshman guard Justin Gray exhibits the kind of swagger and poise a team needs in hostile NCAA tournament environs. And sophomore forward Vytas Danelius has made a reputation of playing big in big games.
The main ingredient Wake Forest is missing is hype.
That could be why the top-seeded Demon Deacons, despite finishing two games ahead of Maryland and Duke, are not considered a prohibitive favorite to win the 50th ACC tournament that began last night at the Greensboro Coliseum. Wake Forest is ranked ninth in the country, but has been virtually unseen outside the ACC.
That happens when you're picked to finish sixth in the nine-team league, as the Demon Deacons were before winding up with the school's first regular-season championship in 41 years. That happens when seven of the nine players in coach Skip Prosser's rotation are either freshmen or sophomores.
But a lack of experience shouldn't be looked upon as Wake Forest's weakness. As the precocious Gray said yesterday, `There's no freshmen or anything anymore. That label's gone."
Yet even Prosser and his staff weren't sure what to expect from the Demon Deacons this season. After beating Yale and Temple in Winston-Salem, Wake Forest ventured out to play Wisconsin in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The Demon Deacons came home from Madison with a 90-80 victory and bubbling with confidence.
"I think Wisconsin was a bit of a watershed," Prosser said earlier this week, as Wake Forest prepared for today's ACC tournament noon quarterfinal against Florida State, which beat Clemson in last night's play-in game, 72-61.
"First time away from home. The sophomores were complementary players last year and, of course, the freshmen were still in high school. Josh Howard played with incredible courage that night and I think it had a ripple effect on his teammates."
The ripple created by Howard's performance against the Badgers - 31 points and nine rebounds - turned into a wave that has alternately been ridden by several of his teammates. It led to Wake Forest finishing the regular season with a 23-4 record that included wins in 11 of its last 12 ACC games.
Even the potential bumps turned into boosts.
