WFU says BYU has an ACC feel to it

To Wake Forest, tonight's game at Brigham Young is an ACC game in every respect but the travel involved and the conference standings.

The Cougars belong to the Mountain West Conference, but they play a style and level of basketball in the kind of home environment that should prepare the sixth-ranked Deacons for the 16 ACC games that are ahead. And the Cougars have played well enough at Provo's 22,700-seat Marriott Center to have won 53 straight at home, the longest active streak in college basketball.

The game is being promoted as one of the two "White-Outs" on the BYU schedule, the other being a visit from rival Utah on Feb. 28. Wake Forest will be the highest-ranked nonconference opponent to ever play BYU at the Marriott Center and the first Top 10 opponent since the Cougars beat No. 7 Washington in 1984.

Wake Forest is 12-0, coming off Tuesday's victory over Radford. BYU is receiving votes for the AP Top 25 at 11-1, with its only loss coming against Arizona State 76-75 on Dec. 20.

"That's what we all came here for, to play in big games," sophomore guard Jeff Teague of the Deacons said. "BYU is going to seem like an ACC game. It's going to be rowdy and one of the biggest gyms we'll probably ever play in.

"It's going to be exciting."

After tonight's game the Deacons will have a week off to prepare for a Jan. 11 visit from North Carolina, the first of 16 straight conference games.

"It's going to be momentum if we win and more hard work if we lose," sophomore James Johnson said. "So it's a win-win situation. We're going to go in there and play as hard as we can, and see how we can handle it. If we win, we'll see how much the momentum is going to carry us into the North Carolina game, and if we lose, if our guys are going to bounce back, mature up and practice hard."

The Deacons beat BYU 79-62 last season in Winston-Salem on Jan. 8, holding star center Trent Plaisted to three field goals on 10 attempts and eight points. Plaisted left BYU after his junior season, but the Cougars' two leading scorers against the Deacons, Lee Cummard and Jimmer Fredette, are back. Both scored 15.

Cummard, a 6-7 senior guard, is averaging 18.4 points a game while shooting 46 percent from 3-point range. Jonathan Tavernari is a 6-6 junior wing averaging 18.3 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds.

Fredette is a 6-2 sophomore guard averaging 14.3 points while shooting 41 percent from 3-point range.

The Cougars prefer an up-tempo style. They average 80.8 points a game and are 32-2 the past two seasons in games in which they scored at least 70 points.

"We've got to look at the big point of how we're going to stop them on defense," Teague said. "They can really score the ball.

"They've got a great player in Lee Cummard. We've just got to look at how we're going to be able to contain him, and just run with the ball and play our game."

The Deacons have improved their field-goal percentage and their defense significantly over last season, and they lead the nation with 43.9 rebounds a game. They also lead the ACC (and rank fifth nationally) with a rebounding margin of plus 10.4. Their biggest strides recently have been the ability to handle the ball, much of which can be attributed to the return to form of Ish Smih. Smith, a junior point guard who has started 60 games, was slowed early by a broken foot sustained in September.

Smith was at the peak of his game at East Carolina on Dec. 22, when he had nine assists and two turnovers in 25 minutes. He played 24 minutes against Radford without a turnover, while contributing two assists and a steal.

Coach Dino Gaudio has remained with the starting lineup of Teague and L.D. Williams in the backcourt, Johnson and Al-Farouq Aminu at forwards and Chas McFarland at center, but Smith's increased role has helped the Deacons trim the alarming number of turnovers of the first nine games.

Gaudio said he feels Smith has fully recovered.

"I think he's good," Gaudio said. "If you saw the game at East Carolina, it looked like the lights went on. He looked like the Ish of old.

"I don't even think ‘Is he back or is he not back?' If you remember a week or two weeks ago he was losing the ball in transition a little bit. His handle wasn't tight. I think all that's back."

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com
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