Deacs to face another tough task

Yesterday's basketball practice at Wake Forest began with clips from a horror film.

The feature was shot last season in Chestnut Hill, a suburb west of Boston, and could have been titled Wake Forest's Bloody Boston College Massacre.

Someone mentioned to Coach Dino Gaudio that they'd forgotten how bad it was. Boston College shot 73 percent in the second half and 66 percent for the game in routing the Deacons 112-73.

"I wish I could forget," Gaudio replied. "We let them know that this is an important game, and we did not play well there last year, and we showed them the clips of our game last year.

"They've seen it."

Gaudio was hoping that the graphic scenes would serve two purposes.

The first was to help bring the second-ranked Deacons (14-0) back to earth from the euphoria of Sunday night's 92-89 victory over North Carolina.

"We have made that such a big emphasis in our preparation, in our talking to them," Gaudio said.

"We can't be emotionally intoxicated coming off that win."

The second was to impress upon the Deacons what they might expect from the Eagles, despite recent home losses to Harvard and Miami that left them 13-4 overall and 1-1 in the ACC. It is the same BC team, after all, that beat North Carolina 85-78 in Chapel Hill on Jan. 4.

"They had better understand how when Boston College ratchets it up and comes after you they can beat anybody in the country," Gaudio said. "We saw that when they beat Carolina. We saw what they did to us last year. And they'll be just as ready for us this year.

"They'll play just like they did Carolina. We'll get their best shot."

Senior Tyrese Rice, recruited by Wake Forest before committing to BC, burned the Deacons for 32 points, eight assists and six rebounds last season. He had 25 points, eight assists and five rebounds against UNC and will go into tonight's game averaging 17.3 points, 5.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds.

"Tyrese is a tough son of a gun, and they've got a lion as a leader," Gaudio said. "We'll see a little bit more about ourselves (tonight)."

But the BC team that lost to Harvard and Miami bore only scant resemblance to the one that handed then-No. 1 North Carolina its first loss.

"I think it's an intensity level," Gaudio said. "Like any of us -- it can be said for our team -- if we're ready to play and excited to play, then we'll play well. They're going to be excited to play.

"We've got to be excited to play."

Corey Raji, a 6-6 sophomore averaging 12.1 points and a team-high 6.9 rebounds, was limited to nine minutes in BC's 77-71 loss to Miami on Saturday because of a pulled groin. A school publicist said that Raji's availability tonight probably would be a game-time decision.

The Deacons, who have won the first 15 games of a season only once (in 1926-27), lead the ACC in field-goal percentage defense (36.3). Gaudio is stressing the need for a defensive effort similar to the one against UNC, when the Deacons held the Tar Heels to 28 percent in the second half and 35 percent for the game.

Al Skinner, in his 12th season as BC's head coach, said that Wake Forest has been able to use its size to its advantage. The Deacons start 7-0 Chas McFarland at center, 6-9 James Johnson and 6-9 Al-Farouq Aminu at forwards and 6-4 L.D. Williams and 6-2 Jeff Teague in the backcourt.

"I'm not going to say they're big," Skinner said. "They've got a lot of long, lean bodies, and they get up and down the floor well.

"They've actually been able to put together a similar group of individuals, and it's come together very nicely for them. It seems like they are feeding off each other and can respect each other for what they can do, so it's really come together very nice for them.... They're obviously playing some outstanding basketball right now."

Gaudio mentioned after the victory over North Carolina that Wake Forest has never beaten BC. The Eagles are 7-0 all-time against the Deacons and 4-0 since joining the ACC season in 2005. Gaudio has repeated the history of the rivalry many times since.

"Last year we had a very nice win against another great team, Duke, at home and everybody's patting our guys on the back and telling them how good they are," Gaudio said. "And I think we were just a little bit of an immature team last year, and we didn't know how to handle the success.

"Hopefully we handle it a little bit better. We've never beaten Boston College. Boston College has been tougher than us every time we've played them. So it will be a big, big, big challenge for us."

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

Game day

Duke at Georgia Tech

• Site, time: Alexander Memorial Coliseum, Atlanta; 7 p.m.

• TV/radio: ESPN Ch. 33; WIST 98.3

• Of note: Duke (14-1, 2-0) is going for its second ACC road win and has allowed just 102 points in two ACC games. It held Virginia Tech to 13 points in the second half and Florida State to 14 in the first half. This will be the 50th college game for sophomores Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. Duke is 42-7 in games they have played in. Georgia Tech (9-6, 0-2) will rely on sophomore Gani Lawal, who has averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds in the last three games and leads the ACC in rebounding.

WFU at Boston College

• Site, time: Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, Mass.; 9 p.m.

• TV/radio: WFMY Ch. 9 (CBS); WBRF 98.1; WZTK 101.1

• Of note: Sunday's victory over North Carolina boosted Wake Forest (14-0, 1-0) to No. 2 in the AP poll. But the Deacons are 0-7 all-time against Boston College (13-4, 1-1) and 0-4 since it joined the ACC. Last year, BC clubbed Wake Forest 112-73 in Conte Forum. The Eagles have been one of the ACC's mystery teams. Picked by the media to finish 11th, they beat North Carolina 85-78 on Jan. 4, but have since lost at home to Harvard and Miami. Senior Tyrese Rice leads BC with 17.3 points and 5.8 assists and also averages 4.3 rebounds. Jeff Teague of Wake Forest scored a career-high 34 against UNC.