Deacons battling hectic schedule

The snow that blanketed the east coast yesterday made what already promised to be an arduous road trip all that much harder for Wake Forest.

The 10th-ranked Deacons, who played at home against N.C. State Thursday and at Virginia Saturday, will play their final road game of the regular season tonight at Maryland. Wake Forest left Winston-Salem aboard a chartered plane a little earlier than planned yesterday and arrived in the College Park area around 5 p.m.

The Terps were waiting for them, having been fortunate enough to get home late Sunday night after beating N.C. State 71-60 earlier that night.

The late-season schedule isn't what either coach would prefer. The Terps are playing their second game in three days, the Deacons their third in six days with midterm exams just starting at Wake Forest.

The Deacons are 22-5 and 9-5 in ACC play. The Terps are 18-7 and 7-7.

Tipoff is set for 9 p.m.

"I'm not sure who schedules these games," Coach Dino Gaudio of the Deacons said after Saturday's victory. "Three games in six games during midterms. I don't know. And what time is the game (Tuesday)? Nine o'clock on a school night.

"When we roll in Tuesday night at 2 or 2:30, they'll be in class Wednesday morning."

The Deacons can only hope tonight's snow-marred game at Maryland turns out better than the last.

In February 2003, during Josh Howard's senior year, the Deacons arrived in College Park on a Saturday for a game that was originally scheduled for the next day, but that had to be postponed by a raging winter storm. The game, which was finally played on Monday, didn't go well for the Deacons, who were drubbed 90-67.

They left the arena for the airport, but were unable to depart that night and had to return back to the hotel for a third straight night.

They finally arrived back in Winston-Salem on Tuesday, by which time Skip Prosser joked that he had remained in Maryland so long he was legally permitted to vote there.

"I told the team things could be worse," Prosser said in typical sardonic fashion. "They were staying in a beautiful hotel. It's not like they were stuck on a hillside in the Himalayas."

The loss, as lopsided as it was, didn't exactly torpedo Wake Forest's season. The Deacons won their final six regular-season games to finish first in the ACC for the first time since 1962.

Odds are long for another first-place finish, which would require the Deacons to win their final two, for North Carolina (11-3) to lose its final two to Virginia Tech and Duke and for Duke (10-4) to lose tonight's final home game against Florida State.

But Wake Forest does appear to have an inside track at finishing in the top four and thus getting a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament.

Gaudio found it noteworthy that the Deacons have won their past two games without a typical offensive contribution from leading scorer Jeff Teague, who scored 12 against the Wolfpack and 12 against the Cavaliers.

James Johnson filled the breach with 28 points and 18 rebounds against N.C. State and the Deacons beat Virginia by getting balanced scoring from Teague, Al-Farouq Aminu (12 points), Chas McFarland (12 points) and Ish Smith (10 points) and holding the Cavaliers to 41- percent shooting from the floor.

Gaudio said that Teague remains a big factor in the offense regardless if he's scoring around his average of 19.7 points a game because of the attention opponents are paying him."

"I think it leaves openings for all of our other guys," Gaudio said.

"James had a terrific game against North Carolina State. I think we have enough talented players where you can't just take one guy away from us and it will hurt us. Jeff can score. James can score. Ish can score. When Chas McFarland scores, we're 11-0 when he scores in double figures.

"We have a lot of guys who can score the ball."

Maryland will honor its lone scholarship senior, Dave Neal, who has rebounded from three injury-riddled seasons to become a team leader. Neal, a 6-7, 257-pound forward, is averaging 10.6 points and 4.3 rebounds after averaging 1.6 points and 1.4 rebounds through his junior season.

He hit three of five 3-pointers against N.C. State and finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

"He's really battled, that's the biggest thing," Coach Gary Williams of the Terps said. "He usually plays against people who are taller than him in terms of our matchups.

"And he's given us a stable person out there on the court who knows the offense very well and knows how to get to an open area -- things like that. He can play off Greivis Vasquez when Greivis puts it on the floor.

"And he's 250 pounds. He gives us some size in there because we're a little small this year."

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

Game day Wake Forest at Maryland

Site, time: Comcast Center, College Park, Md.; 9 p.m.

TV/radio: FSCR Ch. 46; WBRF 98.1; WZTK 101.1.

Of note: Junior Greivis Vasquez is coming off one of his best performances at Maryland after burning N.C. State for 33 points on Sunday. He made 13 of 23 shots from the floor, dished out five assists and committed only one turnover in 38 minutes. Vasquez is ninth in the ACC with 17.1 points a game and fourth with 4.7 assists per game. The Terps are one of the smallest teams in the ACC, and accordingly have had trouble on the boards. They're the only team in the conference with a negative rebounding margin, at minus 0.9 per game. The Deacons rank third in the ACC with a rebounding margin of plus 5.7. The Terps' biggest advantage may be at the foul line. Maryland leads the conference with a free-throw percentage of .768. Wake Forest ranks eighth at .711. But the Deacons are far better from the floor, ranking first in the ACC with a field-goal percentage of .498. The Terps rank No. 11 at .422. Neither team relies heavily on deep jump shots. Maryland ranks ninth in the ACC with 5.7 3-pointers made per game while the Deacons rank last with 4 per game.