Across the broad landscape of ACC basketball, Wake Forest's 70-65 win over Clemson last night merely served as the last fence post on the long road to the conference tournament.
It meant much more to the Deacons, who buried a four-game losing streak and most likely wrapped up the NCAA Tournament bid that somehow developed slippery elm disease down the stretch.
"I hope," Coach Dino Gaudio said. "I don't know."
In the short run, the game also meant a lot to Clemson, a virtual NCAA lock. The Tigers (21-9, 9-7 ACC) blew a first-round bye and settled into the No. 1 grinder slot on the tournament grid. Instead of taking Thursday off, the Tigers will play the last game against N.C. State and finish around midnight. Survival would mean an identical schedule in the quarterfinals.
Out of pressure-cooker
Wake Forest (19-9, 9-7 ACC) tied Clemson for fifth and took the head-to-head tiebreaker in one swoop. The Deacons also lined up last-place Miami for an opening opponent while escaping the four-game entanglement.
Senior Chas McFarland enjoyed the sense of freedom. "We had to win," he said. "That put pressure on all of us."
Point guard Ish Smith, who slammed the ball against the Joel Coliseum parquet in a one-thrust celebration, expects to rest between Senior Night and the tournament's opening day. With an incessant smile, he revealed that he hadn't slept much during the two-week skid.
The recession began when Wake Forest wasted an 11-point lead in the last 12 minutes at Virginia Tech, but Smith considered that a generally well-played game against a tremendous team. N.C. State and North Carolina were different.
"I don't know if we came into those games sleepwalking," Smith said. "They punched us in the mouth, kept punching us in the mouth and ended up beating us. At Florida State, I feel like we gutted it out and came up short. Tonight was a heck of a win against a tournament team. It feels good when you get a win. It feels like you're out of that tunnel."
The Deacons finally glimpsed the light because they hammered Clemson on the boards, converted 18 of 22 free throws and watched with stupefied glee as the Tigers missed 20 of 25 3-point attempts.
Al-Farouq Aminu, an invisible star in a parallel universe the previous two games, supplied 18 points and 12 rebounds. Smith scored 17 and sliced up the Clemson press in the second half.
The 7-0 McFarland had 11 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks against purported all-star Trevor Booker. What McFarland did best was create an umbrella with his extended arms, capping the 6-7 Booker so completely that he couldn't shoot without forcing the ball through the thicket.
Booker wound up with six points on eight attempts, four rebounds, one cut over an eye and double-figures frustration. He complained often and sometimes lagged behind while Wake Forest ran fast breaks. Coach Oliver Purnell acknowledged McFarland's impact while rushing to the defense of his big (but not tall) guy.
"I would have liked to have seen a few more fouls called in there, particularly when he split his head open," Purnell said. "But he's physical. He's a tough guy in there. And if he's allowed to be that physical, he's a hard, tough kid. Book didn't finish a lot in there."
A lot of players didn't finish a lot of plays. Any full-court game full of crazy passes, goofy ricochets and 7-for-35 butchery from 3-point land can get that way.
It often looked like AAU ball for young adults, but those also count, especially when they're the last one.
lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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