FanHouse ChasMcfarland

Mike Krzyzewski was right, the biggest thing to fear about Wake Forest was their seven-day layoff, and the resulting time for the Demon Deacons to stew on a loss to Virginia Tech that ended their time as the No. 1 team in the nation.

But Coach K was also wrong. Wake Forest's ability to dominate in the paint against Duke propelled them to a thrilling 70-68 win over the Blue Devils.

Wake Forest and Clemson had an up-and-down defensive battle today that left the Deacons unbeaten. And probably left Clemson a little bitter. At least that's what I have to think after watching this random Tiger fan take Chas McFarland and piledrive him into the ground when he fell into the stands. I'm not even sure what to say other than: "Really?"



Via the Dagger

Wake Forest, depending on the outcome of the Pittsburgh-Louisville game, has a legitimate right to argue it deserves to be the No. 1-ranked team in the nation. The Demon Deacons have now taken out North Carolina and unbeaten Clemson, knocking off the Tigers 78-68 in Littlejohn on Saturday afternoon.

Jeff Teague led the way (again) with 24 points, while Al-Farouq Aminu posted a double-double (12/10); he and Chas McFarland, who posted 12 boards, kept anyone most of Clemson's roster off the glass all afternoon.

The game was a back-and-forth affair until the Deacs amped up the defense and held Clemson scoreless to close out the first half with an eight-point lead. Wake held close to a double-digit margin for most of the second half, but Clemson was able to ratchet down and bring the game within a single point with just under few minutes to go.

This week, FanHouse is taking an early look at the top teams heading into 2008 with a BlogPoll decided on by our college hoops bloggers. To help with the team capsules, we've brought in some of the top fan bloggers around the internets to give us insights on their teams.

Today, we have enlisted Zach Smith of the Old Gold & Blog to break down the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

The 2008-2009 Wake Forest Demon Deacons are poised for an exciting season in Winston-Salem. Dino Gaudio is back for his second season as head coach, and he returns all but one of his scholarship players from the 2007-2008 squad. Not only do the Deacs return every single significant contributor, but one of the nation's top recruiting classes will add even more depth to an already-talented team.

Last season Wake Forest showed flashes of brilliance, most notably in an impressive upset of the Duke Blue Devils, but were ultimately done in by several ugly losses, including an ugly first round exit from the ACC tournament at the hands of Florida State.