FanHouse IshmaelSmith

The most highlighted play of Wake Forest's win over Duke last night was James Johnson's lay-in with .8 seconds left. But the particular play that left me more slack-jawed than anything else was an Ishmael Smith between-the-legs pass to Al-Farouq Aminu with about 12 minutes to go in the second half. I was watching this game in a Winston-Salem restaurant, and it easily led the way on bringing the house down, Johnson's game-winner aside.

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.