FanHouse Wake Forest

Jeff Teague looked one way. James Johnson looked another. And head coach Dino Gaudio spent so much time crouching on the sideline you had to wonder if he was coaching a team or wondering if the crop was about to come in.

What they were thinking was anyone's guess, though you didn't have to be able to read minds to have a good idea it involved a lot of frustration and a whole storm front full of and things that can't be printed on a family Web site.

What everyone else was thinking, though, was so crystal clear it might as well have been plastered over the midcourt logo: "Again."

If Maryland coach Gary Williams earned a nickel for every time he's been left for dead, he'd be able to solve this economic mess with the walk-around change in his left pocket and pay the legal defense fund of the Dallas Cowboys with the money in his right. Pay the man by check, and you'd burn through enough paper that the rain forests would be more aptly known as the rain bushes.

In the seven years since he won Maryland's only national basketball championship, Williams has been fitted for more pine boxes than suits, and yet he's still come back more times than a has-been boxer.

Before March was mad, the ACC was already basketball crazy.

Since 1955, the granddaddy of all conference tournaments has put one heck of an exclamation point on the end of the season, the twist ending to an Oscar-worthy film. Even in an era when six bids out of the league are as routine as Billy Packer ripping apart mid-majors or Mike Krzyewski having a colorful conversation with the referees, the ACC tournament still matters.

And in 2009, the ACC tournament has a to-do list the size of Barack Obama's.

Even if you phrase it as carefully as a major leaguer testifying before Congress, ask Kansas coach Bill Self who he thinks should be the national coach of the year and you're likely to get about the same answer as if you'd just asked him to explain the economic stimulus plan.

Which is to say a whole lot of stammering and more tap dancing than Broadway's spring season.

Long ago, somewhere around the time you broke your first New Year's resolution in a flurry of Haagen-Dazz and Oreos, dangerous stopped being an adequate word to describe college basketball's pole position.

This time, the gloves came off. So too, did the jacket.

There's not much novel about the Blue Devils being No. 1.

In fact, they've done it more times than Tiger Woods has won golf tournaments, than Detroit Lion fans have brown-bagged it to Ford Field and almost as many times as Mike Krzyzewski advised you on your choice of credit card, insurance or any of the other products endorsed with a smile by college basketball's top coach.

But whether the three-time national championship coach and his team admits it, there is something different this time around. This No. 1 comes with a question mark. At least, until Wednesday night's road game against Wake Forest.

Were Wake Forest ever to erect its own coaching Mount Rushmore, exactly two faces, Bones McKinney and Skip Prosser, would qualify for a place in oversized granite. Every one else would get patted down for so much as trying to get into the souvenir shop.

McKinney, who led the Deacons to their only Final Four appearance in 1962, was the perfect confluence of coaching and charm. Had the State Department opted to have McKinney oversee that Cold War business, he might've brought the two sides together and had Brezhnev telling knock-knock jokes.

Prosser, who led the Deacons to their only No. 1 ranking in school history and a record 27 wins, was a larger-than-the-sidelines, self-described "renaissance man," some parts Neitzsche, some parts Nitschke.

USC 80, (12) Arizona 73. A road conference loss to a quality opponent is not the end of the world. If course, two losses in a row and three of the last four, however ... that might be something to worry about. So they're either in real trouble with that road game at UCLA looming, or it's a chance to get their balls back. You can look at it either way you'd like. This game was decided with an early second-half 15-3 USC run, triggered by Nick Young. He finished with 80 and 8 on the night.

(13) Nevada 85, Fresno State 75. Nick Fazekas returns to freak us, once again. There was no readjustment period, there was no "working him back into the offense," there was just continued Nevada dominance, and typical Fazekas brilliance. He finished with 20 and 10, in just 25 minutes. Sidekick and bonafide star of his own, Marcellus Kemp, had 22 for the 'Pack, 15 of which came in the second half.

Northern Iowa 75, Missouri State 65. Missouri State battle back from a 13-point deficit to tie the game with 3:01 left ... but couldn't find the energy to close it out. 15 and 12 for Grant Stout, and 10 and 10 for Eric Coleman ... the Panthers big men do it well. So the Panthers get a huge road win in the conference, leaving them just a ½ game back of Creighton. Missouri State's just 1 game back themselves.

(17) Duke 62, Wake Forest 40. Duke did it with defense last night, sweating Wake Forest into a 33% shooting night. Of course, doing that to Wake Forest is less of a challenge than doing it to, oh I don't know ... Virginia Tech or Georgia Tech. Josh McRoberts had a nice stat line for Duke: 11 points, 8 boards, 6 assists. Greg Paulus was good, too, with 17 points, 4 assists, and perhaps most importantly ... just 1 turnover. Top 25 Scoreboard