FanHouse WakeForest

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

After handing it to Maryland last week, BC couldn't get enough on the Miami defense to win. BC can no longer make it to the ACC title game. The winner of the Maryland Wake Forest game will. Maryland is back in control of their own destiny.

This was a trap game by all means for BC. They scored the big time win against Maryland last week, and they were going against a "poor" Miami team this week. However, Miami has a killer defense, they needed a win for a bowl birth and to help Coker's job security, and they needed that win for Bryan Pata. BC fell for the trap. Terp fans remember their game against Miami. They won with 14 points. That defense doesn't give up much. As you can see by the photo, Maryland is so grateful that Dre Moore is hugging Miami's Javarris James.

Now Maryland needs to gear up for Wake Forest at home, which is officially the biggest game of their year -- a title that I hand out every week. They got a gift from Miami, a gift better than gift certificates, PS3s, or cash. They got the chace for a shot at the ACC Title game. The Terps have something to play for going into this game. It sucks knowing that win or lose, your team won't be making the big game.

Terps, gear up. It's time to put it all on the line. You were given a reprieve; a second chance. Use it and play your ass off in front of the Byrd Stadium faithful. You've got a rematch with Georgia Tech on the line. You've got a chance to restore a program that looked like it was dying last year. Make this game count.

Miami, your Thank You Cards are in the mail.

Let me start off by saying I'm not one of those people who say that rioting is disrespectful to the Maryland tradition or makes the Terps look bad. Screw all that. It's great. However, rioting and rushing the field should only happen when it's deserved. Rushing the field otherwise just makes you look like idiots and, as an alumn and Terp fan, that's something that I can have.

I think the current students watched the Terps from 2000-2005 and saw all the great riots. I'm lucky. I was a freshman in 2001-2002. The first major riot of the modern era -- meaning not Vietnam -- was a year before when the Terps lost to Duke in the Final Four. That was an angry riot. The next year, there were some good football riots, such as after Maryland beat Georgia Tech in overtime on the Nick Novak kick and when they beat Clemson to go undefeated at home. Of course, the National Championship is riot worthy and the ACC Championship in 2004 was as well. The ACC Championship one is my favorite because that's when the students lit a fire in the middle of Rt 1, although tipping the buses during the Women's Championship last year looked pretty good.

However, since the defeat of #5 FSU in 2005, there hasn't been anything worth mass celebrating in football. So don't. Beating unranked FSU and Miami at home does not deserve rioting at all. As fans, you need to acknowledge when a team isn't as good as you. When you run onto the field, it's because you either won a title of sorts or beat a team that's ranked much higher than you. By rushing the field against two unranked teams, it's showing them respect they don't deserve.

Unfortunately, this post is poorly time. If the Terps beat Wake Forest and advance to the ACC title game that is reason to rush the field. Unless Maryland had a tradition that the fans can celebrate with the team on the field after every win, which would be pretty cool, the fans need to show prudence in when to rush the field. Save it for the best games. Rioting or rushing is often a show of respect for the team you beat. So before you do it, make sure they deserve it.

FSU lost 30-0 at home Saturday night to Wake Forest. That's right, 30-zero. As in not one single frickin point. I don't even want to talk about the actual game itself. The score says it all: We are terrible. Things need to be done. QB changes are not the answer. We have the players most coaches would give their first born for (insert Bobby-Jeff joke here). Both QBs were less than unproductive in this game, but I've seen enough FSU football to know why that is. They both have the goods to be great college QBs. They were both top QB recruits coming out of high school. The problem lies in that no QB here since Mark Richt and Chuck Amato left have improved even one little bit from the time they step on campus to when they leave. Chris Rix? He looked pretty good his freshman year. . . never improved. Fabian Walker? Never improved. Wyatt Sexton? Well I'm not even going to go there. Drew Weatherford looked good for a freshman last year. While his numbers haven't been all that poor, his play seems more disappointing than that of a year ago. Like with Rix, he may actually be getting WORSE with FSU coaching. I wish I was joking. Lee seems like he has only learned one thing since he arrived on campus as well. That he made a mistake. These players and their families have trusted their futures with the coaches. It is their job to develop their outstanding talent and get them to be the best football players they can be. That just is not happening. Hasn't been since 2000.

We know that changes need to be made. Everybody in the country can see that. However, Bobby Bowden has insisted that he will not fire Jeff. When asked this week about the situation, he responded that he does not believe in firing people. This is honest to God the first thing that came to my head: What he just said was the most stupid statement I have ever heard in my life. Well what the hell do you do when someone can't do something right? If they can't perform the job that they get paid to do then what do you do Bobby? We just got shut out at home while compiling a total of 139 yards with a bunch of 5 and 4 star recruits. If you get paid to do something and don't do it, well that's as good as stealing. And it's not just Jeff. He doesn't deserve all the blame. Daryl Dickey has not done his job as QBs coach. He simply can't develop talent. Billy Sexton (RBs) hasn't seemed to have done too great of a job either. Some of that is probably due to other factors on offense, but we have to clean house and only a select few should stay in my book. But of course this all falls from the top. Bobby, if you don't believe in firing people, you will get fired. Here's why. If changes are not made VERY soon, boosters will stop giving their money (they've already said so), obviously we will not be getting the $14 million each year for making a BCS bowl game, and oh yeah, the top recruits will no longer come here. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if we had good coaching (see Wake Forest), but then again that's why I'm writing this. And if we have only mediocre talent with this horrible coaching staff then 1-11 and 2-10 seasons would not be out of the question. Our stadium will only be half full each home game. The money FSU football generates for the university each year would take an incredible hit from a number of areas. And we all know that money is power so if you are holding the school back from receiving tens of millions of dollars each year while you are making over $2 mil a year yourself. . . well, I think you know what happens then.

Well, the last two weeks Maryland's combined margin of victory has been a mean two points. However, they have been two victories. In fact, the Terps rattled off five in a row to improve to 8-2 and 5-1 in conference. The last two games haven't been pretty, but the outcomes have been tough wins and the fact they were wins at all is all that counts.

The Miami game was a huge pitfall game. Being Miami, they always have the talent and ability to come out strong every single game. The fact they were playing for a teammate that had died earlier in the week would just add to that fact. It looked like the death of defensive end Bryan Pata was weighing heavily on the players and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them just didn't want to be there. None-the-less, they played on and played hard the entire game.

Maryland's defense, although they held Miami to only 13 points, did not look as sharp as they did against Clemson. They were giving up way to many yards and won with the help of Miami. Miami's go ahead touchdown was straight up dropped when Ryan Hill was wide open in the end zone and just dropped the pass. With the way Maryland's offense was lacking in the second, as it was against Clemson, that would have been the game. I thought many times that the Bend Don't Break defense was finally going to break today. Instead, it bent to maximum capacity. When it looked like Miami was going to do it, a Miami tipped pass was picked off by Trey Covington and after Maryland punted it away, Bruce Johnson fumbled after a nasty tackle.

I knew it! A win over Clemson would get Maryland that ranking that seemed unthinkingable weeks ago. The team that everyone figured was done is now one of the best 25 teams in the country for the first time in years. That itself is huge for Maryland. I guess Coach Ralph Friedgen's job is safe.

As the adage goes, with good ranking comes great responsibility. People are talking about Maryland for the first time in a long time. In the New Jersey Star Ledger, hundres of miles away from College Park, they've had multiple mentions of Maryland and a big article about their win over Clemson. Maryland has been doing excellent while no one's been talking about them. Can they live up to the hype now that there is some?

They've got Miami in College Park on Saturday at 3:30 this week. Miami has really sucked it up this year, but they're still Miami and they still have a sick defense. Since they're the only non-ranked team left on the schedule for Maryland, it would be wise for Maryland to win this game. We don't want to just be ranked for one week. More importantly, Maryland need to win the game they should because the next two -- at BC and then back home against Wake -- aren't going to be any walks in a park. Miami isn't a walk in a park either so the Terps better not over look Miami. Luckily, since it is Miami, just the name Miami should pump up the Terps.

Miami is never a given game. I think that's a law of nature or maybe it's in the Bible. So Terps fans, we need to enjoy this ranking now because the rest of the schedule is not going to make it easy to keep it.