Wake Forest Preview

If you are like me and the rest of the world, you've probably always wondered what a Deamon Deacon is, many believe that since Wake Forest was founded as a Baptist college, that the mascot has biblical meanings, to me it's just a creeper with a funny hat, and obviously riding a motorcycle, as the picture to your left shows. But, enough about the mascot, lets talk about Billy Packer's alma mater's basketball team, that fact alone should give you enough hate for tonight's game.

Wake is a team that can really be physical and athletic and also kill you with their speedy guards, remind you of anyone?

-The first guy to watch out for is do it all forward Al-Farouq Aminu, the highly touted recruit is in his Sophomore year, and has proved all season long why he was a top 5 player coming out of high school. Aminu averages roughly 16 and 11 a game, not too shabby for this center piece of the Demon Deacons attack. Also, Wake has 7 footer Chas McFarland clogging up the middle, with size and physicality inside, one would think that this team has controlling, boring guards, but that is the exact opposite. Starting with Ish Smith, this guy can flat do it all, he's quick, he's tough, he's confident and if you watched the Texas game, he's clutch. Smith is a Devan Downey type player, but has an edge over Downey in the sense that he has size inside and guys who can beat you off the dribble and rebound. C.J. Harris, a young guard who has showed a lot in his debut season, averaging 10 ppg, will join Smith in the backcourt along with veteran L.D. Williams, to lead the Deamon Deacons.

-They are coached by Dino Gaudio, think of an older version of Joey from Friends, except with a clipboard. How you doin'?

-This is actually a team that could do quite well against the Cats, they have speedy, crafty guards, and size and athleticism to compliment that. Kentucky probably has a slight advantage at every position, but not a big one, especially at Power Forward. This is a team that has a similar makeup as Kentucky, maybe not as talented, but the same kind of team. It will be interesting to see what Wake Forest does in this game, will they let Ish Smith push the ball and use his speed, or will they try to be like the rest of the country and slow the Wildcats down, my guess is that they will go into the game with the plan of being methodical and limiting Kentucky's possessions, but at times they will get lost and be erratic.

-The keys to the game will be rebounding, turnovers and Kentucky's other guys, allow me to elaborate, we all know that Wall, Patterson and Cousins can show up, but if we have another game like we did from Bledsoe, or any other guy for that matter, the Cats are gonna be tough to beat in this tournament.

I'm gonna say that the Cats struggle a little today and will be frustrated by Smith and Aminu, but at the end of the day, hold on and win the game, I'll go with....Kentucky by 9, that's just a guess, it has nothing to do with the fact that -9 is the spread. So, get ready baskeball fans, we are down to 32.