NEW ORLEANS -- Precedent hangs over Wake Forest like a gaseous cloud, a noxious one at that. The postseason has not been kind to the Demon Deacons of late.
Two years ago: a first-round loss to Florida State at the ACC tournament. Last season: an upset loss to Maryland at the ACC tournament, followed by a blowout loss to Cleveland State as a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Now consider this season, so far: Expected, once again, to challenge for the ACC tournament title, the Demon Deacons exited quickly with a desultory opening loss to last-place Miami on Friday and now draw a struggling, but talented, 24-9 Texas team in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The upside for ninth-seeded Wake Forest (19-10), such as it is, is that all anyone wants to talk about is games the Deacons have lost this season - five of their past six in particular.
"I've kind of tried to cut off the TVs and everything because of the five-game or five-out-of-the-last-six losing streak we've had," Wake Forest guard Ish Smith said. "I've tried to cut off the TV and just concentrate and focus on the task at hand. That's winning the first-round game."
If the Wake players are feeling the pressure to perform on the game's biggest stage - impending NBAers Smith and Al-Farouq Aminu foremost among them - their coach is on another level entirely.
Since taking over for the late Skip Prosser, Dino Gaudio is 0-4 in the postseason at Wake Forest. Throw in his earlier tenure at Loyola (Md.) and Army, and he's 4-14 in his career. Not once has a Gaudio-coached team won consecutive postseason games.
That's a weighty record to lug around. A "1" in the Wake win column would make that load a lot lighter.
"I feel the same pressure I felt when we opened up against Oral Roberts," Gaudio said. "I felt the same pressure, maybe the most pressure I've ever felt in this position, when we played Fairfield the first game that I was head coach [after Prosser died]. So we prepare like we prepare. We've had some very good practices, and we just have to play hard for 40 minutes."
Tonight's game pairs two of the teams with the least momentum in the entire tournament, and Texas has even less than Wake Forest - the Longhorns are 7-9 since they were undefeated and occupying the top spot in the AP poll. The winner gets Kentucky in the second round, barring a historic upset.
"I'm not going to sit here and tell you that as a program we're happy with the way we were in conference play, because we weren't," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "But yet the one thing that I made perfectly clear to them is, you know what, there are a lot of teams that would like to be here where you are."
His message: Make the most of a second chance. The Deacons, under similar circumstances, can emphasize with that sentiment.
"I imagine they're taking the same position we're taking," Smith said. "It's a new beginning."
