Despite loss, Wake is on the upswing

CHAPEL HILL -- In the ever-shifting landscape that has marked this strange season of ACC basketball, it's still all but impossible to determine any sort of genuine power structure beyond the fact that North Carolina and Duke -- one way or the other -- are best and second-best.

There's a good chance the reading on that issue won't be made until the league tournament championship game on March 16 in Charlotte.

And technically, the matter of final conference supremacy could go deeper into March. It hasn't happened yet, but at some point, some day, there will be a Blue Devils vs. Tar Heels confrontation in the NCAA Tournament. As usual, this could be that season when two -- even three -- games in the series still leave the trailing side some room for retaliation.

For now, and with only a few games left to be played in the regular season, Carolina can claim an edge in momentum. That fact was evident Sunday night in the Smith Center, where the Tar Heels took out a Wake Forest team, 89-73, that just a week earlier had recorded an impressive 13-point upset of the Blue Devils.

Sunday's win was enough to provide the Heels (26-2, 11-2 ACC) with a slight lead in the league standings entering their final stretch of regular-season games -- at Boston College, home for Florida State and at Duke.

But in many respects, the Deacons (16-9, 6-6) got a lot more out of the experience than a 16-point loss and a quick trip home. While there's probably no way to say for certain which ACC team is third-best at this stage, Wake deserves serious consideration.

"They broke us down a lot on defense; they're just doing a lot of good things," Carolina coach Roy Williams said of the Deacons.

In fact, Wake, with three sophomores and two freshmen in the starting lineup, have as much long-range upside as any team in the conference.

"We're just learning, but we are learning and that's what you want," first-year coach Dino Gaudio said. "This is a tough place to play and against Carolina, there's just so much that you have to prepare for. There's Tyler Hansbrough, of course. But there's so much more -- their transition pace, their depth. It's just not easy to get ready to play that kind of team. And Hansbrough is so steady. I hope he's [national] player of the year. He should be."

Wake hardly surrendered, however.

With freshmen James Johnson and Jeff Teague combining for 40 points, the game was close for 30 minutes. That was with sophomore big man Chas McFarland (11 points, five rebounds) in foul trouble throughout.

"There's nothing easy about them," Williams said.

There's nothing certain about the rest of Wake's regular-season slate, either. After a home game against Maryland on Thursday, the Deacons will have to visit Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech before closing in Winston-Salem against fading N.C. State.

If they can find a way to win three of the last four, the Deacons' case for an NCAA Tournament bid is a lot more solid than those ACC teams with older players and better early season records.

No one wants to go to Charlotte chanting "We're No. 3! We're No. 3!" But given the way things have gone this season, 10 ACC teams have little else to achieve. For Wake, No. 3 would be overachieving, and it's right there for the taking.