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Who's No. 1? Make that Wake Forest

By Dane Huffman

Jan 19, 2009

Pittsburgh’s loss at Louisville on Saturday night vaulted Wake Forest to No. 1 Monday in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll.

Wake was ranked second last week by The Associated Press.

The ESPN/USA Today poll had Duke second and Wake third. So the coaches'  voting moved Wake Forest ahead of Duke even though the Blue Devils just beat a tough Georgetown team on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Wake Forest got 25 of the 31 first-place votes, and Duke received the remaining six in the coaches poll. The Deacons received 68 of 72 first-place votes. 

The young, talented Deacons are one of the most remarkable stories in college basketball so far and remain undefeated after winning 78-68 Saturday at Clemson.

Deacon coach Dino Gaudio said Monday morning that he still believes North Carolina is the best team in the country, even though Wake beat the Tar Heels in Winston-Salem earlier in the season.

But asked Monday morning if he felt his club was playing like one of the nation’s best, Gaudio said, “We are when we guard and when we share the ball. We could be one of the best teams in the country.

“I told our guys when we got off the bus [from Clemson], ‘We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.

“If you are happy being No. 1 on Jan. 19 then you are not the team I think you are.’”

Wake’s rise is remarkable in light of the stunning events of the summer of 2007, when coach Skip Prosser died suddenly. Gaudio rose from assistant to head coach and kept intact a top recruiting class that enrolled this season.

Gaudio has made Wake Forest much tougher defensively, which has been essential to the Deacons’ success. He said Monday that his defense is built around tough defense on the ball and then players playing in tighter toward the basket away from the ball. That makes it difficult for rival teams to get to the basket on Wake.

Gaudio overhauled the defense when he became head coach, and he said the benefits of the changes are becoming more evident in the second year in this system.

“We were just so poor that we needed to make a change,” Gaudio said.

Gaudio is relentless about getting his players to improve. For example, point guard Jeff Teague has been one of the ACC’s best offensive players, but Gaudio said he planned to show Teague video of about 25 plays where he needed to be better on defense before Monday’s practice.

“Where he has to get much better is on the defensive side of the game,” Gaudio said.