Wake Forest College Basketball

Wake Forest Wins NCAA East Regional

Doug Manchester fired a 4-under 68 Saturday to lead Wake Forest as the eighth-seeded Demon Deacons overcame a three-shot deficit to win the NCAA East Regional at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club by one stroke over defending national champion and top seed Georgia. Wake Forest carded a 5-under 283 and finished the 54-hole event at even par, while Georgia shot a 1-under 287 Saturday and finished at 1-over.

 

UCLA's Kevin Chappell made a birdie on the ninth hole, his last of the day, to win medalist honors at 5-under. Southern California's Taylor Wood, Coastal Carolina's Dustin Johnson and UNLV's Jarred Texter tied for second at 4-under.

Texas Tech (+9), North Carolina (+10) Charlotte (+13) and Coastal Carolina (+13) rounded out the top six teams, while UCLA (+14), Auburn (+15), South Carolina (+17) and UNLV (+20) finished in the top 10 and earned the right to advance to the NCAA Championship at the Crosswater Club in Sunriver, Ore. May 31-June 3.

Indiana played in the afternoon wave and made a run at the 10th spot, but wound up tied for 11th at 27-over with Georgia State and Georgia Southern. The Hoosiers were four shots out of 10th with three holes to play but could get no closer.

Tennessee Tech's Scott Stallings rolled in a birdie putt on the ninth hole, his final hole of the day, to shoot a 2-under 70 and tie for eighth in the individual standings at 2-under. He and Wood from Southern California earned the right to advance to the NCAA Championship as individuals. Indiana's Jorge Campillo was at 7-under for the day and tied with Stallings with one hole to play, but made a double-bogey on the par 4 18th hole and dropped to even-par for the tournament.

Fourth-seeded Georgia State and sixth-seeded Southern California were the only two schools among the top 10 seeds to not advance to the NCAA Championship, while 11th-seeded Auburn and 13th-seeded South Carolina earned a trip to Sunriver.

South Carolina shot a 4-under 284 to finish ninth after beginning the day in 12th. Southern California was inside the cut line in a tie for ninth when the day began, but dropped into a tie for 15th after a 15-over 303 Saturday.

posted by: wakeforest at 21:23 | link | comments |

Twelfth-seed Wake Forest, which upset No. 5 seed Florida State (78-66) Thursday and No. 4 seed NC State (82-71) on Friday, now focuses on a chance to make ACC history -- and perhaps even NCAA history -- when it plays top seed and third-ranked Duke Saturday in the semifinals of the 53rd annual ACC Tournament (1:30 p.m./J-P Sports and ESPN).
The lowest seed to make an ACC Tournament final was No. 8 seed NC State in 1987. The lowest seed to win an ACC championship was the No. 6 seed (five times). In modern day college basketball history, no team seeded 12th has ever reached the championship game of any conference tournament, although 11th seed Illinois made the Big Ten Tournament finals in 1999.
Of course, Wake Forest will have to beat one of the nation's best teams -- the third-ranked Blue Devils -- to accomplish any of that.
Duke, 28-3, is coming off an 80-76 win over Miami in Friday's quarterfinals. The Blue Devils are led by ACC Player of the Year J.J. Redick and ACC Defensive Player of the Year Shelden Williams.
The Demon Deacons, 17-15 overall, stunned No. 4 seed and 25th-ranked NC State on Friday, 82-71. Wake Forest shot 53.1 percent and out-rebounded the Wolfpack, 40-24. Seniors Eric Williams (20 points) and Justin Gray (19 points) combined to lead the Deacons.
Duke leads the all-time series, 153-75 and the Blue Devils swept two regular season meetings by a combined 41 points. Duke won in Winston-Salem, 82-64, and in Durham, 93-70.

posted by: wakeforest at 06:36 | link | comments |

WINSTON-SALEM - Wake Forest, which made an impressive run to the ACC Tournament semifinals last week, will participate in postseason play for the 16^th consecutive year when the Demon Deacons begin play in the National Invitation Tournament this week.

 

The Deacons, 17-16, will play at Minnesota Wednesday night. Game time has not been determined.

 

"I'm very excited to have the opportunity to continue playing," Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser said. "Minnesota is an outstanding team in one of the great conferences. It will certainly be a challenge for us, especially playing at Williams Arena, but it beats getting ready for the opening day of baseball."

 

The 40-team tournament begins with eight opening-round games on Tuesday. Wake Forest, which is seeded fifth in its section of the bracket, would need to win three games to advance to the semifinals in New York's Madison Square Garden. The winner of the Wake Forest-Minnesota game will play either Cincinnati, Charlotte or Southern on Tuesday, March 21. Charlotte and Georgia Southern meet in an opening round game Tuesday and the winner plays at Cincinnati on Friday.

 

Minnesota, 15-14, beat Michigan in the Big Ten Conference Tournament on Thursday, then fell to Iowa on Friday. The Golden Gophers posted wins this season at Arizona State, vs. UNLV, vs. UAB, Indiana, Michigan State, Iowa and Purdue.  Senior swingman Vincent Grier (15.5 ppg) leads the Gophers in scoring.

 

The Deacons are one of six ACC teams in the tournament, joining Maryland, Miami, Clemson, Virginia and Florida State. The four No. 1 seeds in the NIT are Maryland, Michigan, Louisville and Cincinnati.

 

Wake keeps its streak of consecutive postseason appearances alive. The Deacons have played in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT every year since 1990.

 

The last time the Deacons played in the NIT came in 2000, when then-coach Dave Odom's team won the championship, beating Notre Dame in the title game at Madison Square Garden. This will be Wake's sixth NIT appearance and the Deacons are 10-4 all-time in the event.

 

Wake Forest first played in the NIT in 1983, advancing to the semifinals before losing to Fresno State. In 1985, the Deacons lost an NIT first-round game at South Florida. In 1998, Wake beat UNC-Wilmington in the first round, then fell to Vanderbilt in the second round. In 1999 Wake beat Alabama, then fell to then-coach Skip Prosser's Xavier team in the second round.

 

In 2000, Wake Forest beat Vanderbilt in Nashville, New Mexico in Winston-Salem, California in Greensboro, then beat NC State and Notre Dame in New York to win the title.

 

Wake Forest enters the NIT having won three of its last four games. Seeded 12^th in the ACC Tournament, the Deacons beat No. 5 seed Florida State in the first round last Thursday, No. 4 seed and 25^th-ranked NC State in the quarterfinals last Friday, then fell to top-seeded Duke in Saturday's semifinals.

 

Wake Forest holds an all-time series record of 3-2 against Minnesota. The teams last met in the 2001 ACC/Big Ten Challenge in Winston-Salem, when the Deacons beat the Golden Gophers, 85-79. Wake is 0-2 all-time against the Gophers in Minneapolis with those meetings coming during the 1962-63 and 1954-55 seasons.

 

posted by: wakeforest at 06:35 | link | comments |

Wake Forest basketball will have a very different look next fall.

The Deacons, who never recovered from the early exit of Chris Paul, are losing seniors Eric Williams, Justin Gray, Trent Strickland and Chris Ellis. And, while Gray’s point production will be missed, finding inside help is of greater concern.

Returning big men include 6-foot-11 rising senior Kyle Visser and 6-10 David Weaver, who will be a red-shirt freshman. November signee Jamie Skeen of Huntersville North Mecklenburg is a 6-8 power forward who needs more power. So does Chas McFarland, a 7-footer from Worcester (Mass.) Academy.

The red-shirt year was good for Weaver, who is from Black Mountain Owen, the same school that produced UNC and NBA standout Brad Daugherty. Weaver, who just turned 18 in October, needed more strength and work. But he does have some nice skills.

So does McFarland. However, most of what he does is not pure low-post stuff. He is extremely thin at 208 pounds. As a result, he relies mostly on finesse and looking for jump shots instead of drop-steps and up-and-under moves.

“Chas (pronounced Chase) is not strong enough to constantly sit in the blocks,” Worcester Academy coach Ed Reilly said. “He can run and catch the ball, and he’s a good passer.”

McFarland, the last addition to Wake Forest’s five-man fall class, averaged 16.7 points, 14.3 rebounds and 7.5 blocked shots as a junior at Lovington (Ill.) High against small-school competition. This season, at Worcester, he averaged 15 points, nine boards and four blocked shots per game.

“He had some dunks,” Reilly said, “but most of his points came on jump shots. A lot of them were from 5 to 10 feet, but he can shoot it from 15 to 17 feet. He has a good stroke. He can beat most centers down the floor, and he got a lot of points that way.”

McFarland scored a season-high 24 points, with his best game coming against Long Island (N.Y.) Xavier New American when he tossed in 16 points and grabbed 20 rebounds.

“Chas is really competitive,” Reilly said, “and that is going to help him. He plays every possession like it’s his last, and he has a great ability to move on from the last play, whether it was good or bad. You don’t see that in a lot of kids.

“He is a very good defender. He has good timing, which he uses to block shots, and he does other good things on defense. He isn’t afraid to stick his body in there to take charges.

“He needs to improve his footwork, but the main thing is strength. It all comes back to that. Chas is fit and can run all day, but he gets worn down by people leaning on him and shoving him around. He’s got no meat on him.”

McFarland chose the Deacons over Boston College, Marquette, Texas and Southern Cal, visiting all of those schools except Texas.

“Chas wanted to play in the ACC,” Reilly said. “That’s what it came down to, plus he really liked Skip Prosser and his staff.”

Scoring 2,000 career points is quite an accomplishment, so it’s really rare when teammates in the same class reach that plateau. But, then, Wayne Ellington and Gerald Henderson did a lot of special things at Merion (Pa.) Episcopal Academy.

Ellington, a 6-4 wing guard, finished his career with 2,211 points. Henderson, a 6-5 small forward, had 2,059. They will be ACC rivals next year as Ellington has signed with UNC and Henderson with Duke.

Another UNC signee, 6-5 William Graves of Greensboro Dudley, set a record by scoring 30 points in Saturday’s Carolinas All-Star Game played in Rock Hill, S.C. South Carolina won, 121-98.

Kyle Singler, a 6-8 power forward from Medford (Ore.) South, has narrowed his field to Duke and UCLA. The No. 9 junior in the country, as ranked by prepstars.com, eliminated UNC, Kansas and Arizona.

Florida State leads for Jamar Moore, a 6-5 junior small forward from Thomasville (Ga.) High School. N.C. State, Georgia Tech, Georgia and South Carolina are still trying.

Wake Forest, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia and Florida are the final five in the chase for 6-8 junior power forward Patrick Patterson of Huntington (West Va.) High.

Derrick Rose, a 6-2 junior combination guard from Chicago (Ill.) Simeon, tops his list with Illinois, Kansas and UNC.

Virginia is among the schools offering a scholarship to 6-10 JaJuan Johnson, a junior center from Indianapolis (Ind.) Franklin Central. Also offering are Missouri, Xavier, Purdue and Indiana State.

Another 6-10 junior, DeAndre Jordan, has offers from Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Kansas, Connecticut, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.

Wake and Maryland join Nebraska in Roburt Sallie’s top three. Sallie, a 6-5 wing guard who is a fifth-year senior at Lenoir Patterson School, committed to Washington, then backed off.

posted by: wakeforest at 06:33 | link | comments |