Wake Forest

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Atlantic Coast Conference (19-10, 9-7)

 

The worst possible thing to do this time of the year when you're not assured of an NCAA Tournament bid is to lose. Of course there's the obvious statement that no one likes to come out on the short end, but there's also the issue of no longer being able to make your case on the court. That's the position that Memphis and UAB now find themselves in as a result of quarterfinal losses at the Conference USA Tournament in Tulsa. The Tigers lost to Houston 66-65 when an Aubrey Coleman floater with five seconds remaining gave the Cougars a one-point lead.

Clemson

Duke

Florida St

Georgia Tech

Maryland

Virginia Tech

Wake Forest

Other (Boston College, Miami, NC State, Virginia)

Clemson (20-8, 8-6, #27 RPI)

Florida St (20-8, 8-6, #42)

Georgia Tech (19-9, 7-7, #33)

Virginia Tech (21-7, 8-6, #52)

Wake Forest (18-8, 8-6, #29)

Cole Aldrich (Kansas)

Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest)

Da'Sean Butler (West Virginia)

Sherron Collins (Kansas)

DeMarcus Cousins (Kentucky)

Luke Harangody (Notre Dame)

Wesley Johnson (Syracuse)

Scottie Reynolds (Villanova)

Jon Scheyer (Duke)

Evan Turner (Ohio St)

John Wall (Kentucky)

Other (Anderson, Hummel, James, Vasquez, etc)

Mississippi State, who hasn't done enough to sew up an NCAA bid to this point in the season, has a great opportunity to do so in Starkville on Tuesday night. Kentucky comes calling on ESPN in a game that matches up likely lottery pick big men in DeMarcus Cousins and Jarvis Varnado. With an RPI of 58 and an overall strength of schedule of 118 (numbers courtesy of realtimerpi.com) they need at the least a solid effort if they're to be a part of the NCAA Tournament.

Al-Farouq Aminu (Wake Forest - 16.0, 11.0, 1.5)

Luke Babbitt (Nevada - 21.3, 9.7, 1.9)

Jordan Crawford (Xavier - 19.7, 4.8, 2.8)

Sylven Landesburg (Virginia - 18.1, 5.2, 2.9)

Greg Monroe (Georgetown - 15.4, 9.5, 3.6)

Isaiah Thomas (Washington - 17.4, 4.4, 2.6)

Klay Thompson (Washington St - 21.1, 4.8, 2.5)

Willie Warren (Oklahoma - 16.2, 3.5, 4.2)

Elliot Williams (Memphis 19.2, 4.3, 3.9)

Other (Davis, Ebanks, English, Fortson, Green, Rosario, Thompkins, Walker, White)

Thoughts on how tonight's games may effect NCAA Tournament selections & seeding..

#2 Villanova vs Seton Hall
-- Villanova is obviously a tourney lock, but their main concerns are winning the Big East and earning a #1 seed.
-- Seton Hall has some nice home wins, but hasn't won a road game since November 20th at Cornell. A win over Nova would go a long way to help their dimming hopes.

#3 Kentucky vs Ole Miss
-- Kentucky, like Nova above, is all about winning the SEC and earning a #1 seed.

Two big games in the ACC and another in the Big Ten highlight Thursday's schedule. Wake Forest visits Atlanta in a homecoming game for Al-Farouq Aminu, but he and the rest of the Demon Deacon frontcourt will have their hands full. Derrick Favors, Gani Lawal and Zachary Peacock make up one of the more talented frontcourt trios in the nation and lead a Yellow Jacket squad that can expect multiple NBA scouts every night. But that has little bearing on whether or not Paul Hewitt's team wins games, with the backcourt being the key.