THE CASE FOR WAKE

Wake Forest held off a late charge from Duke, cruised by North Carolina with perfect free-throw shooting and beat a healthy Georgia Tech team. In fact, Wake has triumphed over every team in the ACC.

Furthermore, the Demon Deacons are the only team to beat every ACC squad at full strength. Wake beat Duke with Sean Dockery and Shavlik Randolph, North Carolina with Rashad McCants and Georgia Tech with B.J. Elder.

Wake Forest’s rapid offense is the main reason it has beaten so many conference foes. Led by sophomore guard Chris Paul, Wake is the third-highest scoring team in the nation at 85.4 points per game. To complement the transition game, Wake also can feed the ball inside to the dominant Eric Williams.

On the perimeter, the threesome of senior Taron Downey, Justin Gray and Paul attract attention away from Williams by combining to hit more than five three-pointers a game. Even when the Demon Deacons lose, it is not because of a sluggish offense: Wake averaged 92 points per game in its three ACC losses.

Wake Forest is able to play at a breakneck speed because of its depth. The Demon Deacons feature eight players that average double-digit minutes and their bench production has been notable, contributing more than 24 points per game.

If anything stands in the way of Wake Forest’s fifth ACC Tournament Championship, it is its mediocre defense. The team ranks ninth in the ACC in scoring defense and allows opponents to shoot 37 percent from behind the arc.

The biggest test of the tournament for Wake Forest may be the quarterfinal game. The Demon Deacons will be without their offensive catalyst Paul. Fortunately for Wake, it will face either seventh-seeded N.C. State, which it defeated twice, or 10th-seeded Florida State, which it crushed by 39 points in their last meeting.

Wake comes into the tournament riding a four-game win streak and will make it a seven-game run by claiming the ACC Tournament crown for the first time since Tim Duncan ruled Winston-Salem.