BYU Cougars could make statement vs. Deacons

PROVO — When BYU officials scheduled a home-and-home series with Wake Forest a few years back, they were elated just to get an Atlantic Coast Conference team to come to the Marriott Center.

But having the Demon Deacons carrying a No. 6 ranking and bringing a 12-0 record with them makes tonight's game an even larger deal. The fact the 11-1 Cougars are off to their best start in 21 years is another added bonus that makes the game an even more intriguing matchup.

"We've told our players this is a really important game for us on the national level, but this isn't going to make or break our season," Cougar coach Dave Rose said. "But we are excited to play this game."

To a man, the Cougars claim to be keeping tonight's game in perspective — even though a win over Wake Forest would likely launch the Cougars into the national rankings and continue their nation's longest 53-game home winning streak.

"It's more of a game where we need to prove to ourselves that we can play with a team like that," junior forward Jonathan Tavernari said.

Also, the Cougars say it's also just another test and a step in preparing for what really matters — conference play and earning a spot in the NCAA tournament.

"We need to play well because we've got seven, eight and nine other really good teams coming in here over the next few months, so that's what we need to do," Rose said.

Still, there's no denying what tonight's game means to BYU's program and the Cougar fans. Wake Forest is the highest-ranked non-conference team the Cougars have ever faced in the Marriott Center. In 1984, BYU hosted No. 7 Washington and upset the Huskies 84-75.

When the teams met a year ago at Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons handled the Cougars with ease, 79-62. Rose said the Cougars were able to do some good things last year offensively, but were not sharp in several areas and struggled defensively.

"We got in foul trouble, we played a lot of different lineups and we tried to find something that would work for us, and we never really settled in defensively. Hopefully, we can do a better job of that this time," Rose said.

Wake Forest — deep, big and athletic — has all five starters back from that squad. Sophomore guard Jeff Teague leads the Deacons in scoring 18.8 with points per game, followed closely by forwards Al-Farouq Aminu (12.9) and James Johnson (12.8), with center Chris McFarland (10.3) and guard L.D. Williams (9.1), giving Wake Forest five solid scoring threats.