Don’t Like Today’s Sweet 16? There Are That Many Games Friday Too

On the eve of his team’s first-round NCAA tournament game against Pepperdine, Wake Forest Coach Skip Prosser sounded more prepared for baseball’s opening day.

“I doubt this will be a pitcher’s duel,” Prosser said. “You know, a 1-0 game. I think it will be relatively up-tempo.”

The Demon Deacons couldn’t stop talking about athletes.

Pepperdine has lots of them. Wake Forest’s best one is hurting.

“They really harken to mind Arkansas in terms of how athletic they are,” Prosser said. “Although I think their post guys are better than Arkansas’ post guys. I think that we have problems when we throw the ball to the other team and they’re the kind of team that can take the basketball away from you. So I think it behooves us to take care of the ball because when we take care of the ball we score a lot of baskets. And they score a lot of baskets.”

Pepperdine Coach Paul Westphal was of the same mind.

“Our team is quick and versatile,” he said. “Our strength is our aggressiveness. Early in the year, we were more a three-point team. Since mid-December, we’ve been more balanced and versatile.”

Wake Forest junior forward Josh Howard, the team’s second-leading scorer and rebounder and its most athletic player, is still bothered by a high left ankle sprain.

“He did not practice yesterday,” Prosser said. “We’ll see how he runs around [Wednesday] afternoon.

“This is a game that really lends itself well to Josh’s abilities, because it should be an open-court game. Lacking Josh Howard and Steve Lepore [a backup guard who ruptured the tendon in his left knee in the ACC tournament], that really limits our options. Especially on the perimeter.”

The Waves are more concerned with Wake Forest’s inside game, especially when it comes to rebounding.

“Wake Forest looks really tough on the boards,” guard Craig Lewis said. “The key will be for us to crash the boards. We know they have a powerful rebounding team.”

The Deacons outrebounded opponents by an average of three a game. Pepperdine was outrebounded by an average of 39.4 to 37.9, but in their eight losses, the Waves were outrebounded by 11.4 per game.

Wake Forest is the No. 7 seed and Pepperdine is the No. 10 seed. Wake Forest knows all too well that the seedings won’t matter once play begins. As the No. 7 seed last year, the Demon Deacons lost to 10th-seeded Butler in the opening round of the tournament.

In an unusual statistic, Pepperdine’s Cedric Suitt had as many blocked shots (92) as points.

“I take pride in guarding my man and stopping anybody else who comes to the basket,” the 6-foot-11 senior said. “I don’t feel the need to go out and score. We have five guys on the team who average double figures [in points].”

Don’t expect Darius Songaila, Wake Forest’s leading scorer, to be intimidated.

“You have to attack,” he said. “You can’t back off, you can’t back down. If you’re gonna be scared, thinking about if the other guy is gonna block your shot every time you go up there, then that’s what’s gonna happen.”

After traveling to Buffalo for its NCAA tournament appearances in 2000, Pepperdine got to stay closer to Malibu this time.

Wake Forest had to make the cross-country trip, to a state that has not been kind to it. The Demon Deacons have lost their last three games in California.

But Pepperdine never has beaten a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference in 11 tries.