W. Forest 79 – Providence 67
Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser is well-acquainted with the perils of the polls.
As head coach at Xavier, his Musketeers twice upset crosstown rival Cincinnati when the Bearcats were ranked No. 1.
The higher they’re ranked, the harder they fall.
So it was at practice on Tuesday that Prosser told his players that in last year’s Preseason NIT semifinal, Connecticut came into the Garden ranked No. 1 and was upset by Georgia Tech. Prosser reminded his Demon Deacons again last night before they took the Garden court against Providence in a Preseason NIT semifinal.
“Going into this game there was a lot of nervousness,” said center Eric Williams. “We didn’t know how to handle being No. 1. If you don’t think you’re No. 1, you won’t play like No. 1. The world expects us to be No. 1. So that’s what we have to be.”
For the first time in 99 years of hoops, the Demon Deacons rose to the ranking of No. 1 in the media poll earlier this week. And for the first 15 minutes of last night’s 79-67 win over Providence, Wake, ranked third by The Post, looked worthy.
“I thought the first 15 minutes we played about as well as we could play,” said Prosser. “And they had that 10-0 run at the end of the first half, certainly made us less than comfortable throughout the second half.”
The Demon Deacons (4-0) were leading 28-10 with 6:15 left before the Friars (3-1) got on Tom Coughlin time and started to play. The 10-0 run made it a 28-20 game at the half. Providence got as close as 46-42 in the second half.
But you don’t often dig out of an 18-point hole against the nation’s No. 1 team. So tomorrow night Wake will play the winner of the Michigan-Arizona game for the championship, and Providence will play the loser in the consolation game.
“We were in the NCAA Tournament last year,” said Providence coach Tim Welsh. “We got an All American player. We play in the Big East. We play in this building all the time. With respect to Wake, there was no eyes open in awe of playing the No. 1 team. We just didn’t play well for the first 15 minutes.”
The Friars got 24 points and nine rebounds from All-American Ryan Gomes and 23 points from emerging star Dwight Brewington. But Wake had four players in double figures, led by Justin Gray’s 21 points on 5-of-8 shooting from behind the arc.
Gray needed six stitches to close a gash above his right eye. He drained all of his 3’s after getting sewn up. When told he looked like Oscar de la Hoya, Gray quipped, “Yeah, but we won.”
Yes, Wake won. It took the school 99 years to get to No. 1, and the Deacons weren’t ready to surrender the ranking on the first night.
“I think without question it gives you added incentive,” Prosser said of the ranking. “Once the ball is tossed up, you can’t worry about things that we can’t control.”
Prosser knows you can’t control being No. 1. But you can manipulate the heck out of it.