Chas McFarland News

The national reputation of No. 21 Gonzaga has been built mostly on a platform of fast breaks, outside shooting and sharp passing: A finesse game.

Omar Samhan scored 22 points and pulled down 17 rebounds, and visiting Saint Mary's squelched Utah State's home dominance with a 68-63 win at the Smith Spectrum in Logan, Utah, on Saturday night.

C.J. Harris posted 19 points as Wake Forest rallied from a 13-point first-half deficit to down 17th-ranked Gonzaga, 77-75. Ari Stewart had 17 points for the Demon Deacons , who snapped a two-game slide.

Typically, the only thing tougher than Gonzaga's non-conference basketball schedule in November is December.

E'Twaun Moore admitted he would have been shocked if, before Purdue's ACC/Big Ten Challenge game against Wake Forest on Tuesday night, someone would have told him the Boilermakers would shoot as poorly as they did against the Demon Deacons and still win.

In the first 10 seasons in the existence of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, the Big Ten hasn't won the event a single time.

Wake Forest prepared for its first big road test of the season by failing what some might have considered a pop quiz.

Danny Sumner held the ball in his hands just outside the 3-point line as the shot clock read 1 second.

For about eight minutes on Tuesday night Winston-Salem State went toe-to-toe with Wake Forest, but there ain't gonna be no rematch.

Almost all the eyes in Joel Coliseum followed the ball. Late in the first half of Wake Forest's 83-60 win over High Point on Wednesday night, the Deacons' Ari Stewart fired a jumper from the left corner.

SALEM Wake Forest went to a smaller lineup to come up with a bigger result. That eventually worked out as the Demon Deacons wore out High Point 83-60 in Wednesday night's non-league men's basketball game at Joel Coliseum.

SALEM, N.C. Oral Roberts University played its best basketball in the second half but couldn't overcome Wake Forest 's towering front line and sophomore forward Al-Farouq Aminu's second-half explosion.

East Carolina isn't jumping from frying pan to fire as much as it is going from hair dryer to welding torch.

There should be no mistaking the identity that Wake Forest wants to develop during the 2009-10 basketball season, which will start with tonight's home game against Oral Roberts.

David Weaver looks a little surprised when asked the question, and then smiles as he ponders the fact that he is a few months away from the end of his college basketball career.

Dino Gaudio gets a little defensive when he talks about last season's Wake Forest basketball team.

Seven and a half months later, senior L.D. Williams can't get the aftertaste of the Deacons' 84-69 NCAA Tournament loss to 13th-seeded Cleveland State out of his mouth.

To have any outside shot at contending for an ACC title, Wake Forest will have to make outside shots.

Wake Forest will be looking for a big start to a big season with a big lineup in tonight's exhibition against Indiana, Pa., at 7:30 at Joel Coliseum.

Entering his third season at the helm of the Wake Forest basketball program, Dino Gaudio has posted a 41-20 record... after a 17-13 mark in 2007-08, Gaudio's Deacons burst onto the national scene in 2008-09, finishing 24-7 overall and 11-5 in the ACC... Wake Forest spent the entire season ranked in the top 25, including a No.