100% COTTEN
11/20/2004 12:00:00 AM | General
Nov. 20, 2004
by Stan Cotton
(At 30,000 feet - somewhere between today and tomorrow.)
As a long day began to wind down for Wake Forest at the Orange Bowl, it began to sink in that we were in that transition season that comes along each November as football melts into winter, and basketball springs forth to dominate the college sports landscape. It's a time to reflect on what football has produced and what basketball might.
In the case of Wake Forest, the promise of tomorrow's football Deacs on their way up is replaced by the hope of today's basketball team that heads for the grand stage that is New York's Madison Square Garden with it's most lofty national ranking since Tim Duncan.
The football season has been incredibly entertaining, yet brutally cruel. Miami's 52-7 victory over the Demon Deacons marked the first time this entire season that Wake did not lead or tie the game in the fourth quarter. It was the first loss of the season that came by a deficit that exceeded seven points. It was the first loss of the season that could not have just as easily been a win.
Instead of hoping for a win as the game wound down, this time the youthful Deacons were looking forward to this plane ride home to do what they have done all season. Get back to work - win or lose.
The tease that has been the 2004 season is nearing its end. But the corner and 2005 are not far away, and there is much work to be done.
And so as the final week of football and basketball together approaches as quickly as the Deacs' charter speeds from South Florida back to Winston-Salem, thoughts begin to shift to the team whose promise may be here and now. Although the season is just cracking its shell, it's difficult not to let the mind wander and believe what the pundits are saying. That Chris Paul might be the best player in the country. That Wake Forest will win the ACC.
That Wake Forest will make the Final Four.
Could this really be true? Sure it could. Will it? Who knows, but somebody has to advance that far. And it might as well be Skip Prosser's Demon Deacons.
Last season's Sweet Sixteen trip by the Deacs was the tease, and with everyone back Wake Forest has become a favorite of the media. Ranked second in the first Associated Press poll of the season behind Kansas, the Deacons got more first place votes than any other team. On the AP pre-season All-America squad, Chris Paul got more votes than any other member. And in its first two games of the season, both in the Pre-Season NIT, Wake Forest handily disposed of the team picked to win the A-10 - George Washington - and the team that took the Deacs to the wire in the first round of last season's NCAA Tournament - Virginia Commonwealth. Two quality RPI wins already in the barn with a 3-game week on the horizon. A tournament type stretch for a team that some say is built for the postseason. Tough guards - and weapons at every position.
For now, this is all a dream. There will be bumps and turns along the way. And losses. After all, this is the ACC. But when you look into the eyes of the Deacs you see what they see - a confidence that this is their time or that it certainly could be.
It's the same look that is beginning to develop in the eyes of the Deacs whose gridiron season is nearly over.
A look of confidence that tomorrow is coming.
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