Saturday NCAA: Wake Forest (12-0) at BYU (11-1)
Saturday’s most intriguing college basketball is probably off the radar of most people, but the nation’s longest home winning streak is in major jeopardy when No. 6 Wake Forest visits BYU.
The Cougars have won 53 games in a row at their Marriott Center, but this should be the best team that BYU has faced in that stretch. Saturday night’s game is the first against a ranked foe in the Marriott Center since Feb. 3, 2007. And Wake is the highest ranked nonconference team to ever play at the Marriott Center and the first top-10 nonconference team to visit Provo since 1984.
But the Cougars are 2.5-point favorites on WagerWeb.com.
At 11-1 BYU is off to its best start since the 1987-88 season, but it lost to the lone ranked team it has played this season – against Arizona State at University of Phoenix Stadium. The Cougars are 17-61 all time against top-10 teams, including 7-13 in home games.
Wake, which is +125 on the WagerWeb.com money line, has one of the tallest starting fives in college basketball, with 7-foot junior center Chas McFarland (10.3 ppg.), 6-9 freshman forward Aminu Al-Farouq (12.9) and 6-9 sophomore James Johnson (12.8) on the front line. The leading scorer is guard Jeff Teague, at 18.8 points per game. Wake Forest averages 84.5 points per game and shoots 51.3 percent from the field as a team. The Deacons lead the nation with 43.9 rebounds a game.
“They’re an all-star team. They’re athletic,” BYU’s Jonathan Tavernari said. “From my point of view, they play like it’s an all-star game. Not a whole lot of defense. Not a lot of pressure on the ball.”
BYU’s leading scorers are guard Lee Cummard (18.4 points, 46 percent from 3-point range) and Tavernari, a swingman averaging 18.3 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds.
The Cougars also play up tempo, averaging 80.8 points a game and are 32-2 the past two seasons in games in which they scored at least 70 points.
Wake and BYU met last year, and the Deacons won easily, 79-62, in Winston-Salem. Teague had 26 points in that game.
This the last game for the Demon Deacons prior to a Jan. 11 visit from North Carolina in the teams’ only regular-season meeting, so a victory here and an upset or two on Saturday could see that matchup be No. 1 vs. No. 2.
NCAA Basketball Betting at WagerWeb.com
