Final Four for the Demon Deacons?

Wake Forest, the newly-appointed top team in college basketball, is undefeated through sixteen games and a seriously contender for the NCAA championship. Over the past two weeks, the Demon Deacons have knocked off North Carolina, once-undefeated Clemson, and Boston College, the team that beat UNC in Chapel Hill. Behind the impressive play of sophomore point guard Jeff Teague, Wake has opened eyes not only in North Carolina, but around the country.

Teague, who is averaging 21.4 PPG, 4 RPG, 4.1 APG, and 2.1 SPG, is arguably the best guard in the nation. Not only is he scoring, rebounding, and dishing out assists, he is doing it efficiently. The sophomore is shooting 53% from the field and 82% from the line, in addition to shooting 52% from downtown. These numbers are amazing considering that Teague shoots from behind the three-point line often (almost 3 attempts per game). However, perhaps Teague’s greatest asset is his defensive play. Not only does he rack up steals that turn into dunks in the open floor (he had four such dunks against BC), he moves his feet very quickly and does not allow his opponent to penetrate into the lane.

Take the game at Boston College, for instance. Tyrese Rice, BC’s primary guard, committed 8 turnovers to go along with only 4 assists. Teague, who forced the majority of those turnovers, turned them into highlight reel dunks on the other end. Teague forced Rice to play one-on-one basketball and not get his teammates involved, which shows in the fact that 7 of Rice’s 13 field goal attempts were from downtown. Since he could not get in the lane and dish out to open guys like Joe Trapani (who shot 3-8 from downtown; all of which were contested) on the perimeter, he settled for threes. This type of game did work for Rice and his stats, who shot 4-7 from three and had 20 points in total, but it resulted in a twenty-point loss in the end. Because of this style of play, Rakim Sanders, BC’s second scorer, scored only 4 points in the game and committed 5 turnovers. On the contrary, Jeff Teague finished the game with 29 points off of 10-17 shooting and a couple of steals.

In terms of the combination of outside shooting, ability to penetrate, and defense, Jeff Teague is the best guard in the nation. His explosiveness has Wake Forest at 16-0 for the season and poised for a trip to the Final Four in Detroit. Having already beaten teams like UNC and Clemson, the Demon Deacons have shown that they can not only hang with the best out there, but beat them.