Dino Gaudio is embracing Wake Forest's newfound fame.
Prior to the Demon Deacons' monster win Saturday night at BYU, which ended the Cougars' 53-game home-court winning streak, Gaudio told his players to get ready for the big stage.
"I told them they deserve it and showed them the attendance of BYU games," Gaudio said Sunday night in a phone interview. "One game was 15,000, another one was 12,000, another one was 13,000, and I told them, 'You know why there will be 23,000? To see you."'
Gaudio said the stage was big-time. I used to cover the WAC in the 1990s when BYU was in that league. I've seen the Marriott Center at its best for games against the Cougars' hated rival Utah. Unfortunately, mainstream hoop fans may not truly appreciate what Wake Forest accomplished by winning in Provo, Utah.
"It was an incredible atmosphere," Gaudio said. "There were 2,000 kids outside in the cold at 11 a.m. at our shootaround. You could hear the rumbling when we walked in the arena."
Gaudio said he was hoping BYU's students wouldn't be in full force since the Cougars played at Wake Forest last season when Wake's students weren't in session. BYU wasn't in school Saturday, but the students were still well represented.
"Cameron is Cameron, but this was like Cameron with 23,000 people," Gaudio said of Wake's 94-87 win over a previously one-loss BYU team. "You couldn't hear the refs' whistles. There were a few stoppage of plays where I was dumbfounded because I couldn't hear the whistles."
Gaudio said the difference in this season's Demon Deacons' team is its maturity and body language.
"We say the right stuff in timeouts, everybody is in the game on the bench and I'm just seeing so much more basketball maturation," he said.
The undefeated Demon Deacons are 13-0, including wins against UTEP and Baylor in Anaheim and road wins against Richmond, East Carolina and now BYU.
"That says a lot," Gaudio said. "[Saturday night] was an incredibly difficult venue. We're growing up. We're still young, but we're growing up."
Next up for Wake is North Carolina, which has a nonconference game against the College of Charleston on Wednesday, but is coming off an ACC season-opening loss at home to Boston College.
The Demon Deacons host Carolina on Sunday.
"It will be electric," Gaudio said. "It'll be off the charts."
• Sunday was quite a day in hoops:
-- The upset of the night was obviously Boston College's win over UNC.
-- With the BC shocker, perhaps lost in the shuffle was Louisville nearly giving away its game to Kentucky with two turnovers in the final seconds, only to have Edgar Sosa bury a long 3-pointer to save the Cardinals from consecutive home losses.
-- The undercard game of the day was between Portland State and Northern Arizona, which played four overtimes before the 2008 Big Sky champs from Oregon beat the Lumberjacks in Flagstaff, 92-91.
• The turnaround of the weekend goes to Oregon State. The Beavers snapped a 21-game Pac-10 losing streak by upsetting USC in overtime, 62-58, in Corvallis. Oregon State's previous Pac-10 win came Feb. 22, 2007 against Washington. The last time the Beavers had won an overtime game was Dec. 6, 2003 against Kansas State. Oregon State coach Craig Robinson, coaching in only his second Pac-10 game, saw the Beavers get hammered by UCLA, 69-46, in the Pac-10 opener Friday night.
• Not to be outdone with a reversal effort was Stanford. The Cardinal lost by 30 at home to Arizona State in the Pac-10 opener Friday and then beat Arizona by 16 on Sunday.
• Cal is 2-0 in the Pac-10 after protecting its homecourt by sweeping Arizona and Arizona State. Jerome Randle contributed 26 points and 10 assists against the Sun Devils on Sunday.
• Michigan got a must-win by beating Illinois at home this weekend, after dropping a home game earlier in the week to Wisconsin.
• Southern Illinois is now 0-3 in the Missouri Valley after losing to Drake at home.
• Fairfield, which hoped to challenge Siena and Niagara for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title, dropped its second straight game, this time to Iona. The Stags are now 2-2 in the league, while Siena is 4-0.
• So much for an East Coast swing for Santa Clara. The Broncos played at Harvard and at New Hampshire this weekend. They lost both.
• Marquette held serve at home in the Big East for its second straight home win, this time pummeling Cincinnati by 34.
• Praising the Big East is commonplace lately. But look at the margin of victory for some of the games: Georgetown won by 11 over Connecticut; Syracuse beat Seton Hall by 24; Providence beat St. John's by 21; Pitt beat Georgetown by 16; West Virginia beat Seton Hall by 26; UConn beat Rutgers by 31; Marquette beat Cincinnati by 34.
• According to a Pittsburgh athletic department spokesperson, the Panthers have been ranked second in both polls 16 previous times, most recently in December 2006. Pitt was also in position to be No. 1 twice in 2002-03 and once in 2006-07, but weren't quite able to get there. Expect the Panthers to take the top spot for the first time in school history this week.
Andy Katz
