Wake Forest's road trip this weekend should be a lot less stressful
Theres good news for the Wake Forest basketball team this week in its continuous travel odyssey that includes Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Sure, thats a good movie starring John Candy and Steve Martin from 1987, but the Demon Deacons have lived through their own version.
While getting the much-needed win at SMU on Saturday night their flight home was diverted, and they had to spend an extra night in Louisiana before finally arriving back on campus on Sunday afternoon.
The good news is the Demon Deacons will travel by bus for the short trip to Raleigh on Saturday to take on NC State at 2 p.m.
We tried to fly around the storm, Forbes said about the chartered flight that left Saturday night after the game from Dallas.
Wake Forest's Parker Friedrichsen had his best game of his career on Saturday scoring 18 points in 30 minutes.
Coach Steve Forbes said it was Friedrichsen's hard work that got him out of his slump.
Forbes said the plan was to go to Montgomery, Alabama and refuel then head home but the flight was altered yet again.
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By the time we got into Louisiana, it was rough, Forbes said about the bumpy flight.
I've been in some rough situations on airplanes, but that one would be right there in the top three.
Forbes said that Frank Davis, the director of basketball operations, worked extremely hard to get the travelling party of around 40 into hotels late Saturday night and had a flight scheduled out of Louisiana on Sunday.
Frank Davis is an absolute superstar, Forbes said.
We got 40 plus people off the plane, stood on the tarmac, and (Davis) got two hotels and we had transportation and took about 10 Ubers to two different hotels.
As luck would have it the Demon Deacons, who are in fourth place in the ACC with a chance for the double bye in the ACC Tournament, dont have a game during the week.
This will give them time to heal up Cam Hildreths foot injury and the long grind of the season that is taking its toll.
On their road trip to and from California earlier this month the Demon Deacons had to fight through delays in getting back to campus.
It gives Hunter (Sallis) some rest, it gives Cameron more time to be ready to play on Saturday afternoon, and it gives the guys that are playing a lot of minutes some time, Forbes said about not having a midweek game.
He helped Demon Deacons to a win on Saturday at SMU Hildreth didnt play in the win over SMU but Forbes said its likely that Hildreth will play against the Wolfpack.
Hildreth had a staph infection in his foot and a contusion that kept him out of the SMU game.
Its just day to day, Forbes said.
I would be surprised if he doesnt play on Saturday.
I think this week will really help him.
As the Demon Deacons continue to drive toward their first NCAA Tournament berth in Forbes five seasons theyll have to continue to win on the road.
They are 6-4 away from Joel Coliseum with five games left in the regular season.
Were a little bit older, Forbes said about a key to that success on the road.
Hunter, Efton (Reid), Cam have been through it and TreVon Spillers as well, You just got to be tough and resilient on the road and you have to win defensively because sometimes on the road the shots arent falling.
Forbes has loved how his team has responded after losses and that was evident on Saturday against SMU.
They were coming off the disheartening home loss to Florida State.
I think this team is just a lot better defensively as a unit, and they just have a toughness to them about no matter what's going on in the game, they believe in themselves, Forbes said about his team that's 19-7 overall and 11-4 in the ACC.
One of the key players in these last five games will be sophomore Parker Friedrichsen, who had his best game of his career Saturday night.
With Hildreth out, Friedrichsen played a career-high 30 minutes with a season-high 18 points on 6 of 9 shooting.
After Christmas I sat down with him and said What can I do to help you? Forbes said.
Ill do anything to help you and he said No, its me.
Ive got to play my way out of it.' Forbes said he was extremely proud of how Friedrichsen battled back and did come out of his slump.
He played just seven minutes in the Florida State loss and didnt play at all in the win over Cal.
I think one of the greatest things about basketball is you get what you deserve and you get what you put into it, Forbes said.
And Parker is a guy that puts a lot into it, not just in practice, but on his own.
I was so happy for him.
I think half of his hometown was there (in Dallas).
"It was a great feeling for him and his family, and his friends and our team believes in him.
[email protected] 336-727-4081 @johndellWSJ Tuesday's Games Syracuse at Pitt, ACCN, 7 p.m.
Virginia Tech at Boston College, ACCN 9 p.m.
Wednesday's Games NC State at North Carolina, ESPN, 7 p.m.
SMU at Notre Dame, ACCN, 7 p.m.
Miami at Florida State, ACCN, 9 p.m.
Saturday's Games Florida State at Louisville, The CW, Noon Wake Forest at NC State, ESPN2, 2 p.m.
Georgia Tech at Boston College, ACCN, 2 p.m.
Pitt at Notre Dame, The CW, 2:15 p.m.
Clemson at SMU, ACCN, 4 p.m.
Virginia at North Carolina, ESPN, 4 p.m.
Virginia Tech at Miami, ACCN, 6 p.m.
Illinois vs Duke, FOX, 8 p.m.
California at Stanford, ESPN2, 10 p.m.
Noteworthy Duke (2), Louisville (26), Clemson (27), SMU (40), North Carolina (47) and Pitt (51) are the highest rated ACC teams in the NCAA's latest NET rankings.
Up to No.
58 in the Monday NET rankings following its Quad 1 win at SMU, Wake Forest has moved up 42 spots since December 31.
Duke ranks No.
2 nationally in the latest KenPom ratings.
Louisville (23), Clemson (25), SMU (45) and UNC (48) also are among the top 50 teams.
Duke, Clemson and Louisville are nationally ranked this week.
Duke is No.
3 nationally in the latest Associated Press and USA Today rankings.
Clemson is No.
18 in the AP poll and No.
17 according to USA Today, while Louisville re-entered the AP (25) and USA Today (22) polls this week.
Louisville's four-game win streak is tied for the third-longest active streak among power conference teams, behind only Michigan (6) and Texas A&M (5).
Duke (16), Louisville (10), Clemson (6), Wake Forest (6) and SMU (5) also have had long win streaks in recent weeks.
In KenPom's non-conference strength of schedule ratings, UNC is No.
6 nationally and tops among power conference teams.
Duke is No.
38, Louisville is No.
42, Pitt is No.
59 and Clemson No.
83.
Among power conference teams, Duke is ninth, Louisville 10th, Pitt 13th and Clemson 18th.
Georgia Tech's Naithan George was named ACC Player of the Week on Monday, while Duke's Cooper Flagg was tabbed ACC Rookie of the Week.
Flagg was named ACC Rookie of the Week for the 10th time, which matches a league record (Kenny Anderson, GT, 1990; Tyler Hansbrough, UNC, 2006; Jabari Parker, Duke, 2014).
Cooper Flagg (Duke), Chucky Hepburn (Louisville) and Maxime Raynaud (Stanford) were among the 30 players named to the Naismith Trophy Midseason Team on Friday.
Louisville's Reyne Smith leads the nation in 3-pointers made per game at 3.85, which is on pace to be the most by an ACC player since Duke's J.J.
Redick averaged 3.9 per game during the 2005-06 season.
He is tied for the national lead in 3-pointers made with 100.
Stanford's Maxime Raynaud leads the nation in double-doubles with 20 (in 26 games), matching a school single-season record.
Raynaud (11.3) ranks third nationally in rebounds per game.
Raynaud leads the ACC and ranks 14th nationally in scoring at 19.9 points per game, while Duke's Cooper Flagg is 20th at 19.8 (tied for first nationally among freshmen).
Duke (38.4%) ranks seventh nationally in FG percentage defense, while Wake Forest (39.2%) is 13th.
The Blue Devils are first nationally in scoring margin (+20.2 ppg) and sixth in scoring defense (60.8 ppg).
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