• Top-ranked team coming off a big emotional win against arch-rival? Check.
• Talented but inconsistent team jacked up and laying in the weeds? Check.
• Road trip to one of the toughest places to play in the league? Check.

All systems are go. Initiate upset countdown.

1. I’ll start with what was positive about the Wake trip to Tallahassee. First, Chris Paul is, in fact, the best point guard in the country. He may be the best player period. Playing more or less by himself, he carried his team within a hair of a win that they absolutely, positively did not deserve. The way the rest of the team played they should have lost by 50. And second, how about that free throw record? 50 in a row is just ridiculous. Whatever Skip has had the boys doing to improve their aim from the line, he needs to call Tom Emansky about boxing it up and selling some. Of course, you hit 50 in a row and then gak the one that would win you the game….

2. If you thought the Wake team that showed up against Illinois was done for good this season, you now know you were wrong. The Deacs didn’t guard the perimeter. They didn’t rebound (although the stat sheet says we only got outboarded by one – sure didn’t feel that way watching the game). They didn’t move the ball (outassisted by four). They didn’t seem to have the basic quickness to guard anybody that the ‘Noles trotted out there – on three or four occasions FSU players simply lowered their heads and outran their defenders to the basket – in the halfcourt set. And Danelius was just a bitch for anybody that wanted to take him into the paint and throw a spin move at him.

3. Wake has a great backcourt, but the problem right now is that they sometimes forget they have a post game they can go to, and the other night Eric Williams might as well have been in witness protection. Never mind that FSU doesn’t have anybody who can guard him in the paint – the only goal when things start to go bad is to find new and innovative ways of shaking Gray, Downey, and Danelius halfway open for bad perimeter shots. You might remember another game earlier this year when the Wake guards removed Williams from the game despite the fact he was the best option on the floor. Right – Illinois.

4. soccerplaya47 was right about Von Wafer – the Wake D made him look like Mike. I mean, come on – how many feckin’ threes does a player or a team have to drain on you before it occurs to you that maybe you ought to trot your lazy ass out there and guard somebody? (For the record, FSU hit 50% – 12-24 – from long range: Wafer 7-12, Galloway 3-5, Thornton 1-1…)

Okay, it was a bad night, and you’re going to have those in a league as good as this one. Fine. The problem is that I’m always going to wonder when the Mr. Hyde version of the team is going to show up again. If it happens in the Dance, we’ll be coming home early.