Of all the casualties of the unbalanced ACC season, the home-and-homes with Wake Forest are probably the most painful to me (the other contender for that is the Virginia games). There was always a great, understated rivalry there, from the 1992 rally from 22 points down capped with the Brian Reese buzzer beater to Randolph Childress's epic performance in the 1995 ACC Championship to the Tim Duncan years to the triple overtime game in Roy Williams' inaugural season. Expansion being what it is, this is the only scheduled matchup between the third-ranked Heels and the fourth-ranked Demon Deacons - Wake won't be coming to the Dean Dome. Not that a return engagement in Georgia would be particularly surprising though.

Wake's a young team, with freshman Al-Farouq Aminu getting a lion's share of the attention for hoovering up rebounds and blocks. he two sophomores, Jeff Teague and James Johnson are the big threat though, combining for over four steals a game and a third of the team's shots. This is among the most highly rated defenses in the country, although their schedule to this point as ben on the soft side and UNC stands as their first big test. The Heels should win, but then again, I'm prone to think that about all games, so should you really be listening to me? It's the 8 pm game on FSN or whatever cable channel rebrands it in your neck of the woods (For me, it's Comcast. Joy.) and shouldn't be missed.

Consider this the open-thread type thing.