FACTS & STATS: Site: Lawrence Joel Coliseum (14,665) -- Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Television: None. Home Record: NC Central 0-0, Wake Forest 0-0. Away Record: NC Central 0-0, Wake Forest 0-0. Neutral Record: NC Central 0-0, Wake Forest 0-0. Conference Record: NC Central 0-0, Wake Forest 0-0. Series Record: Wake Forest leads, 1-0.

GAME NOTES: The 21st-ranked Wake Forest Demon Deacons open the 2008-09 season at home against North Carolina Central in what appears to be a lopsided matchup.

The Eagles played their first Division I schedule in 2007-08, and the result was a 4-26 finish. Clearly, if the program wants to boost the confidence of its players heading into year two, scheduling an opener against Wake Forest isn't helping matters. Henry Dickerson, the head coach of the program, welcomes back three starters and seven total letterwinners.

Wake Forest is ranked in the preseason AP poll for the first time since 2005 and has won 14 straight season openers. The Demon Deacons have also won 44 straight home games against non-conference in-state opponents, a streak they will attempt to keep alive tonight. They return their top three scorers from a year ago, and Dino Gaudio is hoping to lead the program back to the NCAA Tournament.

Wake Forest won its only previous meeting with NCCU by a 75-58 final last season.

The three returning starters for North Carolina Central will be counted on heavily to lead the Eagles in 2008-09. The backcourt is led by a pair of senior guards, Bryan Ayala and J'Mell Walters. Ayala, a 6-3 performer, scored 13.0 ppg a season ago and dished out a team-high 119 assists. As for Walters, he did a good job of distributing, but he needs to be a bit more active at the offensive end. The best frontcourt player for NCCU is Joshua Worthy, who is more of a slasher than a banger at 6-5, 205. Worthy wasn't much of a scorer last season, but there is reason to believe that he will be a much more steady offensive contributor in 2008-09.

Wake Forest won a respectable 17 games last season, including a stellar 15-2 mark at Lawrence Joel Coliseum. As mentioned above, the Deacs return their top three scorers from a year ago, and although Wake only averaged 72.2 ppg, an infusion of young talent could have this team closer to 80 points per game this year. One of the top frontcourt players in the ACC, sophomore James Johnson, is coming off a stellar freshman season in which he led the Demon Deacons in scoring (14.6 ppg) and rebounding (8.1 rpg), while shooting .487 from the floor. The backcourt is loaded with scorers Jeff Teague (13.9 ppg) and L.D. Williams (8.9 ppg) and point guard Ishmael Smith (8.6 ppg, team-high 141 assists). Smith sat out a recent exhibition game with a foot injury, and his status is questionable. Johnson also missed that game, but expect him to play in this opener. The key to Wake's revival this year will be perhaps the school's greatest recruiting class, starting with low post monsters Ty Walker and Tony Woods.

Clearly, this game is an obvious mismatch. Expect Wake Forest to explode to an early lead and never look back.

Predicted Outcome

Wake Forest 90, North Carolina Central 59