Nov. 18, 2004 / 7:05 p.m. / Winston-Salem, NC Lawrence Joel Coliseum (14,665) Television: None.

Radio: Wake Forest/ISP Radio Network. Stan Cotten (play-by-play) and Mark Freidinger (color analysis) call the action. Chris Ferris is the producer/engineer.

Records: Wake Forest is 1-0 after beating visiting George Washington, 97-76, Monday night in the opening round of the Preseason NIT. Virginia Commonwealth is 1-0 following a 82-76 overtime win against visiting American Monday night.

Rankings: Wake Forest is ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll and No. 2 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. VCU is not ranked.

Coaches: Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser (U.S. Merchant Marine Academy) is 68-29 (.699) in his fourth season with the Demon Deacons, 233-107 (.685) in his 12th season overall. VCU coach Jeff Capel (Duke `97) is 42-18 in three seasons with the Rams, 42-18 in three seasons overall.

Series: Wake Forest leads, 1-0.

Officials: Announced on game day.

Virginia Commonwealth, which took Wake Forest to the wire before losing 79-78 in the opening round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament, is the Demon Deacons' opponent Thursday night in the second round of the Preseason NIT at Lawrence Joel Coliseum (7:05 pm/no TV).

Thursday's winner advances to the semifinals next Wednesday at Madison Square Garden in New York to face either Providence or Penn. The championship and consolation games are Nov. 26.

Wake Forest, 1-0, opened the season with a 97-76 victory over a talented George Washington team Monday night at Joel Coliseum. The Deacons led the Colonials by just five points (75-70) with 8:57 remaining before going on a 22-6 run to end the game.

All-American candidates Chris Paul (25 points, 6 assists) and Justin Gray (18 points, 7 steals) paced the Deacons, who shot 55.7 percent.

VCU, 1-0, went into overtime to beat visiting American Monday night, 82-76. The Rams, members of the Colonial Athletic Association, were led Monday by B.A. Walker (27 points) and Nick George (24 points).

- Wake Forest carries a No. 2 national ranking (AP and ESPN/USA Today polls), matching its highest ranking ever, into Thursday's game.

- The Demon Deacons are appearing in the Preseason NIT for the second time. In its only previous appearance in 2001, Wake Forest made it to the championship game before losing to Syracuse.

- Wake Forest has won 39 of its last 40 non-conference home games. The Deacons haven't lost a home game to an unranked team in the Skip Prosser era.

The winner of Thursday's Wake Forest-VCU game heads to New York City for Thanksgiving, the Macy's Parade and dinner at Tavern on the Green, not to mention to play a pair of basketball games.

The Preseason NIT semifinals are Wednesday at Madison Square Garden at 7 and 9:30 pm. The WFU-VCU winners plays either Providence or Penn in one semifinal. The Colorado-Michigan winner will play the Arizona-Wright State winner in the other semifinal.

Wake Forest is 4-1 in two Preseason NIT appearances.

Wake Forest has played in the Preseason NIT just once before -- the 2001-02 season, which was Skip Prosser's first year in Winston-Salem.

The Demon Deacons barely made it out of the first round that year. A last-second Darius Songaila field goal gave Wake Forest a 79-78 win over visiting UNC-Wilmington, which was threatening to spoil Prosser's debut.

Following the win over UNCW, Wake Forest won on the road at Arkansas, 76-71. In the semifinals at Madison Square Garden, the Deacons held on for a 62-61 win over 23rd-ranked Fresno State, then lost in the championship game two nights later to Syracuse, 74-67.

Wake Forest outscored George Washington 22-6 down the stretch to win its opener, 97-76, Monday at Joel Coliseum.

Sophomore Chris Paul scored 25 points and six assists to lead the Demon Deacons. Justin Gray had 18 points and seven steals and Vytas Danelius chipped in with 17 points.

George Washington tried several halfcourt and fullcourt trapping defenses, hoping to force Paul - the leading vote-getter on The AP preseason All-America team - to give the ball up. When they failed, Paul made them pay by spinning through double teams, penetrating into the lane and finding open teammates.

The Deacons led by 14 points early in the second half, but struggled to put away the Colonials. George Washington hit eight 3-pointers to hang around, closing to 75-70 on a 3 from Carl Elliott midway through the second half.

But Paul made sure the Deacons did not disappoint their rowdy crowd, leading a 10-2 charge that finally gave them a working margin in the final minutes.

Wake Forest escaped a first-round NCAA Tournament upset when it beat Virginia Commonwealth 79-78 March 18 at the RBC Center in Raleigh.

Chris Paul had 22 points and made several key plays to lead the fourth-seeded Demon Deacons past the Rams.

Justin Gray scored 15 points to help the Demon Deacons advance to the second round for the third straight year. Jamaal Levy overcame a sprained left knee to add 10 points and 10 rebounds, including the go-ahead basket.

Paul assisted on Levy's go-ahead basket with a minute left and hit four free throws in the final seconds to help the Demon Deacons survive their second first-round scare in as many years. In 2003, second-seeded Wake Forest held off ETSU 76-73 in the East Regional.

Paul - the Atlantic Coast Conference's rookie of the year - went 12-for-15 from the line and had seven assists against two turnovers in 37 minutes.

Domonic Jones had 22 points and seven assists for the Rams, who were making their first NCAA appearance in eight years.

- Wake Forest leads the all-time series, 1-0.

- The only previous meeting between the two teams came just eight months ago -- March 18, 2004 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament at Raleigh's RBC Center. The Deacons escaped with a 79-78 victory over the upset-minded Rams.

- VCU is the first of two Richmond schools on the Wake Forest schedule. The Deacons host the University of Richmond Dec. 4. The Rams are one of five Virginia schools on the Wake schedule (VCU, Richmond, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Longwood).

- Deacon coach Skip Prosser is 1-1 all-time against VCU. While coaching at Xavier, Prosser's team lost to the Rams.

- Wake Forest is 48-12 all-time against teams currently in the CAA. That record includes a 33-11 record against William & Mary and a 10-0 mark versus UNC-Wilmington.

Virginia Commonwealth is led by head coach and Duke graduate Jeff Capel. One of his assistant coaches is Wake Forest graduate Mark Cline -- a rare occurance of Deacons and Blue Devils working together.

As a player at Duke, Capel's Blue Devils went 1-8 against Wake Forest from 1994-97. Capel happened to play during the Tim Duncan era when the Deacons won eight of their nine consecutive wins against Duke.

Cline played at Wake from 1984-87, helping the Deacons to one NCAA Tournament and one NIT appearance. Cline played in 112 games for the Deacons. He scored 1,202 points, dished out 168 assists and shot 81.7 percent from the free throw line.

Wake Forest is 24-1 in games played in November since 1999. The Demon Deacons have won six straight November games with their last loss coming in the finals of the 2001 Preseason NIT against Syracuse on Nov. 23, 2001.

Wake Forest has always enjoyed success within the friendly confines of Lawrence Joel Coliseum, winning at an 81.8 percent clip. In recent years, that percentage is even higher. In Skip Prosser's four seasons with the Deacons, Wake is 42-6 (.878), including a perfect 16-0 mark in 2002-03.

The Deacons have not lost a home non-conference game since Feb. 9, 2002 -- a 103-94 loss to sixth-ranked Cincinnati in Prosser's first seasons with the Deacons. Under Prosser, Wake is 23-1 at home against non-ACC competition.

Wake Forest has won 39 of its last 40 home games against non-conference opponents.

WFU's all-time record in Joel Coliseum is 187-42.

Deacons No. 2 In Both National Polls

Wake Forest, at No. 2, owns its highest Associated Press preseason ranking ever.