Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said he lost it after the game last night.

The Demon Deacons snapped Duke’s 12-game winning streak and knocked off the No. 2 team in the country. However, Gaudio became emotional thinking about winning the game without his best friend, Skip Prosser, who died suddenly of a heart attack this past summer.

``These are Skip’s players and this is his staff,” Gaudio said. “He would always joke that the older he gets, the faster he wants to play. He would have loved to coach Ish (Ishmael Smith) and Jeff (Teague). They’re fast.”

Wake Forest used its speed and aggressiveness to upset the Blue Devils and move into sole possession at 16-8 overall and 6-5 in conference play.

``It’s been incredibly rewarding,” Gaudio said. “Half the polls picked us to finish last and the other half finished 11th.”

Wake starts three sophomores and a pair of freshmen and the Demon Deacons were supposed to struggle this year before the influx of talent that will arrive in Winston Salem next year.

``It’s nice just to be talking about the chance to make the NCAA tournament,” Gaudio said. “But we need to keep our heads on straight now.”

SAMPSON SPEAKS

Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson didn’t duck the weekly Big Ten conference call.

Sampson gave an update on senior big man D.J. White’s condition, saying that the MRI on his left knee came back negative. ``I’d say he’s iffy,” Sampson said of White’s status for Tuesday night’s game against Purdue.

Sampson also said he’s tried to focus on his team and family in the last week with all of the speculation mounting about him on the verge of being fired.

``It’s been practice as usual,” he said.

NORTHRIDGE IN DRIVER’S SEAT

Ok. I admit it. When I did the preseason Big West preview for one of college basketball’s annual magazine publications, I picked Cal State Northridge to finish sixth in the conference.

It looks like I was way off. Bobby Braswell’s Matadors are 17-6 overall and lead the Big West at 9-2. If not for a last-second shot by Pacific to force overtime about 10 days ago, Northridge would be in full command of the conference race instead of just a game in front of Cal State Fullerton.

Braswell isn’t surprised by the 23 or so combined points from Jonathan Heard and Calvin Chitwood. However, one of the key surprises has been that of former Long Beach City College guard Deon Tresvant.

Tresvant leads the team in scoring (13.2).

``We call him the Microwave because he’s like Vinnie Johnson,” Braswell said. “He can really get it going quickly.”

Braswell also said that another difference is point guard play. Josh Jenkins, another junior college kid, is averaging 9.9 points and 6.8 assists per game.

``The two areas we struggled in last year were point guard play and scoring,” Braswell said. “We shored up both this year.”

RANDOM NOTES: UCLA guard Russell Westbrook turned in an impressive defensive performance against USC freshman O.J. Mayo, holding the Trojans star to just 4 points on 2-of-8 shooting and 10 turnovers. … USC coach Tim Floyd used just six players and four of them went the full 40 minutes in the loss.