Sweet Sixteen Preview – East Rutherford Region
(1) St. Joseph’s vs. (4) Wake Forest
Jameer Nelson. Chris Paul. The two guards, senior All-American Nelson and ACC Rookie of the Year Paul, with survive and advance on their minds, will be the lead story when the Atlantic 10 and the ACC play for a shot at the regional championship.
Nelson (Chester, PA) is a unanimous All-American selection and has catapulted his team to prominence with A No. One seed in the close-to-home, East Rutherford, New Jersey regional. His backcourt partner-in-crime junior guard Delonte West (Greenbelt, MD) will battle Wake’s sophomore guard Justin Gray (Charlotte, NC).
Nelson is averaging 20.6 points, 5.3 assists and 4.7 rebounds per outing. In every category West’s numbers are just shy of Nelson’s but still impressive, mostly in scoring, averaging 18.9 per game. The significant role player for the Hawks is junior forward Pat Carroll (Horsham, PA), who dropped in 14 points in a 70-65 second-round victory versus Texas Tech.
This is the Hawks first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 1997 and Wake’s first since 1996. The winner will face second-seeded Oklahoma State in Saturday’s regional championship.
