[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald Photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team, well documented in its youth, will have the opportunity to do an awful lot of growing up this evening when the team takes on No. 24 Wake Forest (5-1) as part of the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Not only will this be the team's first true road game of the season, but for many players it will also be the first game in a hostile environment and on national television.

"It's a big-time atmosphere. This is going to be big for us," junior forward Alando Tucker said of the highly anticipated matchup. "This is going to be the biggest game for us right now. We are going to have a lot of factors against us and it is going to show how well we have bonded."

As if the challenges of Wisconsin (4-0) in its first true road game (the team did travel to the Virgin Islands to participate in the Paradise Jam tournament, a neutral venue) were not enough, the Demon Deacons are one of the top teams in the ACC and are expected to be a factor again nationally come March.

The veteran team is led by senior point guard Justin Gray, who like Tucker is a pre-season Wooden Award candidate, averaging 16.5 points and five assists a game.

"Gray brings a lot of energy from the guard position. He is always a threat and it makes it that much harder to defend their forwards," Tucker said.

Gray, however, is having to transition from being Wake Forest's shooting guard a year ago, and thus far has struggled as the team's point man, turning the ball over 32 times while contributing 30 assists.

Compensating for Gray's positional growing pains has been the surprising interior play of senior forwards Trent Strickland and Eric Williams.

After averaging under six points and four rebounds a game his first three years on campus, Strickland has exploded so far this year, leading the team in both scoring (17.8 ppg) and rebounding (8.8 rpg) while shooting over 63 percent from the field.

Williams, on the other hand, was definitely more of a known quantity heading into the season. The ultra-athletic center/forward declared for the NBA Draft last season, but ducked out at the last minute to return to Winston-Salem for his senior season. Williams is averaging 16.5 points and 8.5 rebounds a game and has developed a reputation as being one of the premier above-the-rim players in the country, with 139 career dunks.

"Williams can displace the best of them in the post. He can move people, he can post up anybody. We have seen him over the years do that," head coach Bo Ryan said. "He is a good post player who is extremely strong, uses his body well and we're going to have to make him work for every shot he gets and not let him get second or third shots."

"He's a beast," Tucker said of Williams.

The game will be played on the Demon Deacon's home floor, the Lawrence Joel Coliseum, where Wake Forest has won 20 consecutive games. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, where teams from the two conferences play for national bragging rights.

In its seventh year, the ACC has won all six of the past events, but this season's Challenge is the first that includes all 11 Big Ten teams.

Wake Forest has a 5-1 record all-time in the event, twice beating Wisconsin, in 1999 and 2002.

"If you go in there and the inexperience shows, you get whacked," Ryan said of his team heading into the rabid Wake Forest arena. "If you go in there and the inexperience plays older and plays tougher, we go in there with a chance to get something done that is pretty exciting."

"Wake Forest is going to bring a lot of energy being at home and we have to match that," Tucker said. "We need to set the tone early. We can't let them set the tone and shake and rattle us early."

What could work in Wisconsin's favor is that Wake Forest has shown to be very turnover prone, averaging 18.5 per game to UW's 13.

Ultimately the game will prove to be one where the Badgers will find out exactly how good they are and how far along young players like freshmen Marcus Landry and Joe Krabbenhoft, and first-year starters Jason Chappell and Brian Butch have come.

"We know we have our hands full but this is what we need now," Ryan said. "This will teach us one way or the other."