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Wake Forest will head to Miami to try to piece together an NCAA tournament run.

The Deacs (24-6) play 13th-seeded Cleveland State on Friday in a pod that feeds into the Midwest Regional in Indianapolis.

Wake is coming off a disastrous loss to Maryland in the ACC tournament, and Cleveland State (25-10) is in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 23 years.

In 1986, the Vikings upset Indiana and reached the Sweet Sixteen, becoming one of the early darlings of the event.

It would all come crashing down in controversy and tragedy soon afterward. This year's Cleveland State team will be forced to re-live those events as the specter of 1986 has followed the program since.

The win over Indiana in 1986 was followed by a string of shocking events, starting with the death of a player. Paul Stewart, one of many promising youngsters on that team, collapsed and died on a basketball court a few weeks after the NCAA tournament run.

Soon afterward, the team was placed on probation by the NCAA (which is now based in Indianapolis) for recruiting violations. In 1990, coach Kevin Mackey was arrested on drug-possession charges as he drove away from a crack house, and years later, former player Ken "Mouse" McFadden sued his alma mater for racial discrimination. It was later revealed that the leading scorer of that team, Clinton Smith, had played while he was on probation for a felony conviction.

The school is back in the tournament for the first time since the 1986 run ended on a last-second shot by Navy center David Robinson.

Last week, the Vikings defeated favored Butler in the championship game of the Horizon League tournament. Cedric Jackson scored 19 points and had seven rebounds and three steals, leading Cleveland State to a 57-54 win over the league's No. 1 seed on Butler's home court in Indianapolis.

If the Vikings were to defeat Wake and survive the first weekend, they would be sent back to Indy, albeit in a different venue (Lucas Oil Stadium), for the regional.

 Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com