WINSTON-SALEM Some point guards rely on their speed. Others, a pinpoint jumper, a toe-cracking crossover, or a streamlined court vision that results in blink-and-you-miss-it assists.

But when Wake Forest freshman Tony Chennault is asked about his best attribute, he describes an intangible quality that the rebuilding Deacons just might need the most: toughness.

"I don't care who I'm playing against," said the 6-feet-1, 170 pound ballhandler. "It can be (Duke point guard) Kyrie Irving, it could be Kobe Bryant - I'm going to play them the same way. There's just a certain attitude Philly ballers have when we step on the court. We don't care who it is - we're going to come at you."

If he sounds a bit too fearless for a rookie who has yet to play in an ACC game, don't quash it - because the Deacons need him to back up his words. With the graduation of Ishmael Smith, new coach Jeff Bzdelik inherited a team with only two options at ballhandler: sophomore C.J. Harris, who is more suited to shooting guard; and Chennault, who the coach had to successfully re-recruit as part of Wake's top-10 incoming class.

That likely makes Chennault, the least-heralded player in his five-man recruiting class (he was rated three stars by scout.com, while the others got four), the most key. Not just because he wants to prove he's better than his individual rankings, but because his tough tendencies need to set the tone for the rest of the team.

"What is tough?" Bzdelik said. "It's not punching someone else - it's defending, fighting through screens, not turning the ball over, execution under duress, getting knocked down but finishing at the rim, stepping up at the line. ... We need that. Every team needs that."

Tough brotherly love

Chennault (pronounced Shuh-NALT) appears to have that, thanks to tagging along early-on with older brother Sean, who has spent two seasons playing point guard at Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif. (He plans to play at Waldorf College in Iowa next year). Growing up in north Philadelphia, Sean always played down the street at Fisher Park against guys who were two or three years older than him - meaning Tony competed against players four or five years his senior.

But Tony Chennault said his older brother was always his best competition. So much so that one-on-one showdowns could just as easily end in a fight as a final score.

"He'd foul hard, push me on the ground, stuff like that - things to toughen me up," Tony remembered, smiling. "Sometimes, when you're a kid, you don't understand why people are so hard on you, until you get that certain level of maturity. ... And I'm just thankful, because it made me a better player and person."

Sean Chennault said he knew by the time Tony was 11 or 12 that his little brother was going to be something special. He boasted a consistent jump shot, could flat-out score, was in-your-face competitive, "but he was also so dedicated to it," Sean said. "He was always practicing - while his friends would be at a party, he'd be on a court somewhere."

Sometimes, Tony said, until the lights went off.

"In basketball, you can be out on the court just shooting all day, all night, by yourself," he said. "I did that a lot growing up. ... It's just a passion, just playing the game."

Bzdelik said he saw that passion immediately when he traveled to Pennsylvania to talk to Chennault after he replaced Dino Gaudio as head coach. The former NBA coach said he knows within two or three minutes of meeting a player whether that athlete wants to be good, "just by the way he looks at you when you talk to him."

And he knew immediately Chennault, who averaged 19.1 points and 6 rebounds as a senior at Neumann-Goretti high, wants to be great.

"Tony stared a hole right through me," Bzdelik said. "And I quickly realized he's about winning, all about sacrificing himself individually - in terms of his effort, intensity, the way he plays the game. Whatever is necessary."

Playing with chip on shoulder

What will be necessary at Wake this year is guiding a team that not only lost a veteran ballhandler in Smith, but its top scorer (Al-Farouq Aminu, who was chosen eighth overall in the NBA draft) and two other starters, as well.

"I know a lot of college analysts have got us finishing last in the ACC, but I tell you now - we're going to surprise a lot of people this upcoming year ... because we're young and talented, and we've got a chip on our shoulder," Chennault said. "That makes you play even harder, when you know people think you're going to finish last, think you're not going to be any good. We're like the afterthought ... but we want to prove we're better than that."

To that end, he said, he and his freshmen classmates - Carson Derosiers, Travis McKie, Melvin Tabb and J.T. Terrell - have grown tight off the court (even coming up with their own secret handshakes) in order to help chemistry once they step on it.

Chennault said coaches have also encouraged him to take an active leadership role - not just among the rookies, but the entire team. Sean Chennault said that's a job his brother will embrace.

"He just loves a challenge, and more than anything, he wants to prove his team can win," Sean said. "Like any good player, he believes he has a lot to prove, too."

Indeed, Tony Chennault admits he arrived in Winston-Salem with his own individual shoulder-chip after not being ranked as high as he thought he should have been by the national scouting services. "I feel like the players they had in front of me, I was just as good as, or better than."

He'll get plenty of notice this season, playing against the likes of Duke's Irving and Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney, just to name a couple. Bzdelik said he likes Chennault's will-do attitude, and hopes it will rub off on his teammates .

"When you play hard, play tough ... you hope that will trickle down to everyone else, and everyone will have a collective chip on their shoulder, that everyone will have something to prove," he said. "And to have your point guard coming in with that feeling, that's a good start."