Every now and again, Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser and his staff have to give sophomore point guard Chris Paul an attitude adjustment.

Don’t misunderstand. Generally speaking, if such a treatment is prescribed for a college athlete, it’s because the player has a bad attitude. When Chris Paul’s attitude needs adjusting, it’s for the opposite reason. Unselfish to a fault and deferential to his older teammates, Paul sometimes has to be prodded to seek his own shot more often – for the good of the team.

Last season, when Paul was a decorated high school recruit joining a veteran team, Prosser had to stop practice one day to chew on Paul for not being offensive minded.

“I told him in the long run we’ll be better served to have five scoring options on the floor as opposed to four,” Prosser said. “He wanted to do what was best for the team and set up his teammates. We had to convince him that seeking his own shot was what was best for the team.”

Inspired, Paul went on a tear that saw him average 27 points during a three-game stretch in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments.

Alas, any lesson Paul learned from Prosser’s prodding didn’t last into this season. True, Paul did score 25 points in Wake Forest’s first game, a victory over George Washington in the Preseason NIT. But his offensive output shrunk drastically after that, to the point that he didn’t even reach double figures in a couple of games. Time for another reminder.

This time, it was Wake Forest assistant Jeff Battle, who often works with Paul when the latter requests some extra shooting practice, who did the deed. Before the Demon Deacons played Texas in a mid-December game between conference superpowers, Battle reminded Paul that his team needed him to call his own number much more often. Paul responded with 23 points and 12 assists, clear evidence that he could handle scoring and playmaking duties. There’s been no stopping him since.

In his last five games, Paul is averaging 18.2 points, 8.0 assists, and 3.6 rebounds. He’s scored 20 or more points in three of his last four games, all Wake Forest wins, including two on the road at New Mexico and Virginia, both tough places to play.

Consequently, Wake Forest, a preseason no. 1 pick by several publications, and Paul, chosen by some of those same publications as the preseason player of the year, have begun to live up to that advance billing.

Though Wake is 12-1 and ranked no. 3 in the latest ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll, the Demon Deacons’ performance in a loss at Illinois caused many to question whether their preseason ranking was justified. Likewise, as Paul struggled through a 4-for-10 shooting night against the Illini (which closely followed a 2-for-11 effort against Arizona), he didn’t look like the college player of the year.

He does now. Not that he cares about individual honors.

“I can’t tell the magazines who to pick as their preseason player of the year,” Paul said. “It’s an honor that some of them picked me, but it’s nothing I wanted. I’m not even sure if I’m the best player in my dorm room [his roommate is Wake Forest’s leading scorer, guard Justin Gray].”

Prosser, who has coached the college game for 30 years, thinks Paul has handled the preseason hype as well as could be expected.

“He’s aware that there are plenty of kids who could have that mantle [preseason player of the year] thrust upon them,” Prosser said. “It would be almost impossible to have absolutely no effect on someone that young. I think it would be impossible to have no effect on his family. It would be impossible to have no effect on his teammates. But I think he’s handled it well and his teammates have handled it well.”

Paul was raised in a strict but loving home by two parents who realized the value of hard work. He had to do household chores and homework before he was allowed to play video games or watch television, diversions usually restricted to weekends. Tattoos and body piercing were forbidden. As for basketball, if Paul wanted to play, he had to produce a 3.0 grade point average in school.

Paul has taken those life lessons and applied them, on and off the court. He’s popular among his teammates, who jokingly call him “the Mayor” because he seems to know everyone, and usually stops to greet them. Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson wouldn’t commit to coaching the USA Young Men’s team in the world qualifying tournament last summer until he knew Paul had been invited to try out.

“You want a guy who’s a basketball,” Prosser said. “You bounce him and he comes right back. A football, you have no idea where it’s going to end up, but a basketball is going to bounce right back to you. You want someone you can count on, someone who’s a standup guy.”

And because he’s a standup guy, Paul has willingly gone against his nature and has begun looking to score more often. Wake Forest is a lot better team when he does.

Mr. Dortch is the editor-in-chief of the Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.