NCAA Tournament March Madness

#72 Wake Forest

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Projection: likely out

Wake Forest’s body of work reads like a team with clear upside that has not been able to erase a few damaging blemishes. Narrow neutral-site losses to Michigan and Texas Tech alongside neutral wins over Memphis and West Virginia and a road victory at Florida State show they can compete with quality opponents, but those signature moments are offset by a blowout loss to Vanderbilt and a cluster of road setbacks that include trips to Duke and NC State, which raise real questions about consistency away from home. The nonconference slate features meaningful wins but is marred by a bad loss to Oklahoma and home setbacks to league foes such as Louisville that muddle the resume. With winnable remaining home games against Clemson, Syracuse and California and a chance to pick up a resume-changing road victory at Virginia, there are clear avenues to improve, yet unless they stop the avoidable blowouts and prove they can win in hostile environments the committee is likely to view their résumé as coming up short compared with bubble peers.

Date Opponent Ranking Outcome
11/3American Univ248W88-74
11/7Morehead St288W81-65
11/11(N)Michigan1L85-84
11/16MA Lowell319W109-75
11/20(N)Texas Tech16L84-83
11/21(N)Memphis99W69-68
11/25Campbell196W99-51
11/28Northeastern276W86-73
12/2Oklahoma54L86-68
12/6(N)West Virginia55W75-66
12/14Queens NC204W111-73
12/17Longwood284W71-68
12/21Vanderbilt12L98-67
12/31@NC State30L70-57
1/3Virginia Tech65W81-78
1/7Miami FL37L81-77
1/10@North Carolina28L87-84
1/17@Florida St78W69-68
1/20SMU38L91-79
1/24@Duke2L90-69
1/27@Pittsburgh109L80-76
1/31NC State30L96-78
2/7Louisville14L88-80
2/11@Georgia Tech162W83-67
2/14Stanford74W68-63
2/18Clemson3339%
2/21@Virginia Tech6537%
2/24@Boston College15164%
2/28Syracuse6960%
3/3@Virginia2012%
3/7California6660%