March Madness Bubble Team: Wake Forest

Wake Forest didn’t waste any time getting themselves in the mix for the NCAA Basketball tournament. Considered to be on the outside most of the season, the Deacons came up with two huge wins in the past five days. An 88-81 home win over Louisville was followed by an 89-84 road win at Virginia Tech on Saturday. The Bracket Matrix now has Wake Forest in the field as a No. 11 seed.

Up until the past two games, few teams played as expected quite as much as Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons are a perfect 12-0 straight up as a favorite. when underdogs, Wake Forest is just 4-12 straight-up with two of those wins coming the past week.

One thing Wake Forest does well is score, which gives them a shooter’s chance in pretty much any game. The Deacons are averaging 82.1 points per game and are 19-8-1 in totals this season. They’re 10-4 on the road and 13-5 in conference games.

While Wake Forest is just 18-12 they are going to get the nod over other teams who may have better records due to strength of schedule. USA Today’s Jeff Sagarin has Wake Forest playing the 14th toughest schedule in the country. They do have three wins against top 50 teams after last week, which is two more than teams like California.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed until the selection committee announces your name, so the Deacons need to take care of business against hapless Boston College on Tuesday. That will lead to another game against Virginia Tech, who will be out for revenge. Wake Forest may not need to win that one, but just keep things close. A victory would almost guarantee they move on to the Big Dance.

The Deacons are playing well and still managed to win at Virginia Tech in a big letdown situation. If focused on Tuesday, they should have no problems with Boston College and pick-up win No. 19.