Wake's first game in the ACC tournament will be Thursday at 2:30 and it could be against one of three teams -- Notre Dame, Pittsburgh or UNC.
Notre Dame and Pitt play in the first game of the tournament, which is tomorrow at 2 p.m. The winner will play UNC on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. -- and then the winner of that game will play WF on Thursday at the same time.
Wake Forest went 3-0 against ND/Pitt/UNC this season and all of them were tiiiiiight wins at home. As a refresher: Here are the stories on each of those three games:
Wake Forest notches 74-71 win over ND.
Wake Forest hangs on for 76-74 win against Pitt.
Wake Forest edges UNC for 67-66 win.
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I can't see Pitt winning twice, as their season has crashed without Damian Dunn and without much interior scoring. Notre Dame should win that game and then depending on how much Markus Burton has in the tank, he could power them past UNC.
But I think it'll most likely be a Wake Forest-UNC game on Thursday that has an elimination-game feel, as far as NCAA tournament hopes. The winner will probably still need to beat Duke in Friday night's first semifinal, but the loser between that potential WF-UNC game would have an understanding that it won't be dancing.
UNC has improved ... somewhere between significantly and minimal since it lost at WF. The Tar Heels won 6 straight before Saturday night's loss to Duke, but those 6 were against some of the worst the ACC has to offer (which is saying something these days). The most important thing you'll need to know ahead of that potential matchup is how much bigger UNC has been playing; when they came to Winston-Salem, they were guard HEAVY. They're still guard heavy, but they're getting better play from the frontcourt, meaning a little more balance.
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I'm not headed down to Charlotte until Thursday, so I'll remote track Tuesday and Wednesday's games and then have a preview up sometime later Wednesday for Wake's first game. I'll have some other coverage before then, though -- like the All-ACC awards coming out shortly.
Notre Dame and Pitt play in the first game of the tournament, which is tomorrow at 2 p.m. The winner will play UNC on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. -- and then the winner of that game will play WF on Thursday at the same time.
Wake Forest went 3-0 against ND/Pitt/UNC this season and all of them were tiiiiiight wins at home. As a refresher: Here are the stories on each of those three games:
Wake Forest notches 74-71 win over ND.
Wake Forest hangs on for 76-74 win against Pitt.
Wake Forest edges UNC for 67-66 win.
**********
I can't see Pitt winning twice, as their season has crashed without Damian Dunn and without much interior scoring. Notre Dame should win that game and then depending on how much Markus Burton has in the tank, he could power them past UNC.
But I think it'll most likely be a Wake Forest-UNC game on Thursday that has an elimination-game feel, as far as NCAA tournament hopes. The winner will probably still need to beat Duke in Friday night's first semifinal, but the loser between that potential WF-UNC game would have an understanding that it won't be dancing.
UNC has improved ... somewhere between significantly and minimal since it lost at WF. The Tar Heels won 6 straight before Saturday night's loss to Duke, but those 6 were against some of the worst the ACC has to offer (which is saying something these days). The most important thing you'll need to know ahead of that potential matchup is how much bigger UNC has been playing; when they came to Winston-Salem, they were guard HEAVY. They're still guard heavy, but they're getting better play from the frontcourt, meaning a little more balance.
**********
I'm not headed down to Charlotte until Thursday, so I'll remote track Tuesday and Wednesday's games and then have a preview up sometime later Wednesday for Wake's first game. I'll have some other coverage before then, though -- like the All-ACC awards coming out shortly.
