Virginia travels to Winston-Salem on Sunday to take on Wake Forest. The game is set to start at 12 in LJVM Coliseum. Perhaps the only team worse than Wake in the ACC is North Carolina, who blew out Miami so… Maybe Wake’s the worst team in the conference. They have a 2-6 conference record, although to be fair they’ve been in a lot of their games and have only lost in the last couple of minutes.
So what does this mean for Virginia? The Hoos cannot afford another loss that the selection committee will view as bad, having already suffered bad losses to Purdue and Boston College, among others. On top of this, there are very few “good” wins on the schedule. The best wins that the Hoos have to their name thus far are Vermont and @ Syracuse. Not exactly the kinds of wins that will draw attention, although Syracuse is looking better and better by the minute.
Thus, another bad loss cannot soil an already-weak NCAA tournament resume. In a year in which the playing field is seemingly so even, a win against a top team can tip one over the edge–and a loss against a bad one can be equally as detrimental. With that said, let’s take a closer look at the opponent awaiting Virginia.
Is Wake Forest any good?
The answer, surprisingly, is yes. The Demon Deacons started off the season unconvincingly, losing to Boston College before a shocking home defeat at the hands of CUSA’s Charlotte. Since starting conference play however, they haven’t been half bad. The blowout loss on the road to Duke was to be expected, as was the loss to Florida State. They did manage to give FSU a run for their money though, keeping it close all the way. Their loss to Virginia Tech was the same story, and they even led Clemson on the road by as much as 10 in the second half before ultimately losing.
Beating Pitt on the road was fairly impressive, as was their 18-point victory over Boston College. If you don’t see what I’m getting at by now, I’ll spell it out for you; Wake is a decent team, one capable of beating this Virginia team at anything less than its best. The problem is, the people sitting inside the room on Selection Sunday don’t see a decent team, they see one that’s struggling to stay above .500.
I know what you’re thinking. You just said that Wake is the worst team in the ACC, and now you’re saying that they might actually be a good team? Yeah, well this year in college basketball, the worst team in the conference is perfectly capable of beating the best. And Virginia is not the best.
But starting at 12:00 on Sunday, we’ll find out of they’re at least capable of being an NCAA Tournament team