Wake Forest Demon Deacons: Are They in the Tournament?

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons go into today’s selection process firmly on the bubble.

Are the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the NCAA Tournament? It will be a close run thing. This could have been avoided if they had just beaten the Virginia Tech Hokies in the ACC Tournament. Instead the Demon Deacons will have to rely on the kindness of strangers if they want to get even to Dayton for the First Four.

There are some things in the Deacons’ favor. They play in the ACC, and the conference was generally considered to be the best in the country. Wake went 9-9 or 10-10 in conference play and .500 or better is generally a safe place to be entering the bracket discussion.

The ACC was also won by the fifth place team in the conference which will elevate the relative value of Wake Forest, which is further down.

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Wake did not have a good record against the power houses of the league. They went 0-2 against Duke and lost their only matchup to North Carolina. Their best win came late in the season against Louisville, and that may end up counting for a lot.

Wake also has a good RPI. They rank thirty-eighth in that measure and thirty-eighth seems to be much higher than sixty-eighth, but that fails to consider the number of at-large bids. There are thirty-six at-large bids, so thirty-eighth on its own would put Wake in the bottom part of the tournament pool once adjusted for conference champions.

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Wake may also get some credit for scheduling tough. Outside of the ACC, they played Villanova, Xavier, and Northwestern. The problem is they lost all three of those games. They do have a win over eventual Patriot League champion Bucknell, but they probably want the Xavier game back.

The final thing would be any x-factors the team could muster. I think the NCAA would like to see Danny Manning in the tournament as a coach. John Collins would be a bigger draw if he had won ACC Player of the Year.

No doubt this exercise really has not cleared the smoke. I think that Wake will sneak into the tournament field, but a trip to Dayton most certainly awaits. Wake fans can send their thank-you notes to the ACC front office in Greensboro.