Wake Forest Getting Too Many Even On Road Against Duke

Wake Forest vs. Duke, 7:00 ET

It was a one play, one win situation yesterday on the college hoops circuit. There wasn't a ton to like about the slate offered by the college basketball schedulers yesterday, and usually Sunday's are slower so it was nice to sniff out a victory. We have another somewhat slow day today as we only have a few ranked teams playing. That doesn't mean we can only bet on ranked teams, but I do like to try and share insight on games that are likely to get more attention. This one between Wake Forest and Duke should get plenty of attention.

Wake Forest has put together a nice campaign and I think they deserve a shot at the NCAA Tournament. I'm not sure that they will get there, but for reference, it was said that North Carolina was likely to be one of the first four out of the bracket and Wake Forest is head of them in both the ACC standings and their overall record. For the season the Demon Deacons are sitting with a 20-9 record and are 12-6 in conference play. They have stumbled lately, dropping three of their past five including games at home to Virginia and Florida State. The other loss came at the hands of North Carolina State, but that was on the road where a lot of teams get passes for losing. Their other three losses in the ACC came against ranked Louisville and Clemson, both on the road, and against Duke on their home floor. The Duke game was actually pretty close with Wake Forest making the Blue Devils sweat a bit and losing by just seven points.

CLEMSON, SC - FEBRUARY 08: Duke Blue Devils Jon Scheyer during a college basketball game between the Duke Blue Devils and the Clemson Tigers on February 8, 2025, in Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson, S.C. (Photo by John Byrum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Duke is one of the teams that you hear a lot about every year, but this year feels pretty justified. They have easily the best rookie in the country and maybe the best player in college in Cooper Flagg. Their defense is really good and can switch all positions leaving very few opportunities for mismatches. They can shoot, score in transition, and seem to do all the little things needed to capture wins. Sure, it hasn't been the most perfect season, and if the game is tight down the stretch, they do seem to still make mistakes like we saw in their loss against Clemson. The team has lost just three games all season though. They also dropped games against Kentuck and Kansas, both early in the season. I've said it before, but it bears repeating, the early season losses were where the team was really trying to figure things out. The biggest concern for this team is that they really haven't won too many close games. They beat Auburn by eight points at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but aside from that, they've lost the closer games. In fact, I think they've only had two wins that were by fewer than 10 points, one of which was over Wake Forest. 

Wake Forest on their home floor held Duke to just 63 points. Now, the Demon Deacons didn't score much themselves, but that is a bit telling that the defensive matchups might not be too shabby for Wake. It also could just be a result of both teams shooting really poorly from three. I do think that the spread is a bit too high on this game. I think that Duke wins somewhere between 10-19 points and I will take the points with Wake Forest here. 

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