Louisville is back at home on Wednesday night for a conference matchup with the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. Louisville improved to 19-3 and 10-1 in the ACC on Saturday with a win at NC State. Wake Forest enters the game at 10-11 and 3-8. Louisville leads the all time series 6-2.
Senior Brandon Childress leads the Demon Deacons with 15.4 points and 4.7 assists per game. Junior Oliver Sarr averages 12.9 points and 9.6 rebounds. Chaundee Brown scores 12.8 points with 6.1 boards per game. Wake has struggled to shoot the ball all season, specifically inside the paint. They rank among the worst two point shooting teams in all of college basketball and also get blocked down low at a high rate. Defensively, the team holds its opponents to respectable shooting numbers, but they don’t force turnovers at all and struggle to protect the rim.
Louisville has used the same starting lineup in every game of its current 8-game winning streak. Whatever Coach Mack is doing, it has worked and every night it seems like a different guy is stepping up. Some nights it’s David Johnson, but many nights it is Jordan Nwora. On Saturday, it was Ryan McMahon. This team has nine guys that the Coach trusts, and the depth has really proved to be an essential part of Louisville’s success.
The Cards have not lost now for a calendar month. We have talked at length about the overall weakness of the ACC. That being said, Louisville has taken advantage of the weaker schedule as much as anyone. At 10-1, the Cards are still alone atop the conference standings and have another game on Wednesday that they are expected to win. Wake Forest has been the worst or second worst team in the league this year. Louisville needs to win and win convincingly at home on Wednesday night.
The game tips at 9:00 p.m. ET and will be televised live on ESPN2.
Prediction:
Louisville 85 Wake Forest 67
