Wake Forest Basketball: 2019-20 season preview for the Demon Deacons

GREENSBORO, NC - MARCH 12: The Deacon, the mascot for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on the court in the ACC Quarterfinal game against the Maryland Terrapins on March 12, 2004 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Terps won 87-86. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

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WINSTON-SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA – JANUARY 15: Olivier Sarr #30 of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons and DJ Funderburk #0 of the North Carolina State Wolfpack go after a loose ball during a game at LJVM Coliseum Complex on January 15, 2019 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Schedule

Wake’s schedule starts off easy and gets scary fast. The ACC’s experimenting with conference games to open the season in 2019-20, and the Deacons were fortunate enough to draw fellow bottom-dweller Boston College on Nov. 6. That game is on the road, though, and Wake has a 50 percent chance, per KenPom, of winning.

Games against Columbia, UNC Asheville and Charlotte are no guarantee, as we saw last year, but they’ll give Wake a chance to ease into the harder portion of its schedule if there’s such a thing as an easy game for a bad team. They’re must-win games, because after that, the Deacons play Davidson — expected to be one of this year’s top mid-majors — in Charlotte, and head to Anaheim for the Wooden Legacy tournament, which features teams like Arizona, an improved Providence, and Charleston and big-time scorer Grant Riller, Wake’s first-round matchup.

December includes a road trip to play what should be a much-improved Penn State team, home dates against North Carolina State and Xavier and a final buy game against North Carolina A&T. From there, the Demon Deacons are favored in just three games the rest of the way. Those games are Jan. 19 at home against Boston College, Feb. 1 vs. Clemson and Feb. 19 vs. Georgia Tech.

The good news is that there are plenty of opportunities for upsets, as Wake gets Virginia, North Carolina and Duke at home at one point or another. That’s not to say any of that comes to fruition, but they’re on the schedule.

KenPom predicts a 12-16 overall record (tournament games that aren’t officially on the schedule yet aren’t included) and 7-13 ACC record, which would be Wake’s second-best conference mark since 2010, for what it’s worth.

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