Clemson Men’s Basketball travels to Wake Forest seeking 8-0 in ACC

If there’s one team that shoots the ball as well as the Clemson Men’s Basketball team, it’s the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

That may not be obvious from the first go-round between these two teams back in early December, a 77-57 Clemson victory.

What you may not remember was Clemson trailed by 7 at the half as Wake shot 40% from deep and on 6 of 15 threes.

Things flipped in the second half and the Deacons shot only 24% from the field and 15.4% from three as the Tigers cruised to their first ACC victory of the season.

On the balance of the season though, Wake Forest actually has a better effective field goal percentage than Clemson, with a similar three-point percentage.

None of Wake Forest’s 4 losses have come at home, with two on the road and two at neutral venues.

KenPom.com gives Wake a 4.1 point home court advantage and rates the advantage as the 13th best in D-1.

All that to say, this is not likely to be a 20 point cakewalk as the first came ended up being.

Tyree Appleby makes the Deacs offense go, being in on 26.7% of the possessions, shooting 44% from three, 50% from two and 84% from the line.

Wake Forest will also have a slight height advantage overall.

KenPom projects a 76-75 victory (53% win probability), while ESPN sets the win probability for Wake at 58.1%.

Clemson is a 2.5 point underdog with a total set at 148.5 implying a 75.5-73 Demon Deacon win.

Clemson Men’s Basketball is a short underdog on the road at Wake Forest

John Chancey (13-5, 10-8 ATS):

I have family that went to East Tennessee State, so I knew when the Deacons hired Steve Forbes that it would only be a matter of time before he had them competitive. Wake also beat Duke this season. That said, PJ Hall is returning to form at just the right time. This sounds weird to say, but Clemson has multiple ways to score right now. Even without Hemenway, the Tigers are finding different ways to win.

Marty Coleman (13-5, 8-10 ATS):

Somehow, over the course of seven short ACC games, Clemson has become the hunted instead of the hunters and this game sets up well for Wake Forest in my view.  Clemson has only had two days to recover from an emotional win over Duke, but also a physical one, while Wake was blasting Boston College.  This is a good Clemson team, but no one expects perfection in the ACC, do they?  There’s an old saying in betting that if you ignore a streak you miss all the wins, but if you ride it till the end you only lose once.  I’m riding the Tigers till it ends.

The game is scheduled to be televised on the ACCNX at 9 p.m. EST.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change