ACC Tournament Preview: Can Wake Forest Run the Table in Charlotte?
In this story:
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are headed to Charlotte this week to compete in the 2026 T. Rowe Price ACC Men's Basketball Tournament. Play will start soon for the Demon Deacons this year, as they will play their first round matchup on Tuesday.
Wake has the #13 seed in the bracket. This means to win the tournament, the Deacs would need to win five games in five days, exactly what NC State did a couple of seasons ago when they went all the way to the final four. Let's take a look at the bracket.
ACC Tournament Bracket
March 10-14, 2026
Spectrum Center - Charlotte, NC
Tuesday, March 10 - First Round
2 p.m. – No. 10 Stanford vs. No. 15 Pitt (ACC Network)
4:30 p.m. – No. 11 SMU vs. No. 14 Syracuse (ACC Network)
7 p.m. – No. 12 Virginia Tech vs. No. 13 Wake Forest (ACC Network)
Wednesday, March 11 - Second Round
12:00 p.m. – No. 7 NC State vs. Stanford-Pitt winner (ESPN/ESPN)
2:30 p.m. – No. 6 Louisville vs. SMU-Syracuse winner (ESPN/ESPNU)
7 p.m. – No. 8 Florida State vs. No. 9 California (ESPN2/ESPNU)
9:30 p.m. – No. 5 Clemson vs. Virginia Tech-Wake Forest winner (ESPN2/ESPNU)
Thursday, March 12 - Quarterfinals
12:00 p.m. – No. 2 Virginia vs. Wednesday 12:00 p.m. winner (ESPN/ESPN2)
2:30 p.m. – No. 3 Miami vs. Wednesday 2:30 p.m. winner (ESPN/ESPN2)
7 p.m. – No. 1 Duke vs. Wednesday 7 p.m. winner (ESPN/ESPN2)
9:30 p.m. – No. 4 North Carolina vs. Wednesday 9:30 p.m. winner (ESPN/ESPN2)
Friday, March 13 - Semifinals
7 p.m. – Thursday 12:00 p.m. winner vs Thursday 2:30 p.m. winner (ESPN/ESPN2)
9:30 p.m. – Thursday 7:00 p.m. winner vs. Thursday 9:30 p.m. winner (ESPN/ESPN2)
Saturday, March 14 - Championship
8:30 p.m. – Semifinal winners (ESPN)
Wake Forest's Game #1 - vs. Virginia Tech
The Deacs will start their tournament run on Tuesday at 7 pm against the #12-seeded Virginia Tech Hokies. This will be round three between the two squads as they met in early January in Winston-Salem, then again in late Feburary down in Blacksburg.
The two teams split 1-1 during the season, so this will, in fact, be the rubber match. In early January, the Deacs led most of the way, but by very thin margins. Virginia Tech was even able to grab the lead in the second half.
However, Nate Calmese was the hero for Wake Forest, hitting a deep three-pointer with under a minute left to put the Deacs in front. He finished with 25 points. Wake Forest won this one 81-78 at the Joel.
Virginia Tech got its revenge a little over two weeks ago, though. The Hokies won convincingly, 82-63. This one was back-and-forth for the first ten minutes, but then the Deacs went ice-cold, shooting 6-30 from three, allowing Virginia Tech to race out in front.
The second half saw the Hokies building on a ten-point halftime advantage. Their star freshman, Neoklis Avdalas, who struggled in the first matchup, got going in this one with 17 points.
To win this one, the Deacs will need to shoot the ball a lot better than they did in the second matchup. They will also need to play better defense, as the Hokies were able to get into the lane at ease and kick out to open shooters. The defense against Cal was much better, so that should be promising for Wake Forest.
Looking Ahead
If the Deacs win their first-round matchup with the Hokies, the bracket actually plays out nicely for them. They would be matched up against a Clemson team in the second round, which they already beat 85-77 in a wire-to-wire victory in Winston-Salem. Clemson's lack of elite guard play is something the Deacs can exploit.
Past that, the quarterfinal matchup would be a North Carolina team that is without its star freshman, Caleb Wilson, for the rest of the season now. The Deacs played the Tar Heels close in Chapel Hill, so beating them in Charlotte without Wilson is very much in play.
From there, the No.1-seeded Duke Blue Devils likely await the winner of this game in the semifinals. As you can see, the path to this semifinal matchup is not out of the realm of possibility. If the Deacs get hot at the right time, just maybe they can pull off a little March Madness for themselves. Cannot wait to see what happens in Charlotte this week!
Justin is a student at Wake Forest University. He is from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and aspiring finance major interested everything sports. In his freshman year, Justin completed an internship with the Wake Forest Ticketing Department where he gained some valuable insight into the sales and operations aspects of collegiate athletics. Before working with Wake Forest On SI, Justin was a contributing writer for Wake Forest’s student publication The Old Gold and Black. Currently, Justin serves as a student manager on the Wake Forest Men’s Tennis team. In his free time Justin enjoys spending time with his family and friends on the golf course and traveling.