Wake Forest Basketball: 2022-23 ACC Schedule Released
The college basketball season will be here sooner rather than later, with the first game tipping off 55 days from today. The ACC basketball schedule was announced Tuesday afternoon, and now we know the full slate Coach Steve Forbes will take on in year three at the helm.
Wake Forest ACC Schedule:
Dec. 2 at Clemson
Dec. 20 vs Duke
Dec. 31 Virginia Tech
Jan. 4 at North Carolina
Jan. 7 at Louisville
Jan. 11 vs Florida State
Jan. 14 at Boston College
Jan. 17 vs Clemson
Jan. 21 Virginia
Jan. 25 at Pitt
Jan. 28 at Duke
Feb. 4 at Notre Dame
Feb. 7 vs North Carolina
Feb. 11 vs Georgia Tech
Feb. 18 at Miami
Feb. 22 at NC state
Feb. 25 vs Notre Dame
Feb. 28 vs Boston College
Mar. 4 at Syracuse
A road game against Clemson is the ACC opener for Wake. The Deacs will play three non-conference games (vs LSU, vs App State, at Rutgers), before their next ACC game, when they host Duke on Dec. 20. It's frustrating that the home opener against an in-state rival is occurring a week after students leave campus for winter break. Back in 2018, the Zion Williamson Duke team also played in Winston-Salem in between the fall and spring semesters.
The Jan. 25 - Feb. 7 stretch of games jumps out as the most challenging part of the schedule. It features the only sequence of three road games in a row for Wake Forest, which includes trips to Durham and South Bend. That three game stretch is sandwiched by home battles vs Virginia and UNC.
READ: ACC Football Power Rankings
The ACC is sticking with the cyclical model introduced in 2019. For each team, the matrix features two rivals that repeat every season which will continue to be NC State and Duke for Wake Forest. The remaining twelve opposing schools are placed into pods of four that rotate between three different options (home and away, home only, away only).
Exactly like the 2019-20 season, Wake Forest’s breakdown for 2022-23 is as follows:
Home and away: Duke, NC State, Boston College, Clemson, North Carolina, Notre Dame
Home only: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Away only: Louisville, Miami, Pitt, Syracuse
Last season, Forbes led his team to four ACC road wins, the first time the program has hit that mark since the 2008-09 season. Danny Manning averaged one ACC road win per season in his six year tenure.
A 13-7 ACC record wasn’t enough to get the Deacs into the NCAA Tournament last year. Wake Forest pulled off the largest year-to-year turnaround in conference history, bouncing back in a big way from just three ACC wins in the Covid-ridden 2020-21 season.
Not making the big dance with a .650 winning percentage in conference play is uncharted territory for an ACC team. The 2021-22 season will surely be looked back on as an outlier.
At first glance, I’m initially projecting nine quadrant 1 and 2 opportunities in conference play. I will share my ACC previews as the season approaches.
READ: Liberty Coaches Break Down Wake Forest's Offense
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