Wake Forest did it again. They really did it again. With a NCAA At-Large bid within their grasp, they blew it. Playing a let’s be honest terrible NC State team, the Deacs seemed to take control of the game with 8 minutes left leading by 5. They collapsed and lost.
Just like the debacle against FSU a couple of games before. Wake Forest was even in better shape up by more than 15 with under 10 minutes to go, and lost. With a record of 19-8 (11-5) NET 62 and a 2-6 record against the Q1, Wake Forest is on the bubble, but they didn’t have to be.
They only had to beat two bad teams in the last 2 weeks, and even beating just 1 they could recover from, but both? That’s unforgivable.
It just seems to keep happening though.
In the 2023-2024 after beating a top 10 Duke, they went L, L, L to Notre Dame, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech to play themselves out of the NCAA tournament. The Georgia Tech loss was at home.
In the 2022-2023 season again on the bubble, Wake Forest lost 4 out of their last 5 games.
In the 2021-2022 season again on the bubble, Wake Forest lost at a Clemson team that was 8-12 in the league late in the year, then couldn’t beat a Boston College team in the ACCCT that finished the year 13-20.
Are we seeing a pattern here?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
That’s 4 years in a row, with different rosters, and different opponents, but the same Wake Forest head coach. Steve Forbes gets to the middle of February with Wake Forest in position to make the NCAA tournament, and then they start losing games they have no business losing to.
I don’t think Steve Forbes is a terrible coach. The Deacs are rarely truly awful, but if Wake Forest misses the NCAA tournament yet again, that would be 5 years under Forbes without an NCAA tournament appearance. That’s simply unacceptable, and Wake Forest may need to start thinking about moving in a new direction.
