Syracuse basketball is a small betting underdog when it plays at Wake Forest on Saturday night in an Atlantic Coast Conference clash.
Per FanDuel, the Demon Deacons are a 2.5-point betting favorite over the Orange at home, with the over/under set at 149.5 points. The teams will collide on Saturday, beginning at 5:45 pm EST, at the LJVM Coliseum in Winston-Salem, N.C., with television coverage on The CW Network.
The 'Cuse (15-13 overall, 6-9 in ACC) has three regular-season games left in the 2025-26 campaign. After SU faces Wake Forest (14-14 overall, 5-10 in ACC), Syracuse basketball will travel to No. 24 Louisville on Tuesday, March 3, and then host Pittsburgh at the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday, March 7.
Key metrics as Syracuse basketball battles Wake Forest on the road this Saturday evening.
Syracuse basketball
NCAA NET ranking: No. 78 overall
Home record: 12-5
Neutral-site record: 1-3
Road record: 2-5
Quadrant-one record: 1-8
Quadrant-two record: 3-3
Quadrant-three record: 4-2
Quadrant-four record: 7-0
KenPom rating: No. 76 overall
KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency: No. 84
KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency: No. 78
Wake Forest
NCAA NET ranking: No. 68 overall
Home record: 10-6
Neutral-site record: 2-2
Road record: 2-6
Quadrant-one record: 0-9
Quadrant-two record: 5-4
Quadrant-three record: 2-1
Quadrant-four record: 7-0
KenPom rating: No. 80 overall
KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency: No. 75
KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency: No. 103
Saturday's conference contest is a quadrant-one opportunity for the Orange, which has just one quadrant-one win to date in the 2025-26 season. The 'Cuse has gotten blown out in its past two ACC encounters, albeit against blue-blood programs North Carolina (at home) and Duke (on the road).
While Syracuse basketball will likely have to capture the ACC Tournament championship to receive an invite to the 2026 NCAA Tournament, what the Orange is truly playing for at this juncture is pride. It would be nice to see SU rattle off a few successes between the end of the regular season and the ACC Tournament, to end on a more positive note, so to speak.
The offseason, for sure, will be interesting, to put it mildly.