Michigan vs Wake Forest prediction, odds, pick for College Basketball

11/10/2024 03:34 AM

It’s time to continue our College Basketball odds series with a Michigan-Wake Forest prediction and pick. Find out how to watch Michigan-Wake Forest.

Michigan basketball enters a new era this season. Dusty May, the coach who led Florida Atlantic to the 2023 Final Four and came within an eyelash of making the national championship game, became the new Wolverine head basketball coach in the offseason, replacing Juwan Howard. It would have been a fairy-tale outcome for Michigan if the Wolverines had made the Final Four under Howard, a member of the iconic Fab Five from the early 1990s who played in two straight national title games for UM. Howard got Michigan close to the Final Four in 2021, but the Maize and Blue lost to UCLA in a razor-tight Elite Eight game. Howard did make the Sweet 16 on top of that Elite Eight appearance, but his trajectory at UM steadily went downward after the Elite Eight loss. He struggled to generate consistent performance throughout a season. He was involved in some heated and contentious incidents, such as one in which he slapped a Wisconsin assistant coach, that increased both public scrutiny and internal disapproval toward his actions. Howard kept digging himself into a deeper and deeper hole. On-court performance became so bad that everything snowballed on him, and he was out just three years after his Elite Eight appearance. It was not the way Michigan envisioned the Howard era unfolding. May is being asked to restore Michigan’s elite basketball identity and bring back not just the early-1990s Fab Five standard, but also the John Beilein years. Beilein, like the Fab Five, made two national championship games.

Not many programs can say they have made four national championship games in major college basketball over the past 32 years. Duke, UConn, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Kansas are the only other programs which can make the same claim. Michigan basketball has made the Final Four in five different decades over the past 60 seasons, reaching college basketball’s biggest weekend in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and 2010s. Once again, few other programs can make that same claim. Michigan has a well-above-average history. Dusty May is being asked to revive it.

May and Michigan face a Wake Forest team which desperately needs to make the NCAA Tournament this season. Coach Steve Forbes has come achingly close to getting into March Madness, but multiple bubble teams in Winston-Salem have lost terrible ACC games in the final two weeks of the regular season to fall just short of the bracket on Selection Sunday. The more time goes by without an NCAA berth, the more the pressure will mount on Forbes to get this program across the finish line. One wonders how many more chances Forbes will receive to get the job done with the Demon Deacons. That makes this game a huge one for Wake, even bigger than it is for Michigan and May. One coach is just getting started at his school; Forbes might be finished at Wake if he can’t raise this team’s level of achievement.

Here are the Michigan-Wake Forest College Basketball Odds, courtesy of FanDuel 

College Basketball Odds: Michigan-Wake Forest Odds

Michigan: -1.5 (-110)

Moneyline: -126

Wake Forest: +1.5 (-110)

Moneyline: +105

Over: 155.5 (-110)

Under: 155.5 (-110)

How to Watch Michigan vs Wake Forest

Time: 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT

TV: ESPN2

Stream: fuboTV (Free Trial)

Why Michigan Will Cover The Spread/Win

This is very simple: Dusty May is a far better coach than Steve Forbes. He will have Michigan playing together. That’s all you need to know.

Why Wake Forest Will Cover The Spread/Win

Wake Forest needs this game more than Michigan does. If Steve Forbes isn’t on the hot seat, he is definitely feeling the pressure. Expect him and Wake to be just a little more desperate than Michigan, which could make all the difference.

Final Michigan-Wake Forest Prediction & Pick

Our lean is to Michigan, but we’re not sure how good these teams really are. Pass on this one.

Final Michigan-Wake Forest Prediction & Pick: Michigan -1.5

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