Wake Forest vs Notre Dame Odds, Pick for Tuesday

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are fresh off the biggest win in the Steve Forbes era, and now face a roadblock against Notre Dame in South Bend.

Notre Dame snagged Micah Shrewsberry from Penn State following the Nittany Lions' first NCAA tournament win in a long time. He's shown exactly why the Notre Dame admins wanted him so badly, although the team's record is rough.

Shrewsberry just knows him to win games based on who's on his team.

The Fighting Irish have struggled offensively all year, sitting 267th in offensive efficiency. It's not surprising since the team's top two options — Markus Burton and Braden Shrewsberry — are freshmen.

Burton is the team's offensive engine, posting 16 points and four dimes per game. He's the future of Shrewsberry's program based on what we've seen from him this year.

The one thing Notre Dame is great at? Defense.

The Fighting Irish boast the 33rd highest-ranked defense (per defensive efficiency on KenPom) this season. It's a totally different style than Shrews had at Penn State, but it's led Notre Dame to five conference victories.

I didn't see the Irish cracking the five ACC win mark this season, so credit goes out to Shrewsberry for changing his entire coaching philosophy to maximize wins.

ND is building, but Wake Forest went through the same process. Steve Forbes knocked on the NCAA tournament's door in back-to-back seasons and is now in the driver's seat for the team's first tournament bid since 2016 when John Collins was on the squad.

The Demon Deacons didn't have a major win until beating top-10-ranked Duke on Saturday.

Hunter Sallis led the offensive charge, as he usually does. The Gonzaga transfer changed Wake's season, as he's posting 18.7 points per game on immaculate efficiency of 51% shooting from the field and 43% from 3.

You won't find many more efficient scorers in the sport than Sallis, and he's just the latest in Forbes' lengthy line of dominant portal guards.

The next two top scorers — guard Boopie Miller and big man Andrew Carr — also transferred in, so Forbes is a portal maven.

Additionally, Wake Forest is terrific on both ends of the floor, ranking 22nd in offensive efficiency and 34th in defensive efficiency.

Offense is the team's calling card, though. The Demon Deacons shoot 39% from 3 and 82% from the free-throw line. They also only turn it over just 15% of the time, which is great for late-game situations.

We saw the late-game poise from Wake against Duke.

The biggest possible issue for Wake in this game is its road woes. The Deacons own a 2-7 record in road games and just lost a 49-47 matchup against Virginia a few weeks back. It can't let the game turn into a slog or we could see a similar outcome against a team Wake can't afford a loss to.

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I can't ignore the road issues here, and the possible letdown spot could play a factor.

While I don't think Wake Forest will lose outright, Notre Dame could keep the game close, as it'll play very motivated against a nationally-ranked opponent.

I'll snag the points here with Shrews and the Irish.

Pick: Notre Dame +6.5 (Play to +6)