Wake Forest finally at full strength ahead of key stretch
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons have been a work in progress all season.
They started the season down two players expected to be major contributors in seven-footer Efton Reid and sharpshooter Damari Monsanto and got off to a sluggish 2-3 start to the campaign. Reid returned for Wake's Dec. 6 contest with Rutgers, and the Deacs subsequently rattled off seven consecutive wins.
On Friday, the school announced that Monsanto, along with guard Jao Ituka, had been medically cleared and activated for Saturday's game against Louisville in Winston-Salem.
Head coach Steve Forbes has turned Wake Forest from a perennial cellar-dweller in the ACC since the days of Jeff Bzdelik into a program on the NCAA Tournament bubble for the past two seasons but hasn't been able to get his team into the Big Dance yet.
Despite boasting a 12-5 record (4-2 in the ACC), Forbes seems destined for a nervous Selection Sunday, with ESPN's Joe Lunardi currently projecting them as one of his last four teams in the NCAA Tournament following a second-half collapse on the road against North Carolina State on Jan. 16.
But adding Monsanto is a game-changer for Wake Forest, and not just because he's a threat to shoot as soon as he crosses half-court.
Wake has one of the most explosive starting-5's in the ACC but has run into problems finding production from the bench. Freshman Parker Friedrichsen has held his own attempting to fill Monsanto's role of three-point specialist, shooting 42 percent from deep in 18 minutes per game.
But apart from the youngster, no bench player for Wake Forest is scoring more than 2.3 points per game.
In 27 games before tearing his patellar tendon last season, Monsanto scored 13.3ppg while averaging over three triples per contest. He not only brings additional fire to an already explosive offense but has experience playing in the ACC and the postseason as well thanks to the Deacs NIT run in 2021-22.
While the headline for fans is the return of Monsanto, Ituka is another intriguing addition to Wake Forest. Injuries have derailed his time at Wake Forest so far and he's appeared in just six games over his two seasons in Winston-Salem.
But as a freshman at Marist in 2021-22 he averaged 15.3 PPG, and while he won't be asked to carry that kind of offensive load gives another ball-handler to a team that has struggled with turnovers this season, especially in their loss to the Wolfpack.
If Wake Forest hopes to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since a First Four appearance in 2017, they'll need to take the opportunities presented in their upcoming stretch of games featuring must-wins against Louisville, Pittsburgh and Syracuse sprinkled in with key Tobacco Road matchups with No. 4 UNC and No. 7 Duke as well as a home rematch with NC State.
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