Wake Forest will play UTEP in the Opening Round of the Charleston Classic

The Charleston Classic bracket was released on Thursday, and the Demon Deacons know who they will be facing in November. Wake Forest will play the UTEP Miners on Thursday, November 17th at 1:30 p.m. The winner of that contest will play the winner of the Western Michigan-Villanova, which in all likelihood will be the defending national champion, Villanova Wildcats.

UTEP finished the 2015-2016 season with an overall record of 19-14, including 10-8 in Conference USA. The Miners, however, finished just 215th in Ken Pom, meaning that the Deacs should absolutely win this contest. UTEP plays with great tempo, but they are very weak on the boards, and Wake Forest should dominate that aspect of the game. My very early expectation is that John Collins will make a great impact in this game.

Season 3 is a massive one for Danny Manning, as the roster now consists entirely of players that he recruited. Wake Forest will be traveling to the Bahamas in just over a month, and will play three games while they are down there. The team has a lot of new pieces, and it will be very interesting to see how the pieces mesh in those exhibition games.