What channel is Notre Dame basketball vs. Wake Forest on Saturday? Time, TV, prediction

We made it.

We made it through the non-league matchups of November and December. We made it through the bone-cold, lake-effect snow months of January (seemingly all 65 days) and February and conference play. We made it to another March that doesn’t much matter for Notre Dame basketball.

Noie: Notre Dame basketball’s Markus Burton sure is fun to watch, but everything else isn’t

One more charter flight. One more hotel stay. One more Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season road game remains for Notre Dame, which needs a win Saturday at Wake Forest to avoid mirroring last year’s 2-8 league road record.

Souls searched: Why was Thursday – the day AFTER a game – so important for future of Notre Dame basketball?

The Irish are back on Tobacco Road this weekend having lost three of four and six of eight. This season, like the previous two, will end sometime at the league tournament. Maybe the first game or a second. How about a third? Barring a magical run with a compromised roster, there will be no postseason for a third straight season in South Bend.

At least we made it to March.

What time does Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest start?

Site: Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum (14,665), Winston-Salem, North Carolina

What channel is Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest on?

What is the history between Notre Dame and Wake Forest?

A series that didn’t start until the teams became league colleagues in 2013-14 (the teams met in the 2000 National Invitation Tournament championship game, a 71-61 Wake win) is tied at nine, with Notre Dame leading 8-6 as ACC colleagues. The Irish are 2-4 at Joel Coliseum, where they have lost three straight since their last win on February 24, 2018, 76-71.

Notre Dame has lost four of the last five meetings.

The teams split last season. Notre Dame won 70-65 in Purcell Pavilion on February 27, 2024 while Wake Forest advanced to the ACC Tournament quarterfinals with a 72-59 win on March 13 in Washington.

Who to watch for …

Notre Dame (12-16; 6-11 ACC)

Sophomore guard Markus Burton remains the lone constant on the offensive end. The leading scorer in league games (21.80 ppg., in 15 ACC games), Burton has scored at least 20 points in four of his last five and nine of 11. He scored a game-high 30 points in Wednesday’s loss at No. 14 Clemson and has gone over 1,000 career points in less than two seasons.

Nobody saw that coming.

This is Burton at his best, but you wonder if all the losing, and all the heavy offensive lifting, takes too big of a toll on the hometown guy. He looked bothered by a bad back in the second half at Clemson. Can he give another out-of-body effort for another 40 minutes? Will it matter?

Wake Forest (19-9; 11-6)

For seemingly forever, playing Wake Forest meant accounting for Hunter Sallis and Cameron Hildreth and Efton Reid, all of whom remain capable of causing a multitude of concerns for the Irish.

Beware small forward Tre’Von Spillers, a 6-foot-7, 215-pound senior from Charleston, South Carolina. A first team All-Sun Belt selection last season at Appalachian State, Spillers is one of those sneaky good, under-the-radar ACC guys capable of swinging games by doing a little something of everything.

Spillers enters Saturday averaging 10.1 points and a team-high 7.7 rebounds in 33.4 minutes. He’s been asked to play more lately and has responded by doing more lately.

Spillers has logged at least 34 minutes in six of the last seven games. Over his last four, he’s averaging 11.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 35.5 minutes. Better add his name to the watch list.

How about a prediction for Notre Dame vs. Wake Forest?

Wake Forest 71, Notre Dame 58: The Irish need a win to feel good about getting off the ACC road and getting home for the final week of the regular season. The Demon Deacons really need a home win to keep alive fading NCAA Tournament hope. Maybe Wake Forest plays so tight thinking about the NCAAs and about Monday’s visit to No. 2 Duke that it can’t think or shoot straight. Maybe Notre Dame wings it and makes shots at a high clip and defends and rebounds like its collective hair is aflame.

It still might not be enough for an Irish team that has been beaten by an average of 18 points in their last three league losses after losing by an average of only nine in its previous three ACC losses.