Steve Forbes goes on rant about Joe Lunardi for criticizing ACC

Wake Forest finds itself among the “first four out” in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology projections, and Steve Forbes has a bone to pick with the ESPN expert. Speaking on the ACC Network on Wednesday, the Demon Deacons coach went on a rant against Lunardi for his perceived criticisms of the ACC.

Forbes asserted that Lunardi “doesn’t like to stay in his lane,” saying he has made comments about the conference needing to do a better job in recruiting to improve its number of bids. Lunardi currently has four ACC teams in his bracket, fewer than both the Mountain West and Big East.

“I don’t know how Bracketology works,” Forbes said. “I stay in my lane. I leave it to the experts. Joe Lunardi at ESPN, he’s an expert. He’s carved out a great career doing it and so good for him. The problem that I have with Joe in regards to the ACC is he doesn’t like to stay in his lane. He’s criticized our league and our players in the past. He said that if we want more bids, then we got to do a better job recruiting. And I didn’t realize he was a recruiting expert.

“I’ve never seen him at a recruiting event in the summer. I’ve never seen him do a recruiting class list or rankings. I’ve never seen him on draft night. I’ve never seen him do a draft board. Here’s the thing about it. We have the most drafted players in the history of the NBA from the ACC. And if we’re talking about over the past five years since the NET, we’re second only to the SEC in drafted players, and it’s not even close.”

Wake Forest is currently 17-9 (9-6 ACC), but is only 1-5 against quadrant 1 opponents and 4-4 against quadrant 2 opponents. Lunardi’s projection is in line with what most other bracketology experts have, as bracketmatrix.com shows the average bracket does not include the Demon Deacons.

Five ACC teams have earned bids to the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons. If it were to only get four teams in this season, that would be the lowest total since 2013 when the conference had just 12 teams total. As recently as 2018, the ACC punched nine tickets to March Madness, so this downward trend is alarming to say the least.

At this point, Wake Forest can still make it in the field of 68 with a strong finish to the regular season. The Demon Deacons have five contests remaining, with games against Duke and Clemson being particularly important for their tournament resume.

Wake Forest is set to tip off against the No. 8 Blue Devils at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday at home.