The Utah Utes and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons will square off in the 1^st round of the Charleston Classic in Charleston, South Carolina at the TD Arena with tipoff scheduled for 9:00 PM ET on Thursday night and will air on ESPNU.

Utah finished last season with a record of 17-15 and finished with a .500 record in Pac-12 play with a record of 10-10 in conference games which led to a 7^th-place finish in the conference. The Utes were eliminated early in the Pac-12 Conference tournament as they lost in the 1^st round against the Stanford Cardinal by a score of 62-73 causing the Utah Utes to miss the NCAA tournament for the 7^th consecutive year. This season, the Utah Utes have started the year with a record of 2-0 following wins at home against the Eastern Washington Eagles by a score of 101-66 while covering the 13-point spread as a home favorite and a win at home against the UC Riverside Highlanders by a score of 82-53 while covering the 16.5-point spread as a home favorite. The Utah Utes will be playing in their first game away from home on Thursday when they face their toughest opponent to this part of the season when they face off against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.

The Wake Forest Demon Deacons finished the 2022-23 college basketball season with a record of 19-14 and were .500 in ACC play with a record of 10-10 which led to a tie with the Syracuse Orange for 8^th place in the conference. The Demon Deacons would defeat the Syracuse Orange in the 2^nd round of the ACC Tournament by a score of 77-74 before losing to the Miami Hurricanes in the Quarterfinals by a score of 72-74 which would cause Wake Forest to miss the NCAA Tournament for the 6^th year in a row and the Demon Deacons would not be invited to play in any other postseason tournament. This year, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons have started the season with a record of 1-1 following a win at home against the Elon Phoenix by a score of 101-78 while covering the 19.5-point spread as a home favorite and a loss on the road against the Georgia Bulldogs by a score of 77-80 while failing to cover the 2-point spread as a road underdog.

BookMaker has the Utah Utes listed as 5-point favorites against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in the 1^st round of the Charleston Classic on Thursday night. This will be the first time these teams have played each other since the 1998-1999 college basketball season. The Utah Utes are 2-0 ATS overall and 2-0 ATS as a favorite this season while the Wake Forest Demon Deacons are 1-1 ATS overall and 0-1 ATS as an underdog on the year.

Neither team is projected to be a competitive team in their respective conference this season, however, Rutgers is a slightly more talented team this season and has started the season off by covering the spread in both of their games while Wake Forest is 1-1 ATS to start the year. I look for the Scarlet Knights to start the season off 3-0 ATS with a win and cover in the 1^st round of the Charleston Classic against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.