Wake Forest is in a holding pattern and has to wait to find out if it’ll play one 7-footer or two this basketball season.

Center Efton Reid III joined Wake Forest in the spring from Gonzaga, where he spent one season after spending his freshman season at LSU. Undergraduate players are immediately eligible to play after their first transfer, but have to sit out one season as a second-time transfer unless a waiver is granted by the NCAA.

Which brings us to where Wake Forest is with the 7-foot, 240-pound Reid.

“I don’t have anything new on Efton,” coach Steve Forbes said earlier this week. “I’m not going to comment on it. When I get a ruling from the NCAA, I’ll let you know.”

He did have some clarifying remarks on Reid’s waiver and what kind of impact he’d have on the Deacons this season.

“I feel good about what we’re doing. If he doesn’t get it, I’m sure we’ll appeal it,” Forbes said. “And then if we don’t (get that), he’ll sit and have two more years.

“He knows that. It’s not what he wants to do and it’s not what we want. He’s a heck of a player, he’s a difference-maker.”

The NCAA announced in January that two-time transfer waivers would only be considered if there were mental or physical health reasons, or for “exigent circumstances.”

Because of where we are on the calendar and because of the state of college athletics, the football side of this has gotten the lion’s share of attention. In the ACC, that’s meant North Carolina is without wide receiver Tez Walker and Florida State is without defensive tackle Darrell Jackson Jr.

Neither of them played in their teams’ wins over SEC teams last weekend; it’s unknown how long their appeals processes will take, though Walker has another meeting with the NCAA on Thursday.

“That doesn’t really affect me when I read that stuff because it’s not his case,” Forbes said. “It’s case-by-case. … I’ll worry about his.”

Based on summer practices, Reid has shown himself to be a valuable part of Wake’s program — whether he plays this season or not.

Forbes’ ranking of players through the summer had the two Gonzaga transfers, Hunter Sallis and Reid, as Nos. 1 and 2. Returners Andrew Carr and Cameron Hildreth rounded out the top four, which Forbes said had some separation to No. 5 (which was Matthew Marsh, Wake's other 7-footer).

Reid was the team’s leading rebounder in the summer with almost twice as many as the next-closest Deacon, Forbes said. He also lost 12 pounds and “leaned out.”