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WFU Hoops: '24-'25 Roster Construction Thread: +Spillers/Biliew/Cosby/Johnson/Abass

2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
We have had basically 4 distinct teams under Forbes. All 4 of them have had certain guys individually exceed perceived expectations by massive margins. Despite that individual overachievement, all 4 of them have also failed to achieve team success by the most basic of college basketball measurables. Some had lack of depth, some had injuries, some had bad luck. Sure, that is all part of sports and every team deals with it to some degree. But the one constant through that failure, that did not vary from year to year, was the Joel. The constant is the off campus arena, not the other excuses.
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FIFY since we're approaching DR-levels of fixation on this
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
We have had basically 4 distinct teams under Forbes. All 4 of them have had guys individually exceed perceived expectations. All 4 of them have also failed to achieve team success by the most basic of college basketball measurables. Some had lack of depth, some had injuries, some had bad luck. Sure, that is part of sports. But the one constant through that failure, that did not vary from year to year, was Forbes as coach. The constant is the bad coaching, not the other excuses.
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The "Forbes-out" people try to hang the first season on him which is idiotic. He took over the shambles left behind by a complete incompetent, and then was forced to try to rebuild during the height of the pandemic. He could only recruit over Zoom, and the team missed almost half the season because of COVID running through the team. Forbes was the only coach from a major conference that was hired during the covid shit-show. That season is a throw-out.

Keep in mind that prior to Forbes coming to WF; Deacon basketball had a final ranking better than 89 once in 10 seasons.

Forbes has had three teams (2022, 2023 and 2024) that he had a reasonable ability to shape and coach.

The 2022 team was rated #105 pre-season and ended up #35, and just missed an NCAAT bid.

The 2023 team was rated #80 to start the season, got to #66 and then Damari went down and WF finished #86.

The 2024 team was rated #73 to start the year and finished #28. Again, WF just missed an NCAA bid.

All of those teams were almost completely rebuilt each off season. If you can't see the progress that Forbes has made, that's on you.
 
CltDeac99 said:
You know there is another team on the court right? Sometimes you just get beat. Nobody to blame but simply tip your cap to your opponent
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We've been getting beat for 15 fucking years. That is a lot of cap tipping. But as always, we are just supposed to bend over and take it. And that is why we are completely irrelevant.
 
And apparently if Wake got the rub of the green and got invites to the NCAAT when they just missed out then somehow that would result in Forbes being considered a good coach with nearly the exact same resume.
 
Pilchard said:
The "Forbes-out" people try to hang the first season on him which is idiotic. He took over the shambles left behind by an complete incompetent, and then was forced to try to rebuild during the height of the pandemic. He could only recruit over Zoom, and the team missed almost half the season because of COVID running through the team. Forbes was the only coach from a major conference that was hired during the covid shit-show. That season is a throw-out.

Keep in mind that prior to Forbes coming to WF; Deacon basketball had a final ranking better than 89 once in 10 seasons.

Forbes has had three teams (2022, 2023 and 2024) that he had a reasonable ability to shape and coach.

The 2022 team was rated #105 pre-season and ended up #35, and just missed an NCAAT bid.

The 2023 team was rated #80 to start the season, got to #66 and then Damari went down and WF finished #86.

The 2024 team was rated #73 to start the year and finished #28. Again, WF just missed an NCAA bid.

All of those teams were almost completely rebuilt each off season. If you can't see the progress that Forbes has made, that's on you.
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It is his fault that they have to be rebuilt every season! He doesn't get credit for having to rebuild a team that he can't keep together. JFC.
 
You all can keep making excuses for this guy. But, as always, we'll be right back in this spot next year scanning the portal for the next Iona transfer who this time is going to take us to the promised land. This season will be different! I just know it!
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
It is his fault that they have to be rebuilt every season! He doesn't get credit for having to rebuild a team that he can't keep together. JFC.
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Perhaps you have not heard, but there are these things called "the transfer portal" and "NIL" now, which rule college basketball. So, everyone has to rebuild every season. Please try to keep up.
 
It's pretty wild to see stats saying that a coach takes transfers and gets them to play significantly above their expected level and turn that into an argument that the coach sucks.

Yes, we get it, we haven't made the NCAAT under Forbes. But there's no reasonable way to twist these specific stats into saying that Forbes is actually doing a bad job with transfers.
 
Pilchard said:
Perhaps you have not heard, but there are these things called "the transfer portal" and "NIL" now, which rule college basketball. So, everyone has to rebuild every season. Please try to keep up.
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Yes. It really is amazing that 64 teams, every season, have overcome those massive hurdles and not used them as excuses. But we are on our second decade of excuses, it is who we are.
 
2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
You all can keep making excuses for this guy. But, as always, we'll be right back in this spot next year scanning the portal for the next Iona transfer who this time is going to take us to the promised land. This season will be different! I just know it!
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You guys can keep hating on 2&2 (and some of his posts are over-the-top) but I'm afraid this one is accurate. Barring another key addition, looks like yet another wrong side of the bubble team, but the optimism will be running rampant again this time next offseason. Really hope I'm wrong....and hope I don't catch too much hate for agreeing with 2&2.
 
oldschooldeac said:
Barring another key addition, looks like yet another wrong side of the bubble team
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I genuinely don't understand the confidence that multiple posters have stated this with.

Biliew, Spillers, Johnson, Cosby, and Abass is the maybe the best transfer portal class that Forbes has ever brought in on paper. Retaining Cam/Reid/PFred is more significant talent returning than Forbes has ever had. And Juke is the most excited we've been about a freshman (other than maybe PFred).

Why are we so sure that the team as is won't be good enough to make it?
 
DeacsATS said:
FWIW, you can search the numbers he's talking about.

If you just look at the 1st season after the transfer, here's how they rank on that metric:

LaRavia - 5.36
Sallis - 5.34
Appleby - 5.08
Reid - 5.03
Williams - 4.14

Alondes gets dinged (a ton) for his "defense"

So it was very close between LaRavia and Sallis.
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Where does Jake stand overall?

 
deacon14 said:
I genuinely don't understand the confidence that multiple posters have stated this with.

Biliew, Spillers, Johnson, Cosby, and Abass is the maybe the best transfer portal class that Forbes has ever brought in on paper. Retaining Cam/Reid/PFred is more significant talent returning than Forbes has ever had. And Juke is the most excited we've been about a freshman (other than maybe PFred).

Why are we so sure that the team as is won't be good enough to make it?
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Is really that good of a portal class? Ranked 37th on 247. Given the secrecy that Forbes has operated in we don't know how far down his initial wish list some of these guys were.
 
KitchinDeac said:
Is really that good of a portal class? Ranked 37th on 247. Given the secrecy that Forbes has operated in we don't know how far down his initial wish list some of these guys were.
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What were our other classes ranked?
 
KitchinDeac said:
Is really that good of a portal class? Ranked 37th on 247. Given the secrecy that Forbes has operated in we don't know how far down his initial wish list some of these guys were.
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2023 ranked 47
2022 ranked 22
 
TheIshThatSaved WakeForest said:
Also important to remember that portal class rankings are largely trash across the board
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That's fair. Success from the portal seems to be a crap shoot. We have two guys that were highly rated recruits that couldn't crack regular time on good teams (Biliew and Cosby), two role players on bad teams (Johnson and Abass), and one guy that was very good at a lower level (Spillers). Spillers seems like the surest of the bunch to be a valuable piece for us, but otherwise we are hoping that Forbes plucked another Alondes or Sallis from the scrap heap.
 
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