DCDeac
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2011
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I don't mind being on the Forbes-in train for another couple years since so many are equivocating. Doesn't mean I'm not disappointed in this season, I'm bitterly disappointed by it. I realize much of my reasoning is labeled as excuses. I really don't care. I'm not clinging to some dream scenario where we beat Clemson and make the ACC final to steal a First Four bid.
I see a coach who took over during brutal recruiting impediments from Covid, had to wade through the new portal and NIL nonsense without any real NIL support to speak of until this year, and he's put 2 very good squads and 1 pretty good squad together in the last 3 years. The atmosphere at home is drastically improved, we've won a ton of games, the program is universally more respected than it has been in a decade or more. The players seem to like him and the sense of team at Wake Forest is back to levels not seen since Prosser.
That is the big picture stuff, and from a tactical standpoint while I don't agree with or understand some of his personnel decisions, I'm not at practice day-in and day-out. I know that when I listen to Forbes talk basketball, I love his appreciation for the game and the previous greats in coaching, I love his old-school approach, and I love how much detail he goes into discussing tactics of the team. It all clicks to me as the core of a great coach, and since I played basketball my whole life, played AAU, went through college recruiting, got to play for Bobby Cremins and spend time with other big name coaches - to me he clicks as the real deal. Totally understand if that's not the case for others.
I also simply don't put the game-by-game onus on the head coach like many apparently do. We shoot poorly, Forbes is awful. Another team misses a bunch of shots, Forbes is a genius. Our guys come out flat, Forbes gives bad motivational speeches. Our players are essentially professional athletes, we are at the end of the season, the guys know everyone's roles, they are plenty motivated. I look at this stretch and I don't see Forbes suddenly doing terrible things to ruin our year or some long-building failure he caused - I see our best player Sallis backing up a tremendous performance against Duke with his worst of the year against Notre Dame, breaking a 27 game streak of double digit scoring. And nearly as bad the next game. Combo that with our most experienced front court guy Andrew Carr going for 7 points and 6 points in the next two losses, the 2nd of which also was his worst performance of the entire year at home. In the NC State road loss our guards (Boopie/Cam/Sallis/Parker) shot 2/13 from deep - 15%. I do know Forbes is a stats guy, and there's no doubt in my mind he looks at our numbers in some of these losses and can't believe them.
At some point the players just have to execute. Yes, Reid's delay hurt the team, Monsanto's availability hurt the team, Cam's injury hurt the team. But like UNC missing the tourney last year, sometimes players simply don't get it done despite having absolutely no excuse not to. Forbes put together a squad that could easily have been a double-bye team this year. Say what you want about his x's and o's - maybe there's a need for an assistant coach shuffle - but I don't see our strategy as some kind of terrible season-killing approach.
I hope we keep moving the program forward and putting out squads that have top 4 ACC potential. Given what came before him, as long as he's doing that I think it's better to believe in what we have with him as a coach and trust that results will follow as long as he has the resources to compete for talent. This is the first year we've gotten proper resources in line to continue the push forward, and it does feel like we are moving forward - even if a few awful performances make it feel otherwise.
I see a coach who took over during brutal recruiting impediments from Covid, had to wade through the new portal and NIL nonsense without any real NIL support to speak of until this year, and he's put 2 very good squads and 1 pretty good squad together in the last 3 years. The atmosphere at home is drastically improved, we've won a ton of games, the program is universally more respected than it has been in a decade or more. The players seem to like him and the sense of team at Wake Forest is back to levels not seen since Prosser.
That is the big picture stuff, and from a tactical standpoint while I don't agree with or understand some of his personnel decisions, I'm not at practice day-in and day-out. I know that when I listen to Forbes talk basketball, I love his appreciation for the game and the previous greats in coaching, I love his old-school approach, and I love how much detail he goes into discussing tactics of the team. It all clicks to me as the core of a great coach, and since I played basketball my whole life, played AAU, went through college recruiting, got to play for Bobby Cremins and spend time with other big name coaches - to me he clicks as the real deal. Totally understand if that's not the case for others.
I also simply don't put the game-by-game onus on the head coach like many apparently do. We shoot poorly, Forbes is awful. Another team misses a bunch of shots, Forbes is a genius. Our guys come out flat, Forbes gives bad motivational speeches. Our players are essentially professional athletes, we are at the end of the season, the guys know everyone's roles, they are plenty motivated. I look at this stretch and I don't see Forbes suddenly doing terrible things to ruin our year or some long-building failure he caused - I see our best player Sallis backing up a tremendous performance against Duke with his worst of the year against Notre Dame, breaking a 27 game streak of double digit scoring. And nearly as bad the next game. Combo that with our most experienced front court guy Andrew Carr going for 7 points and 6 points in the next two losses, the 2nd of which also was his worst performance of the entire year at home. In the NC State road loss our guards (Boopie/Cam/Sallis/Parker) shot 2/13 from deep - 15%. I do know Forbes is a stats guy, and there's no doubt in my mind he looks at our numbers in some of these losses and can't believe them.
At some point the players just have to execute. Yes, Reid's delay hurt the team, Monsanto's availability hurt the team, Cam's injury hurt the team. But like UNC missing the tourney last year, sometimes players simply don't get it done despite having absolutely no excuse not to. Forbes put together a squad that could easily have been a double-bye team this year. Say what you want about his x's and o's - maybe there's a need for an assistant coach shuffle - but I don't see our strategy as some kind of terrible season-killing approach.
I hope we keep moving the program forward and putting out squads that have top 4 ACC potential. Given what came before him, as long as he's doing that I think it's better to believe in what we have with him as a coach and trust that results will follow as long as he has the resources to compete for talent. This is the first year we've gotten proper resources in line to continue the push forward, and it does feel like we are moving forward - even if a few awful performances make it feel otherwise.
