Wake Forest Basketball HC Steve Forbes Interview

Let's talk Wake Forest basketball. As the head coach of the Demon Deacon Steve Forbes joins us now. And I remember Steve, I was asking you about some of the transfers you were bringing in this past offseason. And you made sure to point out to me, Josh, I know everybody talks about Wake Forest basketball as this school that's just bringing in all these transfers and that's what we're relying on to win.

But it's not true. You look at these freshmen we got last year, I think these guys are going to develop into really good players. And we saw on Saturday at the Joel Coliseum, Cam Hildreth become the third player, one of those freshmen from last year, the third player in Wake Forest history to book a triple double. The other two to do it, some guys named Alondis Williams and Tim Duncan, who went on to win ACC Player of the Year later on in the season.

In which they booked those triple doubles. What kind of player could you see Cam Hildreth developing into Steve? Well, it's great to talk to you, Josh. You know, Cam's a really good player. He had some good moments last year as a freshman.

It was just, you know, it's a big adjustment coming from England over here to play in ACC. And so it took him some time, but I thought he gave us some good minutes off the bench during ACC play, especially a little bit later. Later in the year, he's just a really tough kid. He's got really good size. He's really worked hard on his on his jump shot. He's shooting 53% from the field, 41 from three, 72 from the line.

And he wasn't a consistent shooter last year. And I think he's getting better and better at that. And, you know, he comes from a basketball family.

You know, his dad's a coach. And so I'm really proud of him and the way he's playing. He's also averaging, you know, six over six rebounds a game. He's got 27 assists, 16 turnovers.

So up to this point, he's played very, very well. You're off to Wisconsin today for a game tomorrow. Then you're at Clemson on Friday. LSU on deck after that. But getting to the news of the day, this is going to be the final ACC Big Ten challenge we learned because starting next year, it's going to be the ACC SEC challenge.

So here's what I got to know, Steve. Who do you have next? What do you have better relationships with in the league? The SEC coaches or the Big Ten coaches? Well, you know, I probably know more coaches in the SEC because I coached in the league for five years, you know, in Tennessee. So I've maintained a lot of really close relationships with the coaches in that league. It's obviously a great league.

You know, they've got some outstanding coaches, outstanding teams in the league. So it'll be a really good matchup. Maybe, maybe the travel will be a little bit easier for them. Of course, it's a little bit more regional. Maybe the fan bases will get a little bit more behind it because it is a little bit more regional.

We'll just, you know, kind of have to see how the matchups go. But I had a feeling this was going to happen. I was told this month or so ago that this was probably going to happen.

So not a real big surprise. Tennessee Wake Forest. Let's make that happen.

Let's send Steve Forbes back there so he could get some of that barbecue out that way at dead end. It's a big week also when you start talking about the reputation of leagues, when leagues go head to head. You were one of the more outspoken coaches last season and talking about the way the ACC was being framed. Then you turned out to be right when the ACC had the NCAA tournament that it did. It almost seems like after this past weekend with Duke and Carolina losing and some of the other stuff we're seeing that the same cycle of reputation being shaped negatively for the ACC is starting to play out again. How concerned are you about that piece of it? Well, I don't think I'm concerned.

I think it's more, you know, you just want to look at the body of work from beginning to the end. Obviously, the message was clear that we needed to do better in November. Virginia's had a couple really good wins. They got a really good team. I think Miami's beat Providence. I think that, oh, I mean, you know, we've had some good wins. You know, I'm not trying to coach other people's teams. It's just those are hard matchups, you know, and you want to win them. And I'm sure they're disappointed to lose those. We lost one in the championship game in Jamaica to Loyola Marymount.

That didn't help the league. So we're all culpable in all this. You know, we just got to, but you got to play the whole year. You know, that's the thing. It's not just a one month season.

And so you just kind of keep trying to improve. I know we got some teams that, you know, are young. I guess we've got some teams that have been hurt, my team included. I haven't had my entire team on the court yet. You know, I'm looking forward to that opportunity. And so, you know, you just see how it goes as the whole season transpires.

I hear a lot of people, though. It strangely usually comes from Carolina fans or Duke fans saying this stuff doesn't matter. You know, just win on the court, that type of thing. And all I can think is it doesn't matter to the Blue Bloods, but it does matter to Wake Forest. Who could go 25-10 last year and 13-7 in league and not get in. It's the non-Blue Bloods that are affected by what the reputation of the league is, isn't it?

Well, I don't know about the reputation. I think it's more about, you know, what metrics they're using to decide who's in the tournament and who's not. You know, for us, obviously, it was the net. You know, last year we didn't have enough quad run wins. And, you know, I argued that winning, beating Carolina and winning at Virginia should have been quad run wins, but they weren't. You know, and typically in a year when you sweep Florida State, you're going to get one quad run, one win out of that. We just didn't. So it's just one of those years. And, you know, I've moved past it. I'm not living in the past.

I've never been one to do that. But, you know, it is hard, you know, but we all got to be responsible and me included. And I didn't play a great schedule last year. You know, we played a lot of harder schedule this year with a much younger team. And so we'll see how that plays out as well. Steve Forbes is with us here again tomorrow night playing at Wisconsin, and then they're going to be at Clemson towards the end of the week.

Their next home game is against hashtag Take The Stairs, Dustin Kearns and App State. We'll be giving away Wake Forest tickets all season long here on the show. Coach Forbes, you'd be proud of me. You'd be proud of me over the past week. My family had not seen the movie Christmas Vacation. I didn't realize this until we were together on Thanksgiving. And then on Saturday, I'm usually a fake tree guy.

Sarah Bradford is now that I'm married to her. She was adamant we go out and get a tree on Saturday the old fashioned way. And that's exactly what we did. Are you fully in the Christmas spirit? Do you have the stuff up in the house and the entire deal? Well, we're starting to begin.

I'm in basketball mode. So my poor wife has to deal with all this. My son did come over last night and help her put up the tree. We have artificial tree. When I was a kid, we used to go out there and cut down a tree.

But then we had a dog who tended to either drink the water or pee on the tree. So we just kind of had to quit doing that. It's kind of like Christmas Vacation a little bit, but we'll get there. You mentioned the health of your team on the way out. Where are you at when it comes to Davian Williamson and Matthew Marsh's availability for tomorrow?

I'm hoping they can go. You know, Davian's been really kind of been out hurt since Utah Valley. He hurt his back.

And anytime it hurts your back as a basketball player, that's a tough deal. And he played against LaSalle. He didn't play much against Loyola Marymount.

Played a little bit. Didn't dress last two games. But I'm hoping that he'll be ready to go today.

Matthew sprained his ankle Friday in practice. We couldn't have pregame practice on Saturday because the game was at 12-3. It was just too early. So he came in early and dressed out and tried to go, but couldn't. Again, I'm hopeful that, you know, he can get back on the court today, get some reps before we go to Wisconsin. And, you know, I think Jow I took is starting to, you know, he's trying to play through, you know, his injury. And, you know, he was out for so long. He's out almost a month. And he didn't play. He couldn't practice. And so he hadn't really been on the court since we scrimmaged Ohio State. And so he's missed a lot of really, you know, a lot of good reps. But hopefully, you know, as we go through here, we can get everybody back on the court.

It's just, you know, we got a really challenging eight games or I think in a row where we got to play. Best of luck at Wisconsin. I don't know if they do that jump around deal at basketball games or anything like that, but I guess you're going to find out. Well, I've avoided the Cole Center my entire life. I grew up in the Big Ten in Iowa City.

Actually, my high school's fight song is on Wisconsin, so I don't know if that will help me or not. But it's a tough place to play. And I have a lot of respect for Greg Guard. And their team is really good. And they really defend.

And they're tough. And it'll be, you know, a good challenge for us. It'll be our first really true road game. And so it'll be a physical team. We're going to play two very physical teams and, you know, back to back here this week in Wisconsin and Clemson, which will be a really good challenge for our team. Nine o'clock tip tomorrow night.

Wake Forest at Wisconsin. We will be watching. Coach Forbes, thank you so much for making the time safe travels. All right, Josh. Always a pleasure.