Wake Forest HC Steve Forbes Interview (2-6-23)

Wake Forest basketball coach Steve Forbes now joins the show. And of course, there's a topic we gotta get to, Steve. Fighting words have been said. It's an uncomfortable subject to bring up.

It's created some controversy, as you know. So let's just get straight to it. Would you really cut me if you had tryouts?

What I'd probably do is I'd work you out, then I'd make you run a bunch, and then I'd make you sit over there and think about it for a while, and then I'd come over and tell you, nice try, son, but we gotta move in a different direction. Now, I watched your little workout there. It reminded me of Happy Gilmore or something like that in basketball. But it was a good effort.

The video quality was solid. Now, anybody can, you know, highlight tape, anybody, obviously, all you gotta show me is makes. You didn't show me all your misses.

Because I know you didn't make every shot that you took. So, you know, nice try, and I appreciate you trying to help us out, but we're gonna move in a different direction. This summer, maybe there's a way we can help promote your camp, do something for charity. I want to be out at one of your practices during camp this summer. Can we make that happen? Oh, we can make that happen.

In front of the entire camp, we can let you give a shooting demonstration of how not to shoot the ball, and then I'll let Coach Shader, Coach Wood, teach how to shoot the ball. How about we do that? That sounds great.

I'm gonna hold you to that. Joel Berry, by the way, says he likes my jumper, so I could maybe set some screens for Damari. That's definitely what you'd be doing. You'd be screening. Hey, know your role, do your role.

Know your job, do your job, play to your strengths, stay away from your weaknesses. I like it. Speaking of Damari Monsanto, he dropped 28 at Notre Dame on 8 of 13 from 3, and this stat from Brian Geisiger just blows me away. Damari is currently attempting 19 threes per 100 processions, and he's shooting over 41%. If he keeps up that pace, he'll join some guys named Steph Curry and Troy Daniels as the only two players in the last 15 years with 18 or more attempts per 100 while shooting over 40%. Given that you've coached shooters like Kenny Lofton and AC Law and Fred Van Vliet, just how special of a player is Damari? Well, I think he's playing his way into, you know, being a really good player, you know, Josh, and some of it is just playing.

You know, he registered the year for me. He played, so he didn't play. Then he played one year at East-Tensons State, but that was a COVID shortened year.

Last year, he had a tour of his Achilles and then played a shortened ACC schedule for him. So really, this is kind of the first full year he's gotten to play, and so he has really good size. I think the whole thing with Damari is, you know, taking the right shots. You know, he can get his shot off on base.

He put a lot of people, because he's tall. He's 6'6", 6'7", but he's got to take them in rhythm, and he's really good off the catch. And sometimes he's okay off the bounce if it's not too many bounces, but he's getting better at that, so we'll see. You know, yeah, he's played well since Rutgers. You know, he didn't play against that state. Then he played against Rutgers, and since then, I think he's averaging about four made threes a game, and we need him. We need him to make someone else.

You know, like you said, on Saturday, he made eight of them and shot it well, shot great. Steve Forbes is with us here, Wake basketball coach. We've already given away a handful of tickets for tomorrow's game against North Carolina. We'll get to that game in a second. Back to Damari, though, did you know it would translate from the Southern Conference?

I don't think anybody ever really knows that. You know, Josh, I mean, Damari had some high major looks out of high school, but nobody really offered him on the high major level. That's how I got him.

I'm not super recruiter. I didn't out recruit power fives to get him, but he had that size, he had that stroke, and so those things are very transferable to every level. He could always really shoot, and he had good size, and so you don't know that until you really get in it, but I thought after I left, he showed those signs when he was redshirting. That's how good my team was. I mean, he didn't get a play, and for the most part, David came off the bench till the end of the year, and so those guys have been very productive players here in the ACC, so it doesn't always translate, no.

But I do believe you could see that with him just based on his gift of his size and his shooting ability. You told me ahead of this conversation that you had something for our good friend who comes on the show every week, the sixth man of Tar Heel basketball, who he dubs himself, who's the in-arena host that you saw a month ago courtside when you faced North Carolina for the first time, our friend B-Dot. What do you have for him ahead of tomorrow's game in Winston-Salem? Well, I want to be prepared. When you come around a corner there in the ding dome, you can't see what's around the corner. I ran into this guy with these horns on a hat and some pajamas, and it scared the living hell out of me, and it was him. I just want to be prepared. If I come around a corner to come out the tunnel tomorrow night, will I run into this guy with these horns on his head and these pajamas that are just completely wild?

I just want to be prepared, because at that point, if I look at my Fitbit, my heart rate's already racing, and I don't need to add to the stress of looking at that. Well, I'm not saying I was afraid. It was just shocking to my soul when I saw it.

I mean, a grown man was wearing that. It was amazing. You played Duke last week. Duke's last game is against the team you play tomorrow. Putting your analyst hat on for a second, how surprised were you by the way Lively and Duke's defense kept Armando Bacot and Carolina out of the paint in the second half?

I don't know if I was surprised. Derek Lively is a weak shot blocker. I made that very clear before we played him and after we played him. He didn't play against us the first time, so we got to the rim a lot in the first game. He changes a lot of shots. He's a very active, long player.

He's going to be a problem for anything, not just Carolina when he's in there. That doesn't mean you quit driving it. That doesn't mean you'll throw it in there.

You still got to play. Try to get him in foul trouble. Do those kinds of things.

Draw him away from the basket. We did that a little bit. We just didn't make them. We all have really good teams in this league. Is there an elite team right now? It's hard to say that. There's a lot of really good teams. Every game is going to be a battle. Can one of us, two of us, three of us become elite?

I think so. It happened last year. This time of year, we were all kind of beating up on each other.

Then we had three teams in the elite eight and two in the final four. We'll see as we go. We got a lot of basketball left to play.

Derek Lively is a weak, level shot blocker. Steve Forbes with us here. On the way out, this is just code of conduct for the fellas, whether it be Will Dalton on the other side or talking to basketball coaches. We are eight days away, Steve, from Valentine's Day. Are you aware of this? No, I'm not. I got a gift idea for you.

Are you ready? No, no, no. My wife knows. Every year, before I leave home to go home from work, I go to my stationery. This is the same way.

Four stars, said ETSU, said Wichita, says Tennessee. I just write her a nice little note. Something like, some bunny loves you.

I draw a picture of a bunny. Then I take it home to her. That's how we handle that. We're in the middle of the season there, Josh. Josh, this is your first one. You've been married, what, eight months?

Eight months? I've been married 33 years, Josh. Come on, dog. I got this covered. Trust me.

Gotcha. You know what I'm going to get, Sarah Bradford? I hope she's not listening. Josh, do not do what I do, okay? Please, I promise you. I know.

I'm not going to do what you do because I hope she's not listening. What? I'm going to buy her a team.

Apparently, that's something you can do. Buy some teams. You must have a lot of money to this.

I don't know. From what I've seen from these NBA owners and NFL owners, I remember Jimmy had one when I was in Tennessee. He bought the crowns, I think, for a billion dollars. Those are pretty high prices.

Obviously, you love your wife, so more power to her. Something that's really difficult to do. I'm not buying into that, Josh.

I'm not buying into that narrative. Go ahead. Next question.

Steve Forbes, I have no more questions. Best of luck tomorrow night, and thanks for doing this and playing along with our nonsense. As always, I'm going to hold you to being at your camp. Oh, that'd be classic. We'll film it. That'll be on social media, trust me. We'll get that out. Trust me.