Wake Forest Athletics
Forbes, Deacs Excited for Season Opener
11/25/2020 12:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- If you happen to run into Wake Forest Basketball coach Steve Forbes this morning, it's best to just leave him be.
It's game day for the Demon Deacons, and he's both focused and anxious.
"I'm always nervous before every game," Forbes said during a virtual press conference Tuesday. "I'm not the best guy to come talk to before a game, no matter who we're playing. That's probably the only time I would tell you to steer clear of me. When I stop getting nervous, I'm going to quit. When I get satisfied and not nervous, I don't need to be doing it anymore. So yeah, I'm nervous, and for a million reasons."
The Steve Forbes era of Wake Forest Basketball begins at 4 p.m. today as the Deacs host Delaware State at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in the first game of the Mako Medical Wake Forest Classic.
"I'm not nervous because I'm at Wake Forest," said Forbes, who has a career 260-77 record as a head coach. "I'd be nervous if I was at Northwest Florida or Barton County Community College."
The Deacs are also set to face Longwood at 7 p.m. Friday in the final game of the multi-team event. The two games this week are part of the five-game non-conference slate currently on the schedule.
"Welcome to college basketball 2020," Forbes said. "It's not the regular, regular season we're all used to. As you read around the country, you're seeing a lot of interesting scenarios play out every day. Our main focus is always going to be the health and safety of our players. I have a ton of confidence that will happen here.
"Like a lot of schools around the country, we're just going to have to adjust when things happen. When they don't, we'll play games. I thought we had some good practices last week."
Forbes had seemed to settle into at least a nine-player rotation as preseason practices came to a crescendo, and stated Tuesday that he could potentially be starting Daivien Williamson, Ian DuBose, Jalen Johnson, Isaiah Musius and Ismael Massoud.
Mucius, a junior wing who is the leading returning scorer from a season ago, has emerged as a leader, according to Forbes.
"Isaiah Mucius has been a tremendous leader," he said. "He has incredible communication skills. There's all kinds of leadership skills. There's leadership by voice and there's leadership by action. I think Isaiah has both. That's a hard combination. When you ask guys to be a leader, the first thing they have to be able to do is lead themselves.
"You can't be a leader if you can't lead yourself. There's been some years where you don't want the guys to say anything, because they can't lead themselves. But that's not the case with Mucius. To do that, you have to be a hard worker. You can't take a day off. Because they're looking at that, everybody else. I've been proud of the way he's trying."
While playing at both the four and five-spots on the floor, Massoud is starting to become a potent offensive weapon.
"He has a better understanding of who he is and what we want from him," Forbes said. "He's become more comfortable in the way he's going to play for us. He's not trying to do things he can't do. We need everybody to do that. He's really understood that. He's been eager to learn and his attitude is unbelievable. And he always works hard. The game rewards that."
After going through more than 50 practices since getting back on campus, Forbes feels like the team chemistry is growing and that he's gaining a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the players on the roster. But with no scrimmages against other teams and no official exhibition games, it's unknown how they will perform when the bright lights of Joel Coliseum shine upon them this afternoon.
"That's one of the scary things about the season to me is not having the lights come on," Forbes said. "In my third season at East Tennessee we (secret) scrimmaged twice. We opened up the season at Northern Kentucky and we played terrible. Some of it is that we just weren't ready to play in a game situation like that, so I made a vow to not do that again.
"Last year we scrimmaged Virginia Tech, then we had an exhibition game. I thought we played a lot better on opening night. Some of that will happen too. There will be some jittery stomachs and nervous energy when we get ready to play."
And it won't just be the players who will be jittery.
"It's not the greatest way to live, fellas, to be honest," Forbes said about his nervousness."There are days I think I could live without all this stress, but it's all worth it. When I'm not nervous anymore, I won't coach."
