Long ago are the days when Tim Duncan and Chris Paul were leading the Demon Deacons to meaningful victories. Wake Forest has only been in the NCAA Tournament once in the last 16 years and they didn’t even get out of the First Four during that trip in 2017. This program has fallen by the wayside in the ACC, but it’s not all despair in Winston-Salem.
Steve Forbes took over as head coach during the pandemic in 2020 and has actually made notable headway in recent years. He may only have a few NIT bids to show for it, but this team actually finished at or above .500 in ACC play for four straight seasons. Unfortunately, that streak ended with a 7-11 finish this past year.
Forbes and his staff are not sitting on their hands and things will look a lot different in Winston-Salem next season. While the ACC as a whole was better this year, Wake Forest clearly wasn’t satisfied either. Most of the roster will look very different, with as many as ten names entering the transfer portal while losing a few other notable players to graduation. Fortunately, they came up big with a pretty notable class of additions.
Kevair Kennedy was a very productive guard at Merrimack, averaging more than 18 points per game, and will hope to take on a leading role with these Demon Deacons. His numbers were far less impressive, but Jamari McDowell comes from Kansas and hopes to have much more run with Wake Forest’s backcourt. They also added another double-digit scorer in Justin Ray from Monmouth to really rebuild a backcourt that lost a ton of talent.
In the frontcourt, one headliner is Antonio Dorn, the 7-footer from Virginia Tech who has ACC experience and is hoping to take a leap forward as a sophomore. Xander Pintelon showed great potential at Florida Atlantic while Ring Nyeri had some decent production for Northern Colorado in the Big Sky. The Demon Deacons are also taking a flier on Vincent Chaudhri, who comes after sitting out at George Washington last year.
Sprinkle in a few meager returners like Isaac Carr and Vincent Ricchiuti into the mix and Wake Forest may have something here. Obviously, it’s hard to solidly picture just how this rotation will come together with so many moving pieces but Forbes is hoping that it’s a step in the right direction. Last year’s veteran-laden roster just didn’t get the job done and Forbes might be banking his future on this new mix producing a different result.
When you look at the pieces in Winston-Salem you cannot reasonably argue that this team is on the same level as a Duke or a Louisville but that doesn’t mean it’s a disappointing offseason. Forbes is pouring his soul into changing the tide at Wake Forest. If everything comes together, he just might have that team to get back to the Big Dance, especially with NCAA Tournament expansion. If things don’t gel, could we see Wake Forest looking for a new head coach in 2027?
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