Steve Forbes is improving his team rapidly
In Sunday’s ACC action, Virginia Tech beat Wake Forest 64-60 and here’s the thing about that game: Wake Forest looked like an ACC team.
It’s been awhile.
Danny Manning is a good man but his teams lacked heart and certainly a killer instinct. They tended to fade at the end of games.
Not this Wake team.
The Deacs were in this game until the end and were down just 57-55 with 0:46 to go.
We thought that since Wake’s Steve Forbes has the most game experience against Virginia Tech’s Mike Young that Wake might exceed expectations but we didn’t see them in a position to win.
This is a team built around a few average returnees, transfers, and a high school point guard who showed up in January.
The Demon Deacons are still just 3-5 but after this game, and really since ACC play began, no one can afford to overlook them.
They started with a game at Georgia Tech where they looked absolutely overwhelmed. Then they gave Virginia and Duke tough games and lost to Louisville by 12. Even in that game though the Deacs were in it late.
Despite being 0-4 in the ACC, what Forbes is doing is incredibly impressive. At this point, we don't think anyone in the ACC is doing a better job with what he has to work with.
And that’s not to diminish Young, who is also doing a superb job. Keep in mind that he is only in his second season and while last season showed promise, this season, so far anyway, Young is delivering on that.
Virginia Tech is 11-2 and has to be favored in its next three games which will be against Boston College, Syracuse and Notre Dame.
And then it’s Virginia, which could be a great game.
As for Wake, it gets struggling UNC and State next, both on the road.
The high school point guard we mentioned of course is Carter Whitt and he’s done reasonably well considering they had to throw him to the wolves. We’ve kind of resisted the urge to make fun of his hair but Whitt has long, flowing locks and people tend to notice.
The ACC Network certainly did, and had some mild fun with him, comparing him to legendary stoner Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Only one game on Monday as Florida State visits Louisville. The ‘Noles historically haven’t been a great road team but this is not a normal year so that’s not as big a deal. And while FSU lost two out of three games (Central Florida and Clemson), they’re coming off of wins against NC State and UNC.
Louisville, on the other hand, is not playing great lately, so we’ll take Florida State here.
Monday’s ACC Action
Florida State at Louisville || 7:00 || ESPN
