Going to pin this thread to (attempt to) keep track of all developments -- visits, offers, pending commits -- on the basketball recruiting front.

To start things off:

Wake Forest doesn't a commit in the 2023 class yet and that should be alarming to absolutely nobody. If you read the State of the Program breakdown of recruiting (linked here), you know the changing landscape of recruiting and Steve Forbes' thoughts on the situation.

Forbes isn't going to panic and take players just to take players. That is, bluntly, one of the reasons he's coaching at Wake Forest and Danny Manning isn't. Forbes looks for who fits in his system, at the school, and who can play in the ACC ... and he's not lowering the basket to squeeze players into that criteria. If he can't get recruits that fit, he's going to scour the portal -- which has proved quite fruitful (invest in Andrew Carr, Ty Appleby and Jao Ituka stock now).

You've also got to note that Wake Forest -- at least right now -- doesn't line up to be in need of a large recruiting class entering next season. Daivien Williamson and Appleby are the only players who are out of eligibility after this season, and there's an open scholarship. So that's 3 current vacancies to account for in the 2023-24 season. Will that number stay at 3? Unlikely. Can Forbes go out and oversign? Well, yes, but only if he plans on running off current members of the team.

Frankly, I don't see that last part happening, though.

Alright, here goes ...

I'm just back from Wake's open-to-media practice this afternoon. I've got one story I want to get up tonight, kind of a theme/overview type, and then I've got content for several others in the days to follow.

But I want to get something up in the meantime, so I'm going to bullet point some general thoughts. Some of them might wind up getting repeated with stories; if so, oh well. I'm trying to juggle a lot of things right now and just want to get *something* posted about today before moving forward on other things.

- Today was the last day of summer practices; they're off for about 2 weeks before coming back for the fall semester. Two of the guys we talked with -- Cam Hildreth and Parker Friedrichsen -- were thrilled to be going home.

- Hildreth talked about his wrist injury not needing surgery, thought that was interesting. I doubt anyone other than staff and teammates has a full grasp of how much pain he was in last year, but he said it hasn't bothered him for a while.

- Talking to Hunter Sallis about his decision to come back was interesting. What exactly he has to improve on has been alluded to and such -- ball-handling and initiating offense -- and there was more of that today. But there was also a little more directness, I think Hildreth mentioned that Sallis will be playing some point guard.

- Also on the agenda for Sallis to improve is leadership/vocality. That's not really who he is ... but it's what WF needs him to be.

- Today was the *first* day that Omaha Biliew could participate in contact stuff and that was just in halfcourt drills. "He moves different" was a Forbes quote, referring to his athleticism and size. Forbes lauded how much he attacked his rehab, which is why he was able to get back today.

Biliew hit a corner-3 and Forbes had everybody on the court clap to show him love, able to finally participate in practice.

- Juke Harris had probably a better summer entering his freshman season than any other incoming freshman has had under Forbes. That's not the largest sample size, given how many transfers have entered, but it does mean he's been as good, possibly better than Friedrichsen was last year.

Not to break my arm patting myself on the back ... but I tried to tell yall as often as I could that Juke wouldn't be coming in and riding the bench for a season. He's 6-7, can score at all three levels, is long and athletic, has some really good basketball IQ, and has a lot of coachable characteristics. I doubt he's a starter, but he's also not on the very end of the bench.

- Speaking of ... I don't know if this team is going to be as deep as it appears now. But the indications -- AT THIS POINT, can't stress that enough -- are that they'll have 11 playable players. Every time today I found myself thinking that Churchill Abass or Marqus Marion would be difficult to find minutes for, they'd do something good.

- They're not going to replace Demetris Nichols on staff, nor are they going to sign a player for the 13th scholarship. So the assistant coaches are Jason Shay, Matt Woodley, BJ McKie and Antanas Kavaliauskas, and director of player relations Darnell Harris (has been in that role for a year, played one season at Northwest Florida for Forbes) will be the team's fifth coach on the floor in practices.

**********
That's all I've got for now. Check in later tonight for an in-depth story and keep checking in the following days for more content.

Welllllllllllllllllll,

Things obviously went from bad to worse with Wake Forest's loss to Louisiana. It felt like a game WF needed to win to have a halfway decent shot at making a bowl game. Instead, the Deacons lost to a Sun Belt team and have lost 8 straight games to FBS teams.

I don't know where things go from here. Pretty quickly, WF is staring down the barrel of a 1-5 start, given how scarce wins in Raleigh have been for this program given Clemson has made its opener look like an aberration.

But we'll press on with coverage here. And in Raleigh, as the programming alert comes that I'll be there for Saturday's game against N.C. State. Here are some links to get you caught up -- and as a reminder, the PFF grades and input will come Monday morning and be posted on the Louisiana game thread.

Preview of the Louisiana game.

Story off of the Louisiana loss.

Wake Forest emerges from a newsier-than-expected off week to play Louisiana on Saturday. The Ragin' Cajuns are 2-1 and lost to Tulane 41-33 this weekend.

At risk of sounding too dramatic: This is about as much of a must-win game as you can have in September. At 1-2 and with a game in Raleigh and against Clemson in the next two, I'm not sure Wake Forest recovers from a 1-5 start to make a bowl. At 2-4, at least, there's a path to winning 4 of 5 between UConn/Stanford/Cal/UNC/Duke (and the game in Raleigh, I think, is not quite a foregone conclusion in the way the Clemson and Miami games are).

As a programming note: I've struck out on finding a stringer to cover this game. Since it's not an ACC game and I'll be in Durham for UNC-Duke, we'll have a remote story on Wake's game. It's not ideal, I hate missing home games ... but it's just where things landed, given the schedule.

Here are some links to get you up to speed:

My Take on the Ole Miss game

My Take on Wake's initial silence about scheduling | My Take to wrap up the scheduling of Ole Miss/Oregon State

PFF quarterly grades for Wake's offense | PFF quarterly grades for Wake's defense

I'm not sure I can promise much content here until January or February, but here is at least Wake's fall baseball schedule, per news release:

Scrimmages:
Saturday, Oct. 19 - at St. John's
Sunday, Oct. 27 - vs. West Virginia

Intersquad scrimmages:
Friday, Sept. 27 - First pitch 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 29 - First pitch 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 5 - First pitch 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 6 - First pitch 1:30 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 11 - First pitch 4 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 13 - First pitch 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 26 - First pitch 3:30 p.m.
First pitch times are subject to change.

Alright alright alright, time for a thread for a week that won't have a game at the end of it!

There's not exactly going to be a dearth of Wake Forest football coverage this week. I'll have PFF grades from the Ole Miss up tomorrow (and posted on the game thread), and have quarterly PFF grades up later in the week. I want to get a state of the program My Take done (time-pending, per usual) sometime this week.

Links to get you caught up until there's fresh content:

Buzzer story on last night's game.

My Take on a few different topics from last night.

News that Wake Forest has bought out next year's trip to Ole Miss.

We'll start this thread with Wake's first commit of the class:

Locklan Hewlett, a QB from St. Augustine, Fla.

Running down some quick takeaways:

- Always good to get the first commit of a class going into their junior season.
- This *should* do it for QBs in the class but there's always the chance Wake adds another.
- It's an extensive offer list that includes Miami, Texas A&M, Rutgers and many others.

Login to view embedded media

So, you just blew a two-touchdown lead in the 4th quarter. Who do you want to play next?

No. 5 Ole Miss probably doesn't rank too highly in the desired opponents.

This will be the thread for this week's game. Wake Forest has a 64-game losing streak against top-10 teams, the last such win coming in 1946.

Programming for this week will be pretty normal, coverage-wise. Player interviews via Zoom on Tuesday morning, Clawson presser Tuesday afternoon. I'll be at Saturday night's game for full coverage.

Getting you up to speed on links going into the week:

Buzzer story about the UVA loss.

My Take on the players who made the costly mistakes.

(PFF grades are coming Monday morning and those links will be in the UVA game thread.)

Alright alright alright, firing up the Week 2 thread.

Kind of feels like a return to normal with the schedule -- player interviews and Dave Clawson's press conference will be on Tuesday this week and I'll be there. So I'll have something off of the presser, maybe a mini-feature on Wednesday, a Q&A with somebody who covers UVA on either Wednesday or Thursday, and then a comprehensive preview of Saturday night's game. Followed by full coverage of the game.

Getting you up to speed on links from the past few days (film review still pending):

Buzzer story on Wake's win over N.C. A&T.

My Take on Wake's QB battle.

PFF's grades for Wake's offense | PFF's grades for Wake's defense.

Firing up a thread for coverage leading up to Thursday night's game, and then for coverage afterward, too.

As something of a programming note for today and the week: Dave Clawson's press conference will be today at 2 p.m. and I'll miss it. I think this is the third straight year I've got to miss the opening presser, but Duke's is at 1 and they have a new coach. I'll still have *something* up later today/tonight on WF. And then I'll have a 5 things to know about N.C. A&T, a comprehensive preview of the game, maybe another story squeezed in (it's a short week, so I might not get to everything). And then I'll be at Thursday night's game for full coverage.

I'm on the record with a My Take, I think this season will be better for WF than a lot of prognosticators think.

Also, as to QB, I posted this on OGB last night and might as well put it here, too:

I think Hank Bachmeier and Michael Kern will get equal opportunities/drives and whoever plays better will be the starter going into the UVA game.

Game plan/offense doesn't change based on which one plays. If it's Bachmeier the ball gets pushed downfield more often but also gets put into harm's way more often; if it's Kern, a little more conservative in terms of what throws are made but also better ball security.

I think Kern will be the starter against A&T for basically those reasons -- Clawson is pretty obsessive with ball security and Kern provides that. It's not like he's Captain Checkdown, he'll take shots; just doesn't try to force balls into tight windows very often.

And honestly? I kind of find myself rooting for Kern. He might be the nicest guy I've ever covered at WF. He clearly loves the school and seems to be respected/liked by his teammates. He was behind Griffis at an inopportune time (Hartman being out to start 2022), which kind of set WF on the path to last year's train wreck. Kern hasn't had a chance to compete for the starting job until his 6th year. He's looked more consistent and made some throws I don't ever remember seeing him make (mostly on the move) in the last 5 years.

I don't think there's a wrong decision to be made.

Click to expand...

In case you've missed any of the main things to know so far, some links to catch you up:

My Take on Wake's season.

3 glass-half-full predictions | 3 glass-half-empty predictions

Final camp report.

Camp report after the second scrimmage.

It's time to pass the time!

We're in the doldrums of 95-degree days and the college sports slowdown. Naturally, that means it's time to crank out some summer football preview content.

Here's the first entry: 5 breakout candidates for Wake Forest.

I'll have more in the coming days and weeks. One programming note I want to get out there now: ACC media days are set for July 22-25 and I will *not* be there. Think it's the first time I'll miss the kickoff event since, well, before I had a fulltime job covering ACC teams, which would've been 2011. But my family scheduled a vacation for that week and honestly, ACC media days have lost a lot of value over the last 5-6 years, so it was an easy decision to pick the beach over 4 days in Charlotte.

Let's dive right into fall camp!

Here's the first practice report of the year.

Something of a programming note/update: WF practices again Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and I'm planning on being out there again, with detailed reports like this one to follow. They're off Thursday and then have four straight practices before the next off day, so these types of stories are going to be coming often over the next few weeks.

Let me know of any questions you have in this thread -- pertaining to what WF looks like out there, who's standing out, etc. I can cover a lot of ground in those practice reports but I know I can't write about EVERYTHING, so drop a line and I'll answer as best I can, as quickly as possible -- or I'll find somebody at the next practice who can answer.

Welcome to the offseason! You're all miserable that Wake's season ended after two losses in the regional -- I get it.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

There is a silver lining here: Wake Forest has 3 more weeks to evaluate and work the transfer portal than it did last year. So let's track who's going out, who's coming in, who might come in, etc. I'll do my best to keep this top post up to date and will sort departing players into tiers.

Going to be drafted so high, they'll sign no matter what:
1B Nick Kurtz
RHP Chase Burns
INF Seaver King

Didn't have a great season, still will be drafted and almost guaranteed signs:
RHP Michael Massey
LHP Josh Hartle

Curious how draft works out:
OF Jack Winnay (draft-eligible sophomore)
RHP Cole Roland (has been in college for 6 years but only played 3; if the waivers clear, he *could* return)

Out of eligibility:
OF Jake Reinisch
C Tate Ballestero
INF Adam Tellier*
RHP Chase Walter
RHP David Falco Jr.
C Cameron Gill
(note: Mitchell Salvino initially appeared here, but have been told he has another year because he came from D3, and those players were granted a second COVID exemption.)

Transfer portal exits:
RHP Will Andrews
1B Pirmin Brechbuhl
UTIL Jeter Polledo
LHP Levi Strahm
RHP Andrew Koshy
LHP Hudson Lee
RHP Ben Shenosky

Incoming transfers:
RHP Cole Zaffiro (Penn, 1 season eligibility)
RHP Luke Schmolke (GT, 3 seasons eligibility, eligible for 2025 draft, was with WF this season but ineligible)

* Tellier miiiiiight have a case for a medical redshirt. He only played 16 games in 2022 and I'm a little fuzzy on baseball's redshirt rules (some conflicting information on the Google search) but I don't think you can rule him out completely from getting a waiver approved and an extra season. Of course, if he gets drafted and/or signs, or wants to transfer, that becomes a moot point.

We'll round up all of the summer and preseason thoughts on the upcoming basketball season here.

Reminder to start this thread comes from today's announcement of the non-conference schedule -- well, most of it.

Doesn't really fall into the purview of anything specific other than summer content.

The ACC inviting Joe Lunardi to its spring meetings to tell the league's basketball coaches what can be done to get more teams into the NCAA tournament struck me as ... odd. Don't think I'm alone in that assessment, given how outspoken Lunardi has been about the downfall of the league.

So, I came up with some suggestions of other experts in their respective fields.

Let me know who I missed!

Going to try to handle this in the same way as the football thread ...

Starting with: Damari Monsanto's exit after a rollercoaster of 3 years.

Here's the quick story on Wake Forest heading to ECU.

Programming for the week: The earliest I'll head to Greenville will be Saturday. I'm leaking oil after this past week and Greenville is a 5-6-hour roundtrip. Maybe I'll get there for a Saturday night game against ECU, maybe not. I'm going into the week thinking I'll be remote-covering both WF and Duke throughout the weekend, just so that I can have as firm a grasp on one as I do the other.

Pitching for this week: Here's the juice for today's post -- Chase Burns is pitching on Saturday. That's the only definitive thing about Wake's pitching situation right now. It'll either be David Falco Jr. or Josh Hartle on Friday, and whichever one of them it isn't would get the ball on Sunday. But go ahead and lock in Saturday as Chase Burns Day.

The schedule for the ACC tournament has just been released. Wake Forest's games are:

Wednesday - vs. Pitt - 3 p.m.
Friday - vs. UNC - 7 p.m.

Wake Forest has to win both to advance -- people think the format is more complicated than it is, since the top 4 seeds can go 1-1 and advance, non-top-4 seeds have to go 2-0.

I'd almost guarantee that Wake Forest will have David Falco Jr. start the Pitt game, with bullpen to follow. And then in primetime, it'll be Chase Burns against the top seed in the league -- and the only one that put a loss on his record this season. That'll be must-see TV. If WF wins both games, it has Josh Hartle lined up on normal rest for a semifinal game.

Both games will be shown on ACC Network and the time element is subject to change, obviously, as there's one game before the Wed. game and two games before the Thur. game. And, ya know, weather.

It's 12:24 p.m. Tuesday and I have no idea how today's game against Liberty hasn't been cancelled yet ... but as of now, it's still going to be played.

As a programming note, I won't be going out there tonight if there is a game.

But I do have a story today: On Antonio Morales and the defensive improvements he made to get into the lineup.

As an additional programming note, the only game this weekend I'll be able to get to is the series finale at N.C. State. It's my wife's birthday on Thursday, and then I'm going to hit the UNC-Duke game on Friday night as I divvy up responsibilities.

Per his father, Fla. TE Tae'Shaun Gelsey will be in town in mid-June for his official visit, beginning June 14. Florida is the only trip on the books scheduled beforehand

Login to view embedded media

Going to thread together summer football content here. So, it'll be preview stuff throughout the summer -- some lists, predictions, My Takes, etc.

One programming note to get out of the way now: I'm not going to ACC media days in Charlotte this year. I have a family vacation scheduled and honestly, the event has become such a TV-focused one that I don't feel like I'm missing out on too much. Maybe I'll watch the press conference stuff when WF takes the podium -- but I'm not going to bend over backward to cover it.

One note off the spring game: I missed that Wake Forest announced captains that morning. They are: Taylor Morin, DeVonte Gordon, Luke Petitbon, Jasheen Davis, Kevin Pointer and Nick Andersen. All of them make sense to me. The only real takeaway I have is that it'll be the first year since 2019 that a QB isn't a captain. No surprise there and it's obvious why; just interesting to take stock of.

Recap of last night's 24-7 win over N.C. A&T.

Programming note: I'll be at the Friday night and Sunday games against Clemson with full stories to follow. I'm not going to make the Saturday game because I'm going to the Josh Level Classic, a HS basketball all-star game, in Greensboro. I know I'll have a story off of it about Juke Harris; probably will find some other angles while I'm there.

As a reminder: Weekend rotation is now Chase Burns-David Falco Jr.-Josh Hartle. Michael Massey will be unavailable this weekend.

So, here's the meat of the weekend: Recap of Sunday's doubleheader sweep of Western Carolina.

Something of a programming note/update moving forward: I'd like to get a My Take done tomorrow on where this team stands. Have some ideas percolating and frankly, I'm bored with waiting on basketball news that may or may not happen and an interview with Omaha Biliew that may or may not happen.

And then probably the most important thing I learned this weekend: Michael Massey is seeing a back specialist tomorrow (Monday). There is fear that he has a season-ending injury. Obviously he hasn't been "right" all season, as he was entering as a starter and has thrown over 70 pitches twice in 10 starts. I'm reminded of a quote from Tom Walter after his second or third start of the season that they were just going to be week-to-week with him, that sometimes he was going to be good, other times they'd be lucky to get 3-4 innings from him.

Pending how the appointment goes, the thought is that next weekend against Clemson, it'll be Burns-Falco-Hartle. Here was the full exchange with Walter about Massey today:

"Really happy with Falco, that looks like we’re going to stick with that against Clemson, as well. We’ll start Ben Shenosky on Wednesday."

How negative is the prognosis on Michael Massey?

"We won’t know more until tomorrow, he’s meeting with a specialist tomorrow to find out. There’s certainly a chance it’s a season-ender."

Is it his back?

"It’s his back, yeah. We thought it was his hamstring, but it turns out he’s got a little something going on with his back, so we’ll get him to a specialist."

Programming note of sorts on this week's baseball action:

I'll be headed to Elon for tonight's game; always good to check in with the alma mater, even if I don't recognize much of the campus less than 15 years after graduating.

And then I'll have weekend recap coverage of Wake's series at ND. Planning on getting a short story or two up in between tonight's game and the start of the series in South Bend.