If Wake Forest plays like it practiced Monday before departing for Brooklyn, it won’t have to worry about staying in New York for long.

“We had an incredibly terrible practice today,” Forbes said Monday afternoon. “As great a mood as I was in, I was in a horrible mood coming off the practice court. It was not good, and I let them know it.”

The good thing here is, obviously, that was only a practice two days before the Deacons’ first game in the ACC tournament.

The 5th-seeded Deacons will play 13th-seeded Boston College on Wednesday afternoon, after the Eagles knocked Pittsburgh out of the tournament on Tuesday.

Wake Forest appears built to sustain some tournament success, moving past one poor practice.

“He was dealing with us all day today,” ACC player of the year Alondes Williams said on Monday. “I don’t blame him, though. … It’s gonna pick up, though. This is a good group of players, they know when they’re doing wrong.”

There hasn’t been much going wrong for the Deacons this season. Within the 23-8 record is the fact that Wake Forest has handled business when it’s favored, and the Deacons will be favored against a BC team they beat by 30 in the regular season.

One bad practice isn’t cause for concern, if that’s not already clear with this Deacons team – and that’s just the latest sign of how far this program has come in about 24 months.

“Listen, we’ve had bad practices, OK? And I told them, ‘I’m going to tell on you guys today,’” Forbes said. “We’re better than that. We’ve got all kinds of leadership on this team so I’m not worried about it because I know (Tuesday) will be what we need it to be, and we’ve got until Wednesday to play.”

**********

Here’s what to know ahead of Wake Forest’s first game in the ACC tournament, which is against Pittsburgh / Boston College on Wednesday:

Time: 2:30 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Series; this season: Boston College leads 15-13; Wake Forest won 87-57 on Jan. 24.

Records: Boston College 12-19 (6-14 in ACC regular season); Wake Forest 23-8 (13-7).

Stat to watch: 53.7%.

I mean … take your pick of a lopsided number from the regular-season meeting between these teams.

The number I picked was Wake’s shooting percentage, which was buoyed by a 21 of 34 clip on 2-pointers.

The Deacons are third in the country in 2-point percentage for the season (58.9%) and there’s not much evidence BC will be able to slow down the Deacons’ scoring inside the arc.

Eagles to watch: James Karnik and Quinten Post, forwards.

BC has a couple of big men who can cause some problems.

Karnik and Post combined for 24 points against Pitt, including three 3s. Post is a 7-foot, 240-pounder who transferred in from Mississippi State; Karnik is 6-9, 230 and is in his second year after transferring from Lehigh.

Post scored 13 points against Wake Forest in the first matchup, and Karnik only had four points.

Deacon to watch: Alondes Williams, guard.

Williams can watch Syracuse play the noon game against Florida State and know exactly how many points he needs to retake the ACC’s scoring crown.

OK, so that’s not the point here – but it’s at least worth noting.

After leading the ACC in scoring for most of the last two months, Buddy Boeheim overtook him this past weekend. Williams figures to have at least a couple of more games left, but it’ll be interesting to track if he bumps his scoring average back above Boeheim.

On a serious note, it’s always interesting to see what the ACC player of the year does in the conference tournament. It’s not like it’s new territory for Williams to be a marked man this season; but especially now, there’s no surprising opponents with his play.

Worth noting: Williams had a smooth 20-point, seven-rebound, seven-assist game against BC in the regular-season matchup.

KenPom prediction: Wake Forest wins 76-67.

Deacons Illustrated prognosis: Nothing like a TCOB game to get what Forbes think can be a long stay in Brooklyn rolling.

KenPom’s nine-point line is curious, given Wake Forest played well in its last two games, is rested after having the weekend off, and beat the Eagles by 30 during the season.

But it’s not like BC should be taken lightly – first-year coach Earl Grant has gotten the most out of what he inherited and cobbled together, and the reward was a 20-point win in the first round.

This game is set up for the Deacons to cruise – and then things should get interesting with a Thursday afternoon game against a Miami team that swept two meetings with Wake Forest this season.