WINSTON-SALEM – Get it out of the way now: Alondes Williams and Jake LaRavia are only walking through the doors of Joel Coliseum when their professional schedules allow for a pop-in visit.

Wake Forest’s men’s basketball team will start the next chapter in coach Steve Forbes’ tenure with a team that’s more likely to resemble the style and pacing of his teams from East Tennessee State.

That’s how it goes with a coach entering his third season, with a roster entirely comprised of his recruits. It’s a chapter that’s first pages will be written Monday night against Fairfield.

A preseason of a couple of mixed results sets the stage for Wake Forest to jump into the season.

Wake Forest played a mostly strong second half in its closed-door scrimmage against Ohio State, and played a strong first half against Winston-Salem State in this past week’s exhibition game. The inconsistencies of the first half against the Buckeyes and second half against the Rams are a concern that would quickly be forgotten with a thorough performance against Fairfield.

Forbes’ rotation was nine deep a little more than six minutes into the exhibition game, and that was with Jao Ituka sidelined by a knee injury.

The 57-year-old Forbes would prefer to have substitution patterns whittled down.

“We’ve gotta get some separation off the bench,” Forbes said. “I think right now, we’re kinda just playing guys to see how they play. I’d rather see some separation here and see some guys step up and take some minutes.”

Wake Forest is a younger team than it was last season, when the Deacons had five players who entered the season with at least three seasons of college basketball under their belts.

Forbes pointed out that going from the scrimmage to the exhibition was a learning experience for his younger players.

“I didn’t think we had a great week of practice. I told them that,” Forbes said of the week leading into the exhibition. “We didn’t really make the improvement that we needed to make from the Ohio State scrimmage to tonight.

“So we’ve got to learn from it and move on and get ready to play on Monday, which will be a tough game.”

We’re on the verge of seeing how far Wake Forest has come since last we saw the Deacons.

**********

Here’s what to know ahead of Monday night’s game:

Time: 8 p.m.

Location: Joel Coliseum.

TV: ACC Network Extra.

Announcers: Daron Vaught (play-by-play) and Stan Lewter (analyst).

Series; last meeting: Wake Forest leads 3-0; Wake Forest won 85-60 in 2007, which was also the season opener — and was Wake’s first game since the death of coach Skip Prosser.

Records (2021-22): Fairfield 15-18; Wake Forest 25-10.

Stat to watch: 34.4%.

That’s Wake’s 3-point shooting percentage from last season and it’d be alarming if it didn’t increase a few percentage points this season.

The Deacons have the tools and weapons to space the floor. Given the lineup versatility at Forbes’ disposal and overall depth, this should be a team that is close to the top of the ACC in 3s per game.

Of note: Rutgers was only 4 of 13 against Fairfield in an exhibition game last month, which Rutgers won 78-65. Fairfield connected on 11 of 27 3-pointers in that game.

(that’s also of note because WF plays at Rutgers in December.)

Stag to watch: Forward Supreme Cook (No. 5).

Not picked just because of his name — but it doesn’t hurt.

The 6-9, 220-pounder was second on the team last season with 10.1 points per game and led the Stags with 8.3 rebounds per game, which was third-best in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Cook curiously didn’t start the exhibition game against Rutgers after starting all but one of Fairfield’s 33 games last season. He was one of five players to play at least 20 minutes, though, with nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.

In Fairfield’s only game against an ACC opponent last season (Boston College), he had 16 points and seven rebounds.

Deacon to watch: Guard Daivien Williamson (No. 4).

Williamson has as good a chance as seemingly four other Deacons* to lead the team in scoring this season. He’s Wake’s only returner from among the top five scorers last season, having averaged 11.8 points in his second season playing for his hometown team.

Scoring is only part of the equation with Williamson, though.

The 6-1, 180-pound Winston-Salem Prep graduate will be the heartbeat of Wake Forest this season. He’s going to be initiator of the offense only in spots, with Tyree Appleby handling those responsibilities. That’ll make Williamson the off-ball conductor of Wake’s offense — a role that saw him score 25 points on 7-for-10 shooting in the exhibition game against Winston-Salem State.

“Him and Ty out there, those are two really good players,” Forbes said. “They played a lot of minutes … and they probably will.

“Daivien’s just a steady dude, and he’s a great kid and a great representative of our school and of our city.”

* those others would be Appleby, Andrew Carr, Damari Monsanto or Ituka.

KenPom prediction: Wake Forest wins 76-64.

Deacons Illustrated prognosis: Fairfield played two Power 6 teams last season, both in the first two games, and lost 80-73 to Providence and 72-64 to Boston College. The only KenPom top-100 team in the Stags’ league was Iona, and in their first matchup against the Rick Pitino-led Gaels, Fairfield had an 11-point lead with 7½ minutes left before losing 80-76.

All of that to say: Fairfield didn’t have the results to show it, but it was a team that rose to the occasion of playing better teams last season.

That makes this game all the more interesting for Forbes’ new-look Deacons.