WINSTON-SALEM – The first look at Omaha Biliew playing for Wake Forest came in the Deacons’ final practice of the summer.

Biliew, coming off surgery to repair a broken foot, practiced in 5-on-5 basketball for the first time last week. The former 5-star recruit and transfer from Iowa State made the Deacons whole for the first time on Friday afternoon.

“He moves different. Like, he’s a dude,” coach Steve Forbes said of the 6-8, 225-pounder. “He’s going to stay here during the little break, he needs to continue to work himself back into conditioning.”

The Deacons are deep on paper and based on observing one practice, it’s legitimate. But a lot of the summer was spent waiting on a few of the players who will be the reason for that depth.

Davin Cosby Jr. also underwent surgery on his way to Winston-Salem; the Alabama transfer had a chipped bone in his foot that required a screw. He practiced for about the last three weeks of the summer.

“I think he’s still some time away from being in the shape he needs to be in because he was a little later starting for us,” Forbes said.

There wasn’t a surgery involved for a third incoming transfer, Churchill Abass (DePaul). But as Forbes explained, DePaul’s season was over March 13 and the Blue Demons had a coaching change, meaning Abass went a while in the spring without much structure to his development.

“He just went about two months and didn’t have anybody to work him out,” Forbes said. “He’s athletic, strong, just working his way back into shape.”

Though it seemed like Cameron Hildreth was headed for surgery on his injured wrist during the season, the guard opted for rest instead of a procedure.

“Well, they told me I still needed it,” Hildreth said of surgery. “But it was kind of a choice whether I wanted it or not. But it was a risk, so I just decided it was best for me not to take it with the outcome.”

The guard entering his senior season said his right wrist “hasn’t bothered me since it bothered me.”

There’s a clear delineation of when Hildreth injured his wrist last season; in Wake’s first 15 games, he was shooting 45.6% on 3-pointers (26-for-57). In Wake’s last 20 games, Hildreth shot 24.6% on 3s (14-for-57). The injury derailed what was a remarkable improvement, given Hildreth was a 31.1% 3-point shooter (28-for-90) across his first two seasons.

Hildreth didn’t miss a game because of the injury, initially wearing a brace after the early January injury and eventually going without it.

“Yeah, I think so. I think especially the coaches and team appreciated it a lot,” Hildreth said when asked if anybody understood the pain he went through to play with the injury. “But it just shows the character of who I am. I’ll do everything I can for the team.”