Official: ETSU’s Steve Forbes hired as head coach at Wake Forest

Wake Forest announced on Thursday the hiring of East Tennessee State’s Steve Forbes as the Demon Deacons’ new head men’s basketball coach coach.

“Coming to Wake Forest presents an opportunity to be a part of a special brand and a chance to impact our student-athletes’ lives in a positive way while competing for championships,” Forbes said in a release. “My highest priority is spending time and developing relationships with our current student-athletes, alumni and the young men who will make up the future of Demon Deacon Basketball.”

Forbes has been at ETSU since 2015 and in five years at the helm has never won less than 24 games in a season, going 130-43 overall. The Bucs went to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 after sweeping the SoCon regular and Tournament titles and would have gone dancing again in 2020 after doing the same.

This will be the first high-major head coaching position for Forbes, who previously spent time as an assistant at Tennessee, Texas A&M and Wichita State, among other D-I programs.

“Coach Forbes has an incredible track record of success, matched only by his reputation for building strong and lasting relationships,” said AD John Currie. “He operates with a high level of intensity and is not only an effective coach on the floor, but a great recruiter as well. We welcome him and his family to Deacon Nation and I’m looking forward to supporting him and his staff as they build a championship program both on and off the court.”

Wake became the first (and still only) power conference team to make a head coaching change this past weekend when Currie announced the firing of Danny Manning. According to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman, Currie and Wake believe they will owe Manning less than half of the rumored $15 million buyout due to stipulations in the contract.

As for East Tennessee State, it seems that assistant Jason Shay – who has been tabbed as interim head coach – will be a front-runner to replace Forbes. Other possibilities include Tennessee associate head coach Michael Schwartz and Charleston Southern head coach Barclay Radebaugh (an ETSU grad).

credit to ETSU Athletics for the image