Wake Forest has agreed to a deal with East Tennessee State‘s Steve Forbes to become the Demon Deacons’ next head coach, sources told ESPN.
Forbes would replace Danny Manning, who was fired on Saturday after six seasons at the helm. Wake Forest never finished above .500 in the ACC under Manning, who had a 14-42 conference record over the past three seasons. Last season, the Deacons went 13-18 overall and 6-14 in the ACC, finishing in a tie for last place in the conference.
Forbes has been one of the most successful mid-major coaches in the country the past several years. He has won 130 games in five seasons at East Tennessee State and two Southern Conference regular-season titles. The Bucs went to the NCAA tournament in 2017 and would have gone last season after winning 30 games and the SoCon tournament.
Forbes also has power-conference experience as an assistant coach at Texas A&M, Tennessee and Wichita State.
Forbes was an assistant coach under Bruce Pearl at Tennessee during Wake Forest athletic director John Currie’s time in Knoxville.
