He’s just not the right fit for their basketball program.

Marky Billson

East Tennessee State head men’s basketball coach Steve Forbes is many things; personable, popular, successful.

But he is likely not going to be a North Carolinian. At least not any time soon.

Oh, speculation is rampant Forbes will be a top candidate at Wake Forest, who fired 78–111 Danny Manning this weekend.

And why not? Forbes comes off a 30–4 season at ETSU that had the Buccaneers just missing their first national ranking since 1991.

ETSU Men’s Basketball coach Steve Forbes has won 130 games in five years at the helm

Atlantic Coast Conference history is filled with successful men’s basketball coaches that came from ETSU’s Southern Conference; Norm Sloan, Lefty Driesell, Terry Holland, Bobby Cremins.

And Wake Forest athletic director John Currie was an administrator at the University of Tennessee when Forbes was there as an assistant coach under Bruce Pearl.

But Forbes relies heavily on junior college transfers. Five of the players on his roster last year came from JUCOs.

And since 1997, Wake Forest has had a grand total of one junior college transfer on their roster; Konner Tucker, who played seven games in 2009 before transferring.

Tucker wound up at UTEP. Today he’s a high school coach.

Do you see where, therefore, Forbes might not be a good fit?

This is the Atlantic Coast Conference, where the universities pride themselves on their academic reputation. In 2018 Wake Forest accepted only 29 percent of their applicants.

ETSU fans will remember when former football coach Carl Torbush refused to stock his newly formed team with junior college players, even after suffering rout after rout with a team of teenagers. Torbush continued to champion this decision throughout his tenure at ETSU, when his record fell to 11–22?

Torbush’s previous head coaching stop was in the ACC.

Wake Forest has the same mentality. Debate it’s short-sighted if you wish, but suffice to say if hired Forbes would have to rebuild the Demon Deacons with a different sort of player than he has at ETSU, where 87 percent of applicants are accepted.

The candidate to keep an eye on is clearly UNCG’s Wes Miller. He’s 37, 18 years younger than Forbes. His family have been major donors to the program. He played in the ACC, he’s right next door in Greensboro but passes the “would anyone outside the area hire him” test, like Forbes has two Southern Conference championships (despite inheriting a worse situation), a 6–6 record in head-to-head competition against him, and frankly with the timing of the Manning dismissal and the massive buyout Wake Forest had to pay to do it one would think a booster had his replacement lined up.

UNCG has won 23 or more games in each of the past four seasons under Miller. They are the four winningest seasons in Spartans history.

And, oh yes, Miller’s team doesn’t have one JUCO on it.

Nor does Furman’s Bob Richey or Western Carolina’s Mark Prosser, the son of Wake Forest coaching great Skip Prosser, or Russell Turner, a long shot candidate who cut his teeth as a Demon Deacons’ assistant in the 1990s and has won 209 games in 10 years at UC-Irvine.

If the hire is done more by Currie than boosters, the athletic director’s track record of hires indicates a pattern of wanting to bring on coaches who have been successful at major programs, such as Bruce Weber, who took Illinois to the 2005 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament final before Currie hired him to take over the reigns at Kansas State.

Tony Vitello, whom Currie hired as Tennessee baseball coach in 2017, was an assistant at powerhouse Arkansas before coming to Knoxville.

That would perhaps open the door for candidates like former Ohio State coach Thad Matta, or John Beilein, late of Michigan by way of a short stay with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Speculation has Beilen, who took Michigan to the NCAA Tournament final just two years ago, as the favorite for the Demon Deacons job. As of Tuesday, however, that speculation had moved on to other candidates.

As mentioned above, both Forbes and Currie were part of the Tennessee athletic department a dozen years ago or so. And Currie was credited in large part for finding Pearl for the Volunteers.

Considering how it ended for Pearl at Tennessee, do you think Currie wishes to hire Pearl’s former assistant, even if the two are no longer close?

And even if he did, why not pay the extra money and bring in Pearl from Auburn?

Forbes is also 55. A young 55 but still three years older than Matta, who has had health problems.

That’s still significantly younger than Beilein, 67, but history shows if a college basketball coach hasn’t had head coaching success yet at a major conference by 55, he’s probably not going to get the opportunity.

And if he does, he probably won’t be successful.

Weep not for Forbes. He’s one of the highest-paid mid-major coaches in the country. He’s also now considered one of the industry’s best interviews, and considering the scheduling upgrades he’s hinted at for next season and recruits he’s brought in Forbes has the chance to turn ETSU in to a mid-major powerhouse.

Which is likely where his future lies. Not at Wake Forest.

So naturally, Wake Forest hired Forbes. Read about that here, then subscribe to Marky Billson’s You Tube channel for the best ETSU analysis and more!