STEVE FORBES | HEAD COACH

Steve Forbes was named Wake Forest basketball's 23rd head coach on April 30, 2020. A 30-year coaching veteran, Coach Forbes is a proven winner and builder of championship cultures with a 348-145 (.706) overall record in his three seasons at Wake Forest, five years at East Tennessee State and at three previous community college head coaching stints.

Wake Forest is coming off its first appearance in the Quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament since 2009 to end the 2022-23 season. March 8, 2023, marked the first ACC Tournament win for Wake Forest since 2017.

With a regular-season conference record of 10-10 during the 2022-23 season and 13-7 for the 2021-22 season, Wake Forest has had back-to-back seasons with double-digit ACC wins for the first time since the 1995-96 (12-4) and 1996-97 (11-5) seasons.

With an overall record of 19-14 this season and 25-10 last season, Wake Forest has had back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2008-09 (24-7) and 2009-10 (20-11).

The Deacs also had back-to-back 10-0 starts at home for the first time in program history last season and this season. Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Wake Forest is 31-5 inside LJVM. During that time, Wake Forest won 15-straight games inside Joel Coliseum, which was the longest home-win streak since the Deacs went 22-0 during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. Wake Forest was the first ACC school to reach 31 home wins during the two seasons.

2021-22 was one of Wake Forest's best seasons in the past 20 years, finishing the season with 25 wins, the most since 2004-05. With a regular-season conference record of 13-7, Wake Forest tied the single-season program record for ACC wins with 13 (2004-05, 2002-03). With just three league wins during 2020-21, the Deacs had the largest year-to-year improvement ever in ACC win totals with 10. Wake Forest finished conference play fifth in the standings, its highest finish since 2010.

With a 19-win differential from Forbes’ first year to his second, Wake Forest had one of the largest improvements from year to year in NCAA history. Wake Forest also broke the program for most home wins in a season during the first and second rounds of the NIT for 18 home wins in 2021-22.

At the conclusion of the regular season, Forbes was named the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year, along with Alondes Williams earning ACC Player of the Year and All-ACC First Team honors and Jake LaRavia being named to the All-ACC Second Team.

Forbes was the fifth Wake Forest coach to earn the honor and the first since Skip Prosser in 2003. That same season, Josh Howard took home Player of the Year honor and was the last Demon Deacon to garner this prestigious honor before Williams. With Williams and LaRavia's selection on the All-ACC First and Second Team, respectively, they were the first Wake Forest tandem to garner that honor since 2005 (Chris Paul First Team, Justin Gray and Eric Williams Second Team).

Wake Forest also had their first postseason appearance since the First Four in 2017, being named a two seed in the National Invitation Tournament and advancing to the Quarterfinals. It was the longest postseason run for the Deacs since 2000, when they won the NIT.

Forbes won at least 24 games in each of his five seasons as the head coach for the Buccaneers while finishing third or better in the SoCon every year. ETSU won 130 games and two SoCon championships during his tenure, while all 22 of his seniors earned their ETSU degrees. Forbes joined elite company in 2018-19, becoming one of just 10 active Division I head coaches who have reached the 100-win mark in their first four seasons at an institution.

During the 2019-20 season, ETSU was having its best season in program history before the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament. The Bucs finished with a 30-4 record and SoCon regular season and tournament titles. Forbes earned conference coach of the year along with the Hugh Durham Award, given to the most outstanding mid-major coach in the country.

An assistant under three Final Four coaches over the course of his career, Forbes developed his coaching style under some of best head coaches in the game. National powers Tennessee and Wichita State both reached the pinnacle of success with Forbes on the bench.

The Vols ascended to their first No. 1 overall ranking in program history in 2008 while winning a program record 31 games. In 2015, Wichita State won a NCAA record 35-straight games to start the season, earning the first No. 1 seed in program history.

In addition, Forbes spent two record-breaking seasons in College Station, Texas (2004-06) when Texas A&M set a program record for Big 12 Conference wins. Picked to finish last in the Big 12 prior to the 2004-05 season, the Aggies won their first 11 games and went on to a 21-10 record and an appearance in the National Invitation Tournament. In 2005-06, Texas A&M advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1987 while recording a 22-9 record, the third-most wins in school history.

A native of Lone Tree, Iowa, Forbes graduated from Southern Arkansas University with a degree in secondary education in 1988. A former baseball student-athlete for the Muleriders, Forbes spent one year at his alma mater as the sports information director before embarking on a coaching career.

Forbes and his wife, Johnetta, have three children, Elizabeth, Christopher and Johnathon.