Steve Forbes, Head Coach, Wake Forest University Men’s Basketball

Wake Forest Basketball

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 369-157 (.702) overall record in his four 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 back-to-back appearances in the Quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament since 2007 to end the 2023-24 season. The 2023-24 season also marked the 32nd time in program history that the Demon Deacons had advanced in the ACC Tournament.

Wake Forest now holds a 48-7 record at home since the start of the 2021-22 season including a 17-2 mark this season. 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. Steve was named the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year,

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

An assistant under three Final Four coaches over the course of his career, Steve developed his coaching style under some of the best head coaches in the game. National powers Tennessee and Wichita State both reached the pinnacle of success with Steve 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 an NCAA record 35-straight games to start the season, earning the first No. 1 seed in program history.

In addition, Steve spent two record-breaking seasons in College Station, Texas (2004-06) when Texas A&M set a program record for Big 12 Conference wins. 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, Steve graduated in 1988 from Southern Arkansas University with a degree in secondary education. He was a baseball student-athlete for the Muleriders where he spent one year as the sports information director before embarking on a coaching career at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa.

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

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