When in doubt, go with what you know or in this case for Wake Forest athletic director John Currie, who you know.
Currie is set to hire East Tennessee State’s Steve Forbes to be the next men’s basketball coach for the Demon Deacons, according to multiple media reports on Thursday.
Forbes won and he won big in five seasons with the Bucs. He was 130-43 overall and 71-19 in the Southern Conference with a pair of league titles.
The move comes four days after Currie fired coach Danny Manning. Given the unusual timing of Manning's exit, you figured Currie had a plan in place for Manning's replacement.
Currie is familiar with Forbes, who was an assistant coach at Tennessee when Currie was assistant AD there. Forbes worked for five years as an assistant to coach Bruce Pearl with the Vols.
Given Currie’s struggle to find a football coach at Tennessee in Dec. 2017, and how that led to his ouster at the SEC school, it makes sense that he was ready this time in his first major hire with Wake.
The final decision, according to a Wake Forest source, came down to Forbes and UNCG’s Wes Miller. There was some concern that Miller, a former UNC player, would use the job as a stepping stone to eventually replace Roy Williams with the Tar Heels.
Forbes with his connection to Currie was the safer choice and less messy, given the financial ties of Miller's father, Ken, to the Deacon Club. After four seasons of Jeff Bzdelik and six of Manning, safe is a smart alternative for Currie.
East Tennessee is a solid mid-major job but the program went six years without an NCAA tournament appearance before Forbes took his second team there in 2017.
He had his best team this season at 30-4 overall and 16-2 in the SoCon. The Bucs beat LSU during the regular season and handled Wofford in the SoCon title game on March 9.
Forbes, 55, took the long road to his first major job. He worked at two different community colleges and was an assistant at Idaho, Louisiana Tech, Illinois State and Texas A&M before he joined Pearl's staff in 2006.
Forbes will likely come at an affordable price. There is some confusion about how much Wake still owes Manning, who had five years remaining on his contract. Watch Stadium’s Jeff Goodman has reported that Wake Forest owes Manning the full amount of his annual salary ($3 million) for each year left on the contract.
Manning had the worst record in the ACC and had the most players transfer out of the program during his tenure. According to a Wake Forest source, Currie was able to fire Manning “for cause.”
According to a second source, Manning and the school are possibly headed to arbitration over the contract.
Goodman reported on Thursday: “Wake feels it owes Manning less than half of the $15 million.” Even if Currie only delayed the payments to Manning, to more certain financial times after the COVID-19 crisis, he comes out the winner here.
He had efficient search and found a winning coach who is used to going against the grain and working outside the spotlight. Not bad for less than a week's worth of work and under difficult circumstances.
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April 30, 2020 at 11:47PM
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Giglio: Smooth search for Steve Forbes a win for Wake Forest and John Currie - WRALSportsFan.com
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