Steve Forbes Interview (5/5/20)

Steve Forbes. All throughout the week, we've been lining up people associated with Coach Forbes, including John Curry, who hired him yesterday, Greg Marshall on Friday. Tomorrow and around this time, it's gonna be Bruce Pearl, who is the head coach at Tennessee, alongside Forbes as an assistant. And I think we're gonna catch up with Billy Gillespie as well on today's show. So we have a lot of things to get to. We are delighted now that we're gonna be joined by Steve Forbes, who completely won over the Deacon fans with a 45-second video last week.

He's also been busy putting together a staff, which will include Wake Forest legend Randolph Childress, we learned, re-recruiting players who have entered the portal. However, Coach, I've heard a ton of stories about you over the last week. So I'd like just to kick back and get to know you a little bit. How's that sound?

Let's do this. So let's start with the story you casually dropped in at the beginning of your press conference last Friday. What can you tell me about your honeymoon in Nebraska? Well, it's amazing that I'm married. I'm going on year number 32 with my wife, Johnnetta. I stole her out of Louisiana.

I really showed really early in my career I could recruit. And, you know, we're getting ready to go on our honeymoon, and I kind of covered my mouth and said we're going to Omaha. And I think she thought I said Oahu, but I said Omaha, Nebraska, and I took her to Omaha. We stayed with my former college coach in his house while I interviewed for a GA job at Nebraska, Omaha, and that I did not get.

And so I had to go back. We had two separate reception. We had one in, we had one in Louisiana, which was, I guess you call that a dry one, and then we had one in Iowa that would be wet, I guess you would say. You know, when I went to school in Southern Iowa, they said it was a dry county, and I just, I'd never heard of that. I thought maybe they didn't get enough rain or something. I wasn't sure what they were talking about, but it ended up being that they didn't have any boos in that county. So when my friends from the north came down, they didn't quite understand that. So we had to have another reception back in Iowa the week afterwards. Who took it better, your friends with the dry reception or your wife being in Omaha?

Whoo, I mean, that's a pretty tough question. Those, my friends were not happy because I didn't tell them, but I'd have to say it's probably my wife. I mean, I'm sure she would have preferred not to stay, you know, in a spare bedroom. At my former college coach's house, I would say she probably visioned something a little bit better than that.

And I would guess that one of these days, now that we've been married so long, maybe I would probably take her on a real one. I'm not sure if you heard it on the way in, but we've been getting a lot of dirt on you from people you've been working with. Bruce Pearl's going to join us at around this time tomorrow. We got Billy Gillespie today.

John Curry, we were talking to him yesterday, and I think you'll enjoy this. Greg Marshall was on the show recently, and he shared this about you. For two years, he literally drove a moped to work at Northwest Florida as opposed to, didn't have a car. He didn't own a car because all those years at Texas A&M in Tennessee, he drove a courtesy car. Well, now he's in JUCO land, and he had to give those cars back to the dealers. So he literally drove a, of course, it doesn't snow too much in Florida, but in rain and hot sun, and there he drives that moped to work and back every single day. What's the highlight or low-light of recruiting and coaching JUCO on a moped?

Well, first of all, let's get our terminal. First of all, it doesn't coach Marshall really. It don't shade his words really well.

It does that. It's not a moped. It's a scooter, okay? A moped probably goes about 29 or 30. My scooter was a Yamaha Bevo, and it could top out at about 55, okay?

So I don't want to, let's not underestimate what I was driving. This is Bruce Pearl's story, actually. Every year, the Lady Vols won the national championship. When Pat was coaching, that was eight times that the year, the next year, the staff was able to lease a Lexus. So in 08, when we won the SEC for the first time in 40 years, in 14 and 2, we had a big banquet, and I guess he thought it was a gag gift that he couldn't give us all a Lexus, so he gave us all a scooter. And so the whole staff got these scooters, right?

So it really set my house for two years, I don't know, two, three, four years. Well, when we got fired, I had to get back in my dealer car, like Coach said. I really didn't have the money to go buy another car.

So I just went down, and I was down in Eissel, which is right across from Princeton, Dustin. I drove that scooter to work every day for a year. I kept every gas receipt for one year, and I spent 60-some dollars, $65 an entire year going to work and back, which I needed that at that time. And the moral of the story is I don't know a lot about cars and vehicles.

I'm not real smart in that area. And a year later, I was driving my scooter around in Eissel one day, and it stopped running and kind of blew up. I called my wife, she came, and it didn't have any oil in it.

I guess you have to put oil in those things. And so I blew the engine, my wife called me a dumbass, and from there on out, my assistant coach had to come pick me up every day. It's Steve Forbes with us here. He's on Twitter, at Forbes Wake Hoops. You told Les Johns yesterday, you'd learn French if Olivier Saar returned to Wake Forest. After a two-hour visit with him in Durham, how confident are you that you're going to have to pick up a new language? Well, I like to say that I'm 100%, but I'm not.

I'd say 50-50 right now, and I haven't spoke to Olivier since I left. I mean, we obviously text back and forth, and he got him a big smallmouth or largemouth bass last night, and he thought that was pretty cool. And I sent him a picture of about a 20-pound rockfish I caught out of Lake Loudon one time. So we were having some good fish stories going back and forth.

But I don't have to tell Wake fans. He's just a phenomenal person, kid, young man, player. I really enjoyed visiting with him. And we're not done visiting. We're going to go.

It's full-court press on him. He's our number one recruit right now. And we're putting our best foot forward.

That's all we can do. And try to build a relationship with him, just like everybody else is trying to do. And the biggest thing I told him was, you're going to play for a new coach no matter what, no matter what. And do you really want to make the risk of playing with new teammates? Because you're not going to have the summer. You're only going to have about six to eight weeks to prepare for the season.

You've got to work through chemistry. When you're going to come back and play with teammates that love you, care about you, they're going to get you the ball. And I think that the last year of his career, I think that's a big thing. And then I think the most important thing is, why would you go to Wake for three years and put all that time in to get this prestigious degree, and then end up getting your degree at a place like Kentucky? That's what I said.

And I got to chuckle out of him. And that's no disrespect to Kentucky, because I obviously respect him. But you know what I mean.

I just think that there's a lot to be said for putting all that work in academically and then not being able to finish what you started. And I know those things are all important to him. And he said that. And so we'll see. We'll keep trying. We'll keep plugging. But he's got a lot of really good teams recruiting him.

Steve Forbes with us here on Sports Hub Triad. Do I have this right, that the first place you plan to go to when the country reopens is Dunkin' Donuts? Well, I've already done it.

I did it here. One of the things that really helped me decide on, if I could, you know, one of the jobs was I had to look it up and see if there was any Dunkin' Donuts here. And of course, you know, John Kerry told me it was all about Krispy Kreme. I said, well, this is just coffee.

And I scoped them out and I've already been hitting them up. But you got to understand, when I was at home, you know, we were under quarantine there for a while. I didn't go out of the house. I hadn't seen my staff in six weeks until we got the job here.

I hadn't really seen anybody. I'd just been at home, maybe went to the store a couple of times. But my wife kind of put the kibosh to me going to Dunkin' Donuts and she was making it at home. But it's not the same, no disrespect to my wife. But I like to go get that cup.

And so the last few days, including the day I've been, you can catch me coming through the line at some point. Steve Forbes with us here. And you told Les, I'm getting a couple of Wake Forest fans who want me to ask you about Jacoby Neve specifically, because obviously it's great that you have Odie Igwama back. It's great that you get Ishmael Nasud. It would be awesome if you have Olivier Saar. I can't imagine there's many places you would be on the floor as a point guard in the Atlantic Coast Conference as a sophomore. So the selling point seems strong for Jacoby Neve. Is it close to being a reality that he's going to come back?

Well, working hard there. And I think a lot of these things, I think Jacoby, according to his people and his high school coach I talked to, he's connected to Olivier. And I think that'll have a lot to do with his decision. And that's what happens when you get put in these situations, especially when you can't have a conversation with him face to face. I can't put my arm around him. I can't take him to dinner or lunch or sit over in the cafeteria and talk to him. I can't work him out.

And so that part makes it more harder. And so that's kind of where it's at right now. I text and call him every day.

My staff does. He's been great. Nice, very nice young man.

You know, that's how I feel about him. And we're going to continue to work it. I've got to get to the bottom of this before I let you go, coach, and the time is appreciated. Did you or did you not sleep at the Shaw Center Thursday night?

Pretty much. I did go back to take a shower, but I came out of this big time shower in my office, but I didn't have anything in there to take a shower. Take a shower with, so I had to leave. But yeah, you know, and listen, I'm not, I mean, that's kind of what happened, at least to me, when you change a job and you, you know, we were here, you know, I went, I think we went to bed last night about 4.30 this morning and got up early. You know, it's just one of those things. You're working through everything. It's new, you know, you're putting your things in place.

It's just part of it. But I could easily sleep here, yes. And I do have, I do have a blanket and a pillow here, but I don't want to scare the people that clean in the morning. They might come in there and I'd be snoring or something.

They think there was a big old bear in there. So I'm, I've decided I probably should go back to the hotel and sleep and then just come here and get to work. Well, coach, thank you so much for spending the time. Congratulations on getting the job. And please know this.

We're the only sports station that covers the whole triad in Burlington, all the way up the mountain and to Asheville. So I look forward to getting to know you. And you're always welcome on this show. Thank you. Well, thank you.

I'll be on anytime. And I'm glad that you go all the way to Asheville. So maybe some of my Johnson City crew can maybe put a tin cup up there or a ham radio and maybe catch it. So I really, hey guys, listen, I'm so excited. I hope you could tell that.

I mean, you know, I haven't been able to get out in the community and meet people like I like to and shake hands. But I want everybody to know that I'm thrilled to be the coach here. And I get more excited each and every day that I come to work. And I can't wait to, you know, this thing gets back to, I guess, a new normal, whatever that is. And we can get this thing cranked up.

So thanks a lot. Coach, have you ever seen on the way out, have you ever seen Jerry Maguire? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

You know, Renee Zellweger had the line, you had me at hello. When it came to Wake Forest fans, you had them at spiking a medical face mask into the floor. Well, it took 37 takes to get it done.

You know, there's a lot of technique that goes into that. But I thought maybe I was more like, I thought I looked like Bane on Batman. I was thinking more like... No, that's Curry. Curry looked like Bane. He had the black thing on his face. He had the black thing?

Oh, yeah, that's right, because, you know, he looked like he could just hook him, you know. But, yeah, I tell you what, that was thought-provoking right there. I had to learn my lines. I had to do method acting, you know, without throwing it down. You know, that was tough. And then, you know, I improvised that ending part. And, you know, I just, I don't know, thank goodness I had a lot of training doing that.

Give them the Oscar. It's Steve Forbes. Coach, look forward to catching up with you sometime soon. Thanks for doing this. All right, guys, take care. Got it. That's Steve Forbes.