Louisville Basketball: 10 candidates to replace Chris Mack as head coach

Steve Forbes

When power conference names pop up, we usually spend some time considering the hot names among the mid-major schools, and that’s something we’ll briefly do here as well. There comes a time when each of these names eventually get picked off by bigger schools, which is what happened with Forbes a few seasons ago. He did incredible work at a mid-major and is already changing the tide at a power conference school after just two seasons.

Forbes really bounced around in his early coaching career, spending time assisting Porter Moser, Mark Turgeon, Bruce Pearl, Gregg Marshall, and other coaches before finally getting his shot to run a D1 program. Forbes spent five fantastic years at East Tennessee State before heading to Wake Forest in 2020. In just his second season, he has the Demon Deacons looking like an NCAA Tournament team; something they haven’t been in quite some time.

First of all, would Forbes jump from Wake Forest to another ACC program, and would he do it after just two seasons? It’s easy to argue that Louisville has a much more fertile future than Wake Forest, and Forbes though no personal connections to either of these ACC teams.

He’s been a hot name in coaching circles for several years now, and his 17-4 start at Wake Forest this season is proof that he’s got these Demon Deacons trending in the right direction. Could he manufacture this kind of turnaround at Louisville, inheriting a program in even better shape than at Wake?