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Report: Former Tennessee assistant Steve Forbes headed to Wichita State

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Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall has hired Steve Forbes as an assistant coach, according to a report from Gary Parrish of CBSSports.com. Forbes is currently the head coach at Northwest Florida State, a Junior College that produces as much talent as any program at that level, including Carl Hall, who started for the Shockers in their run to the Final Four.

At face value, the hiring isn’t all that interesting.

Much of Wichita State’s success during Marshall’s tenure has been built off of their success in landing JuCo transfers; Hall and Cleanthony Early immediately come to mind. So bringing in a coach to secure a pipeline to one of the best JuCo programs in the country certainly isn’t a surprising decision.

What makes this move interesting, however, is that Forbes was a member of Bruce Pearl’s final staff at Tennessee. The one that, you know, lost their job because Pearl struggled with the truth regarding a barbecue he had at his house with Aaron Craft. Forbes and fellow assistants Jason Shay and Tony Jones covered for Pearl, and as a result they were given one-year show-cause penalties.

Those sanctions expired last August, and Forbes, two years removed from coaching at the Division I level, now has a job as an assistant at a program coming off of a Final Four that just so happens to be the new powerhouse in the Missouri Valley, arguably the best mid-major league in the country.

It may not have been a ideal path, but I’d say he rebounded nicely.

You can find Rob on twitter @RobDauster.