Wake Forest basketball coach Steve Forbes announced the addition of Antanas Kavaliauskas and Joe Hugley to his staff. Kavaliauskas will be the Director of Player Development and Hugley will serve as the Director of Player Relations.
“Having two of my former players join our staff is one of the highlights of my career,” Forbes said. “Both of these men are highly qualified professionals and they will play a key role in our future success at Wake Forest.”
Coach Steve Forbes on Antanas Kavaliauskas:

• “Antanas is going to be a superstar in our business. I recruited him to Texas A&M 15 years ago. His career as an extremely successful college and professional player will allow him to be a tremendous role model and mentor to our student-athletes. Through hard work and determination, Antanas made himself into a two-time Olympian for Lithuania while playing alongside former Wake Forest star Darius Songaila.”

Coach Steve Forbes on Joe Hugley:

• “In my 31 years of coaching, Joe is one of the best teammates I’ve ever had the pleasure to coach. His leadership on and off the court this past year at ETSU played a key role in our historical 30-win season. Joe has an infectious personality and is someone that people gravitate towards. He and I had many discussions over the past year about his career path, and like Antanas, he is going to be a superstar in our business in the years to come.”

Antanas Kavaliauskas Bio:
Antanas Kavaliauskas joins the Wake Forest basketball staff after an extensive professional career in Europe. A native of Vilnius, Lithuania, he entered the United States in the fall of 2003 to play basketball at Barton Community College in Kansas. After successful years on the court and in the classroom, Kavaliauskas earned his associate degree and transferred to Texas A&M where he finished his collegiate career with an NCAA Sweet 16 appearance in 2007 and a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture.

Soon after graduating, Kavaliauskas played professionally in the Euroleague for 12 years, the last four of which were played in his home country of Lithuania. He also played for the Lithuanian National Team during the summers of 2005 and 2007. His team won gold at the U21 World Championships in Argentina in 2005 and won gold again at the Universiade in Thailand in 2007. He was called up to the Lithuanian National Team in 2012 for the Summer Olympics in London and represented Lithuania at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.

During his playing career, Kavaliauskas was an LKL or LBL champion seven times and earned LKL MVP status twice. In 2015, he won a silver medal playing for the Lithuanian national team in the European Championship. Three years later in 2018, BC Zalgiris Kaunas finished third in the Euroleague.

He and his wife, Amanda, have one daughter, Alayna, and one son, Aaron.

Joe Hugley Bio:
Joe Hugley, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Public Relations from Central Connecticut State in 2019 and is set to earn his Master’s in Sport Management from East Tennessee State in August, joins Wake Forest’s basketball staff as its Director of Player Relations.

Along with an outstanding collegiate career on the court that included stints at Baltimore City Community College, CCSU and ETSU, Hugley served as a Peer Mentor for Success during the 2018-19 academic year at Central Connecticut where he counseled others in problem-solving, goal setting, and developing plans of action. Additionally, he provided social support and helped strengthen study skills, note-taking techniques and test-taking strategies to help students be more successful in the classroom.

Hugley was also a camp advisor for the Faith Randolph Elite Camp during the 2017 and 2018 summers in Maryland, and was a camp coach for Steve Forbes in 2019 in Johnson City, Tenn.

On the court, Hugley finished his collegiate career in 2019-20 as a graduate transfer for the Buccaneers and Coach Forbes. Named a team captain prior to the season, he appeared in 28 games and averaged 7.5 ppg. and 2.3 rpg. Prior to ETSU, he played two seasons at Central Connecticut State, totaling 580 points and 312 rebounds in 54 games with seven starts.

During the 2018-19 season in New Britain, Conn., Hugley was co-captain and tallied 12.3 ppg. and 5.2 rpg. in 21.8 mpg. Additionally, he ranked third in the Northeast Conference with an .856 free throw percentage. In his first season with the Blue Devils in 2017-18, Hugley averaged 9.5 ppg. and 3.9 rpg.

A native of Gaithersburg, Md., Hugley played his freshman year of college hoops at Baltimore City Community College where he earned NJCAA All-American Honorable Mention status and NJCAA First Team All-Region honors. Overall during the 2016-17 season, he started 30 games for the Panthers and averaged 13.5 ppg., 6.3 rpg., and led the team with 32 blocked shots.

https://godeacs.com/news/2020/6/23/kavaliauskas-hugley-join-deacs-mens-basketball-staff.aspx