According to ESPN's Jeff Goodman, Wake Forest has come to terms with Danny Manning to become the next coach of the Demon Deacons. Manning coached at the University of Tulsa for the past two years. This season his Tulsa Golden Hurricane won the C-USA Tournament and earned an NCAA berth.
Wake Forest has hired Tulsa coach Danny Manning, sources told ESPN. Story coming.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanESPN) April 4, 2014
After leading the Kansas Jayhawks to the 1988 National Championship over the Oklahoma Sooners, Manning became the No. 1 overall pick in the '88 NBA Draft. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in Jayhawks' history, was selected to three All-American teams (two firsts, one second), is the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,951 career points, and is the school's all-time leader in rebounds with 1,187.
In the NBA, Manning was a two-time All-Star with the Los Angeles Clippers (1993-94), and accrued over 12,000 points in his career. Despite knee problems taking its toll on his overall productivity as a player, Manning battled back after a few shaky years to win the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award in 1998 as a member of the Phoenix Suns.
After retiring from the Association in 2003, Manning became the Director of Student Management, as well as the team manager at his alma mater Kansas. He held this role for four years under Bill Self before he was elevated to an assistant coach before the 2006 season.
He remained in Lawrence through 2012, where he was primarily responsible for the development of big men, including: Wayne Simien, Darrell Arthur, Sasha Kaun, and Cole Aldrich. Kansas won the 2008 National Championship while Manning was an assistant.
On April 4, 2012, Manning was named the head coach of Tulsa. In two years as the head coach of the Golden Hurricanes, Manning went 38-29 overall, including a 21-11 record in Conference USA.
This past year Tulsa won the C-USA tournament over Louisiana Tech and advanced to the NCAA Tournament as a 13 seed, where they fell to the fourth-seeded UCLA Bruins in the second-round. He is currently a finalist for the Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award as well as the Ben Jobe Award, which is an award presented to the top minority coach in Division I men's basketball.
Manning has local ties to the state of North Carolina, where he graduated from Page High School in Greensboro, NC.
Manning replaces the embattled Jeff Bzdelik at Wake Forest, who stepped down on March 20th, following the Deacons' season ending loss to Pittsburgh in the second round of the ACC Tournament. Contract details for Manning are not yet available.
As always, stay tuned to Blogger So Dear for the latest news on Danny Manning's move to Wake Forest and welcome to Wake, Danny!
