The long, strange (and mostly silent) odyssey of the good ship Wake Forest came to a successful end on Friday morning, as the university announced the hiring of Tulsa head coach Danny Manning. The hire gave closure to a period of uncertainty endured by Deacon fans since former coach Jeff Bzdelik's resignation on March 20. The initial excitement seen at the outset of the search, however, was replaced by pessimism and outright fear as the NCAA Tournament entered its first weekend.
Common sense said that AD Ron Wellman would first set his sights on Richmond, Virginia and VCU coach Shaka Smart, but public overtures by Marquette to land the coveted coach made fans understandably uneasy. Making matters worse was the fact that the Marquette vacancy was caused by Buzz Williams' sudden departure to, of all places, Virginia Tech. Wake Forest fans saw that transaction and realized that Virginia Tech had hit a home run while the Deacs were still swinging in the on-deck circle.
As time dragged on, speculation grew to ridiculous levels. Various scenarious were bandied about on social media and message boards, with flight tracking websites being stalked while press conference rumors abounded. Then, this past week, Manning made Wake Forest's interests public. Some fans were instantly skeptical, if not outright dismissive of the possiblity. By Thursday, however, the prospect of Manning declining the Wake Forest offer was a more fearsome outcome than any other scenario in play.
That's why, as word came down Friday morning that Wake Forest had it's man(ning), a wave of relief swept over Tie Dye Nation followed by (finally) some positive vibes from the Wake Forest community. Nobody had more dogs in this fight than the Wake players themselves, and it was readily apparent that they, too, were very relieved to finally have a coach.
"We're definitely relieved for the coaching search to be over and just excited for a fresh start," sophomore forward Aaron Rountree said. "Our goal when we came in was to win and it's the same goal now."
Rountree said the team had plenty of support while waiting out the search, including help from their former coaching staff.
"We've been working out," he said. "Our assistant coaches have been around, even though they're not exactly employed. They've still been around trying to help us. We've just been trying to get better and get ready for the new coach to come in."
One of the most common comments regarding Manning the player was that college players of today probably wouldn't know anything about Danny and the Miracles and his other exploits. When asked how much he knew about his new coach, Rountree was quick with his excited reply:
"I know a lot about coach Manning, because he was one of the greatest college players ever. I didn't know much about him as a coach, as far as his coaching style and how he was as a person, but I knew he was national player of the year at Kansas and I knew he won a national championship at Kansas as a player and as an assistant coach."
Both Manning and Wellman, along with Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch are in Dallas for this weekend's Final Four. A media event will take place next week, at a time and location to be determined.
