Danny Manning Out at Wake Forest
The new college hoops season is more than six months away but it’s safe to say that the 2019-20 season ended with a whimper rather than the excitement we’re used to seeing. There was no March Madness: conference tournaments ended partway through after being played in front of no fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the blink of an eye, we went from getting ready to fill out brackets to wondering who could have emerged as the national champion. One thing that we know for certain at this point is that a Power Five school will have a new coach when the 2020-21 season tips off in the fall.
After six seasons with the program, Danny Manning was let go by Wake Forest on Saturday. In a statement released by athletic director John Currie, he stated that: "After a comprehensive review of the men's basketball program, and with the support of President Hatch and University leadership, I have determined that it is time for a change in our head coaching position.”
Manning never was able to get Wake Forest going in a positive direction in his time with the program as it’s tough to be able to get your footing in the competitive ACC. The Demon Deacons were unable to post a record that was better than .500 in ACC action in that span and won just 25 percent (14-42) of their conference games in the last three years. Last season, Wake Forest finished 13-18 overall and went 6-14 in the ACC, leaving them tied for the basement in the conference standings. Their season ended with an 81-72 loss to Pitt in the first round of the ACC Tournament last month. After that game, Manning stated that he felt confident that he would be back to coach the team in the 2020-21 season.
After the season drew to a close, Chaundee Brown, who put up 12.1 points a game last season despite missing eight games, announced that he was going to enter the transfer portal or the NBA Draft while maintaining his eligibility. He made it clear that his time with the program was finished. With the graduations of Brandon Childress and Andrien White, three of the top four scorers from last season are gone from Wake Forest. Only Olivier Sarr (13.7 ppg, nine rebounds) is expected to be back, though Manning had encouraged him and Brown to explore their options in regards to the NBA Draft earlier this month.
In his career with Wake Forest, Manning was 78-111 overall and 30-80 in ACC play. The team made only one postseason appearance in his run, reaching the First Four of the NCAA Tournament in 2017 before getting knocked out by Kansas State. Wake Forest finished 12th or worse in the ACC in five of their six seasons under Manning. For that matter, the team failed to win more than 13 games in five of the six years, with the 19-14 mark in 2017 the outlier. He came over after spending two seasons with Tulsa as the head coach, where he posted a 38-29 mark. The Golden Hurricane won the Conference USA regular season and tournament titles in 2013-14 en route to a 21-13 mark. Their season came to an end with a 76-59 loss to fourth-seeded UCLA in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
As to who Wake Forest could go after in order to replace Manning, it seems that a lot of mid-major coaches that have had success are the ones being bandied about early on. Steve Forbes of East Tennessee State, Wes Miller of UNC Greensboro and Bob Richey of Furman, all from the Southern Conference, could be in the mix to be considered. None of them would be bad choices and the SoCon has had a solid track record in recent years. Last season, Mike Young left Wofford to take the Virginia Tech job.
One thing is clear: it was time for a change in Winston-Salem. Whether the Demon Deacons can get back to the .500 mark in the ACC for the first time in a decade remains to be seen. It’s a challenge to have success on Tobacco Road, especially when you’re not Duke or North Carolina. Wake Forest will have to choose wisely in an effort to bring their program back to some sort of relevance. Manning was a big name given his track record as a player, but he couldn’t carry that momentum with him. That proved to be his undoing.