Wake Forest hires Danny Manning as Head Coach

With Jeff Bzdelik finally kicked to the curb, there’s a new Mann-ing town. On Friday, it became official that Former Kansas star and number one overall pick in the 1988 draft Danny Manning, 47, will be the 22nd head basketball coach in Wake Forest’s history.

At Tulsa, Manning faced adversity almost immediately when his top two talents, Jordan Clarkson and Eric McClellan transferred to Missouri and Vanderbilt respectively. With a roster more barren than the Sahara Desert, Tulsa went 17-16 in Manning’s first year at the helm. The team showed solid signs of improvement in year two, vaulting to 21-13, a Conference Tournament Championship in the admittedly weak C-USA, and a berth in the NCAA Tournament where they were defeated by UCLA 76-59 in the second round.

Many feel that Manning is an underwhelming hire. The Wake Forest fan base dreamed of Shaka Smart, Gregg Marshall, or someone of that ilk. But it was just that… a dream. Wake Forest is not the program it once was. The days of Tim Duncan and Chris Paul are long gone. Heck, the days of Al-Farouq Aminu and Jeff Teague are long gone. Wake Forest is nothing but fodder in a loaded ACC that the big fish get to feed off of. Wake has had one commitment from a top 50 ESPN recruit since 2008. And that player was J.T. Terrell who was ranked #49 in 2010, played one season for the Demon Deacons, got kicked off the team and ended up at USC. In that same time frame schools like Detroit, North Texas, Central Michigan, Marshall, and Houston have had as many top 50 recruits as Wake Forest. In a top-tier conference such as the ACC, you need top-tier talent. Wake Forest under Bzdelik flat out did not get it done on the recruiting trail, contributing to abysmal season after abysmal season.

But no matter what Wake Forest does, they will struggle to recruit top level talent. Even when Wake was at their Chris Paul fueled peak, they were not a global brand. Only the true blue blood schools (Duke, UNC, Kansas, Kentucky, etc.) can run the risk of recruiting the cream of the crop nationwide year after year. Schools like Wake need to dominate their home turf.

Herein lays the problem. Wake Forest’s “home turf” is Winston-Salem, North Carolina and North Carolina has a very rigid hierarchy that will not be disrupted anytime soon. North Carolina and Duke get 90% of the best in-state players. For Duke and UNC, North Carolina recruiting is a buffet. They look around, put whatever looks the best on their plate, and go home with a full-stomach. Next on this food chain comes NC State who usually gets the best players who, for whatever reason, fall through the mitts of Duke and UNC. ACC Player of the Year T. J. Warren is a good example of this. Finally, Wake Forest gets the best of the rest. This ecosystem prevents Wake from getting program changing superstars, but it doesn’t prohibit them from getting quality players. C.J. Harris, Codi Miller-McIntyre, and incoming freshman Shelton Mitchell are good examples of this.

The status of being a small fish in a big pond is fine when it stands alone. As previously stated, there is more than enough talent locally and on the current roster to be competitive, even in the stacked ACC. But when paired with Wake’s inability to push players to their peak, you get a failed product. This is where Manning could have a huge impact.

As an assistant coach at Kansas, Manning, who stands 6-10 and played Power Forward in the NBA, was in charge of working with the Jayhawks’ big men. Under his tutelage, Cole Aldrich, Thomas Robinson, the Morris Twins, and others blossomed. With each passing year their raw skills were refined and their stats and draft stock went up in tandem. If Manning could work similar magic on someone like Devin Thomas, who was one of the last people cut in the USA U-19 World Championships tryout, and Tyler Cavanaugh, who did some great things in ACC play this year, Wake could catapult in the ACC standings. And who knows, maybe Manning’s pedigree as a champion, top draft pick, and big man Yoda can lure Winston-Salem native and top three recruit in 2016, Harry Giles, to Wake.

But the most important thing is not who Danny Manning is but who he is not. Danny Manning is NOT Jeff Bzdelik. While that point is obvious and redundant it is the most important thing about this hire and should be cause for celebration. Bzdelik went 2-32 on the road in conference play at Wake. TWO AND THIRTY TWO. That’s so bad it’s impressive.

Ultimately, there is seemingly nowhere to go but up for the Wake Forest program. With wins over #18 NC State, #2 Miami, #19 UNC, and #4 Duke in the last two years, Wake Forest has proven that they can play at a high level. They just can’t do it consistently. It remains to be seen if Manning is the guy who can make that happen and bring Wake Forest back to the national stage. But in order for that too happen people need to be patient. Before Wake Forest returns to prominence, they need to return to respectability. And that could take some time.