Playing less than hour from their campus against a team Pittsburgh team that hadn’t won a game in over month, Wake Forest looked ready to make some noise in the ACC Tournament.
The exact opposite happened as the Deacs were bounced by Pittsburgh becoming the first ACC team eliminated.
That is not what the embattled head coach Danny Manning needed to happen.
Do a google search on Danny Manning and this what you’ll see… Multiple articles wondering if Manning has coached his last game at Wake Forest.
For last several years – Danny Manning, BC’s Jim Christian, and Georgia Tech’s Josh Pastner names have been aligned on the hotseat.
Pastner will be back after a surging late in the season. Christian and BC haven’t played yet in the ACC Tournament, so we don’t know about him yet. Manning’s future is the one in limbo.
Manning has been at Wake Forest 6 years and compiled a 30-80 ACC record without a single NCAA tournament win.
Sure there have been a few highlights during those years like top 20 wins over Indiana, Louisville, and Duke.
He even made the NCAA tournament three years ago.
There just haven’t been enough.
Danny Manning didn’t look like a bad hire. Maybe a bit inexperienced with only 2 years at Tulsa, but he was a former college and NBA star with a ton of name recognition. Wake Forest was a school with a history of being able to compete at a high level in College Basketball. It’s the home of Tim Duncan and Chris Paul after all.
It should have worked eventually, but it just didn’t happen.
If Manning is back it’s the potential buyout, that could save his job.
From previous linked ACCSports.com article.
Jeff Goodman of Stadium reported that Manning’s buyout hovered around $18 million at the time, assumedly because the coach then had six years left on his deal, at an average of about $3 million per season. That same math would leave the current buyout number at $15 million, since only five years remain on the contract now.
Manning is in trouble, a lot of trouble, but now we just wait for Wake Forest’s decision.
I don’t think he’s going to be coaching Wake Forest next year even with the hefty buyout.
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