Well, we here at All Sports Discussion were asked about Danny Manning and if he was the answer at Wake Forest. Well, it took me a week to look into this issue and I have come to the conclusion that he is! Danny Manning is in his 4th year in Winston-Salem. He has turned around the Demon Deacons from a team that was struggling in the ACC to one that has promise.
You have to look at where the program was after the untimely death of Skip Prosser. Prosser was an excellent coach who ran an up-tempo style offense and lead to Deacons to the NCAA tournament each of his first 4 seasons. Then, that is when the struggles began. There was the Dino Gaudio era, when they made the tournament only once. Gaudio was fired after 3 seasons, and an NCAA tournament bid. Then came the Jeff Bzdelik, and that was a complete and utter disaster. Under Bzdelik the Deacons didn’t have a winning record. Not only did they not have a winning record, they had no less then 12 loses in conference play.
Before Danny Manning arrived, Wake Forest was a program that had fallen down and couldn’t figure it out. Manning’s first 2 seasons had it’s issues. Manning went 13-19 and 11-20 in those 2 seasons. Then came last season where Wake Forest went 19-14 and 9-9 in the ACC and made the NCAA tournament after an 8 season absence. After last season 2 of the Deacons better players left to go pro. John Collins was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks and Konstantinos Mitoglou plays professionally in his home country of Greece.
This season, however the Deacons have struggled. They are 8-12 and are in the midst of a 5 game losing streak. Wake Forest isn’t the kind of basketball power that can lose 2 of their best players and not take a step back. Wake Forest, at the moment, is the kind of program that cannot bounce back from losing 2 of their best players. Has Danny Manning made the program better, absolutely. Is it where is can be? No, but Manning has made the Demon Deacons competitive and they play hard. Wake Forest fell down after Skip Prosser passed away, and they made a couple bad hires. Danny Manning has proven that he can coach when he was at Tulsa. Manning has already turned it around, from the Bzdelik years. They play hard, and are disciplined. Manning will make the Demon Deacons a perennial NCAA Tournament Team. Just be patient with him, he’s almost made fans forget how bad the Demon Deacons were before he got there….
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