It wasn’t all that long ago that Wake Forest was a national brand when it came to college basketball. It had produced two of the all-time greats in Tim Duncan and Chris Paul had an innovative offensive coach in Skip Prosser. Then the unimaginable happened in 2007, Skip collapsed and passed away. Ever since that tragedy Wake Forest basketball has fallen and doesn’t seem able to get back up. They have gone through coaches Dino Gaudio, Jeff Bzdelik, and now Danny Manning. All of whom have had interesting tenures in Winston-Salem.
While I was researching this article I noticed something that surprised me, Dino Gaudio actually had a pretty decent record (61-31) and made the NCAA Tournament in back to back years (2009-2010). Yet, after 2010 Dino was fired by Wake Forest. Next was Bzdelik who’s tenure can only be summed up in one word DISASTER! Bzdelik never won more then 6 conference games and only had one winning season (17-16 in his final season). Bzdelik’s record was 51-76 and was fired after the 2013-2014 season.
That brings us to the Danny Manning era, which at one point seemed to have promise that Wake Forest might be turning a corner. The 2016-2017 season was that season that I believed was going to turn Wake around. Wake was 19-14 overall and 9-9 in the ACC. They made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2010 and had some exciting players. John Collins played really well, along with Konstantinos Mitoglou who could step out and shoot. The had 2 sophomore guards who both averaged double digits in points. The future seemed bright, and then it fizzled out. John Collins left after that year and entered the NBA Draft and has done well in the NBA. Mitoglou left for a professional team in his home country of Greece.
Wake Forest was unable to capitalize on the 2016-2017 season and have fallen off a cliff since that glimmer of hope. Last season the Deacons were 11-20 overall and 4-14 in the ACC. This season it hasn’t gotten better, they are 2-9 in conference and 9-14 overall. The problem in Winston isn’t just it seems as though Manning might not be the guy for the job, it’s that his buyout according to Jeff Goodman is $18 million. Now, to be honest since Wake Forest is a private school they do not have to disclose any information about how much they pay their coach. However, if the contract is fully guaranteed as Goodman reports, it will be hard to see Wake Forest coming up with that kind of money to fire Manning. Keeping Manning may be just as damaging as firing him to the basketball program.
Maybe Wake Forest will just wait until after next season when some of the money will be off-set by the revenue generated by the ACC Network. However, that may not work either. It usually takes a few years for a school to get the full influx of money. Does Wake Forest bite the bullet and move on from Manning or does it try to ride this low point out and make a move in 2 more seasons. Either way, it does not seem that Manning is the answer at Wake.
ACC Basketball is at it’s best when the entirety of Tobacco Road is really good. With Duke rolling the way they are and UNC being UNC and there is hope springing up in Raleigh with Kevin Keatts the glaring hole is Wake Forest. I hope they make a decision that is right for them. They need to figure out where they are going in basketball. I am not sure they can afford to keep Manning and I am not sure they can afford to fire him….
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