Danny Manning

At 58 years old, Danny Manning has this physical status:

Daniel Ricardo Manning (born May 17, 1966) is an American college basketball coach and retired National Basketball Association player.

He is the current men's head coach at Wake Forest.

Manning played high school basketball at Lawrence High School in Lawrence, Kansas, college basketball at The University of Kansas, and played in the NBA for 14 years.

After retiring from professional basketball Manning became an assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Kansas.

He won the national championship with the Jayhawks in 1988 as a player, and again as an assistant in 2008.

He is the all-time leading scorer in Kansas basketball history with 2,951 points.

The next closest player to his point total is Nick Collison, who is 854 points behind Manning.

Early life

Manning is the son of Ed Manning, who was a longtime NBA and ABA player and professional and college coach.

As a junior at Page High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, Manning averaged 18.8 points and nine rebounds per game, leading the Pirates to a 26–0 record and the state title.

When Ed Manning became an assistant coach at the University of Kansas prior to Manning's senior year, the family moved to Lawrence, Kansas and Manning attended Lawrence High School, where as a senior he was named Kansas Player of the Year. While in Lawrence High, Manning was in the same high school class as Alibaba's Joe Tsai's wife - Clara Wu and played alongside future United States D.C. Circuit Judge Sri Srinivasan.

Personal life

Manning is the son of former NBA player, Ed Manning. Manning's own son, Evan, was a walk-on for the men's basketball team at Kansas where he played for four seasons and is a graduate assistant at Gonzaga, while his daughter, Taylor, was a member of the Kansas volleyball team. Manning was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame on November 23, 2008. In addition to his College Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement, in June 2008 Manning was named to the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame for his early high school career at Page High School in North Carolina. He is also a member of the Lawrence High School Hall of Fame.

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College career

Manning was a senior coach with the Jayhawks in 1988, and he left KU as the country's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. With 2,951 career points, he became the all-time top scorer in Big Eight Conference history. In 1988, he received the Wooden, Naismith, and NABC awards as the best college player of the year.

Manning was 83-79 in Kansas' 83–79 victory over Oklahoma in 1988 NCAA Championship Game, Manning had 31 points, 18 rebounds, 5 steals, and 2 blocked shots. Manning was named "Danny and the Miracles" after his seemingly single-handed role in propelling the underdog Jayhawks to the championship, as well as KU's unbeaten record in the NCAA tournament (21–11, the most losses of any NCAA champion), and the 1988 Kansas squad was named "Danny and the Miracles." Manning, a two-time All-American while at KU, was later named Big Eight Player of the Decade. In February 1992, Kansas retired his legendary #25. He is the twelfth all-time leading scorer in NCAA Basketball, behind Oscar Robertson.

Manning was selected to the last all-collegiate USA national basketball team in 1988, which competed against all-professional Soviet and Yugoslav teams in Seoul, South Korea. The team secured the bronze medal but it was regarded as a disappointment. Manning didn't get a single point in the game, and afterwards called it "one of my life's biggest disappointments."

Manning was dubbed the second best player all-time by The Sporting News on April 2, 2020, after the NCAA bracket widened.

Professional career

Manning was drafted in the 1988 NBA draft with the first overall pick by the Los Angeles Clippers. He played only 26 games as a rookie after a torn anterior cruciate ligament injury forced him to undergone arthroscopic knee surgery, but he returned in 1989-1990. He made his most successful NBA season from 1992-1993, when he averaged 22.8 points a game for the Clippers and was chosen to play in the All-Star Game. The following season, he was also named an All-Star. Manning was traded to the Atlanta Hawks in February 24, 1994, as Dominique Wilkins and a first-round draft pick. Gene Shue, Don Casey, Mike Schuler, Mack Calvin, Larry Brown, Bob Weiss, and Bill Fitch were all alumnates in Los Angeles. He appeared for Lenny Wilkens in Atlanta.

When playing for the Phoenix Suns as the best reserve player in the NBA, he received the 1997–1998 Sixth Man Award, averaging 13.5 points per game while playing about 26 minutes. Manning is the first NBA player to return from rehab after knee surgery (a feat that has been duplicated by Kenyon Martin, Amar'e Stoudemire, Greg Oden, and Derrick Rose). He played for head coaches Paul Westphal, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Danny Ainge, and Scott Skiles in Phoenix.

Manning was traded to the Orlando Magic with Pat Garrity and a conditional first-round draft pick for Penny Hardaway in 1999 and was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks with Dale Ellis in exchange for Armen Gilliam and Chris Gatling before the 1999-2000 season. He played for George Karl. He spent three years with the Utah Jazz, Dallas Mavericks, and Detroit Pistons. As the Jazz were looking for veteran role players to surround actors John Stockton and Karl Malone, he provided valuable scoring off the bench in Utah. As the Jazz qualified for the NBA Playoffs, against a young and talented Dallas Mavericks team, he would average 7.4 points per game and 2.6 rebounds during the 2001 season. In the series, he would average 10.6 points. Manning left Dallas in 2001 to play for Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson. He spent his NBA career in Detroit (1973-1994), working for head coach Rick Carlisle.

Coaching career

Under KU basketball coach Bill Self, he announced his retirement from professional basketball in 2003 and spent four years at the University of Kansas as the head of student-athlete growth and team manager. Manning was promoted to assistant coach at Illinois State University in 2006-07 as a replacement for Tim Jankovich, who left the Kansas workers to take the role of head coach. Manning was a vital piece of the Jayhawks' coaching staff, playing key roles in both recruiting and in training the team's big boys. Manning, as a head coach for the Jayhawk big men, gained a reputation as one of the best big men in the country. He supervised 12 NBA draft picks, eight of which were first-round picks. Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun, Cole Aldrich, Marcus Morris, Thomas Robinson, and Jeff Withey were among those NBA draft picks during his time as commissioners. Manning recruited two McDonald's High School All-Americans, including the 2010 NBA first-round draft pick and Oklahoman Xavier Henry. Cole Aldrich and Tyrel Reed were also mentored by him. Aldrich was selected as the 2010 Academic All-America of Men's Basketball. He spent nine years on the Kansas staff, five NCAA championship appearances, five NCAA Elite Eight appearances, five Big 12 tournament titles, and 569 career victories.

Manning was officially introduced as Tulsa's head coach on April 4, 2012. In his first season as a Golden Hurricane, he posted a 17-16 overall record and an 8-8 record in Conference USA play, finishing fifth in the league's regular season. TU defeated the fifth-most experienced team in the country in 2012-13 and suffered with injuries all season, earning the CBI's semi-finals and competing in the CBI's postseason tournament. Two players from Hurricane James Woodard and D'Andre Wright were selected to the C-USA All-Freshman Team. In Manning's second year, the Tulsa improved their record to 21-13, while Conference play went 13-13-3. Tulsa was subsequently named the C-USA regular-season champion and won the Conference tournament for the first time since 2003. In the second round, the Golden Hurricane lost to the UCLA Bruins 76–59. Manning was named the Year's Best Coach of the Year by the United Conference USA in 2014. He was also a finalist for two national Coach of the Year awards, including the Jim Phelan Award and the Ben Jobe Award. Since their time at Tulsa came to an end, seven players moved on to play professional basketball.

Manning accepted to serve as the head coach at Wake Forest University on April 4, 2014. He coached 14 players who wanted to play professionally, including NBA players John Collins and Jaylen Hoard. Manning's involvement in player growth was evident, with Collins named the 2017 ACC Most Improved Player, while Doral Moore in 2018 and Olivier Sarr in 2020 runner-ups in the award's voting. The team went 19-14 and reached the NCAA First Four in the team's third season, the team's first postseason appearance in seven seasons. Wake Forest was ranked in the top ten nationally in offensive effectiveness, averaged 82.8 points per game, and set school records with 268 3-pointers and 78% from the free-throw line. All-American John Collins, who was selected by the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 63, was leading the Deacs. The NBA draft's 19 overall picks have been chosen. Manning received the Skip Prosser Man of the Year award following the season. Despite a 13-19 record, this was his first season as president in 2014-15, a young Demon Deacon squad with three newbies among the top five scorers developed throughout the season. Five of their victories came against teams that competed in the postseason, including a victory over eventual NCAA Sweet 16 squad NC State, while three of their losses were by single digits to teams ranked in the top-five nationally. During Manning's second season, the Demon Deacons were 11-20, highlighted by their third-place finish at the Maui Invitational. The Deacs won two straight games against Sweet 16 teams in 2017, defeating Syracuse and Florida State, and defeating a nationally ranked NC State squad last year. The Demon Deacons won over nationally ranked Xavier and Duke in 2019-20. At some point during their WF career, 16 players made the dean's list, and 29 players made 3.8 percent at some point. Mannning was fired on April 25, 2020 from Wake Forest after going 78-111 in six seasons, with just one winning record and never finishing higher than tenth in the ACC.

Manning served as a court coach at the 2014 USA Men's U18 National Team training camp with coaches Billy Donovan (Oklahoma City Thunder), Ed Cooley (Providence College), and Sean Miller (University of Arizona). The 2014 team earned the Gold Medal. He worked with mentor John Calipari (Kentucky) and Tad Boyle (Colorado) in 2017. The 2017 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup was held in Cairo, Egypt, winning a Bronze Medal. In 2018, he competed with Kansas head coach Bill Self, Dayton head coach Anthony Grant, to win the U18 team, Gold Medal, representing the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in St. Catherines, Ontario.

Manning joined the Kansas coaching staff of his former Kansas teammates Mark Turgeon in 2021. Manning was named Interim Head Coach after Turgeon resigned as the head coach on December 2, 2021. Maryland won seven quad 1 & 2 victories and four top 25 victories in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, finishing 15-17 overall with seven quad 1 & 2 wins and four top 25 victories. Both free throws made (456) and free throw percentage (.760), while ranking third in free throws attempted (600). When leading with 5:00 minutes to play, the Terrapins were 13-1, with its lone loss of the season coming at No. 1. Purdue is a province in the United States. They were also 10-4 when out-rebounding their opponent on the season.

Manning was hired as Assistant Head Basketball Coach at the University of Louisville on April 15, 2022.

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