Former KU great Danny Manning ‘disappointed’ Jayhawks denied shot at 2020 NCAA title
Danny Manning, the leading scorer and rebounder in University of Kansas men’s basketball history, has followed the Jayhawks’ fortunes from afar the past eight seasons.
That includes the 2019-20 campaign, in which KU’s 28-3 Big 12 title team was denied a chance to play to its consensus No. 1 ranking in the NCAA Tournament, which was canceled because of COVID-19 coronavirus concerns.
“I thought our Jayhawks were primed to make a great run. I am disappointed for them they don’t get that opportunity,” Manning, now the sixth-year head coach at Wake Forest, told The Star Thursday in a phone interview.
“I definitely miss the NCAA Tournament,” added Manning, who after a 15-year NBA career worked on Bill Self’s KU coaching staff for nine seasons before serving as head coach at Tulsa for two years and then Wake Forest.
Manning — he is the only Kansas player or coach to earn two NCAA championship rings while at KU — is admittedly saddened the virus forced cancellation of the NCAAs on March 12. He’s not alone. Other KU grads on his Wake Forest staff include former players Steve Woodberry, Rex Walters and Evan Manning as well as former KU managers Justin Bauman and Molly Bachand.
“The time I was able to spend at Kansas as a player and member of the staff always will be something very special that I cherish,” Manning reflected. “It helped prepare me for all the experiences I’ve had going through life as a professional player and now as a coach. I’m very thankful and grateful for the experiences and relationships. It always will be a very special place for me and my family.”
“We’ve all got degrees from that place,” he added of himself, his wife, Julie and two children, Evan, a former KU basketball player and Taylor, a former KU volleyball player. “It’s a special place to us.”
Manning, a 53-year-old native of Greensboro, North Carolina, is currently spending these days of the coronavirus lockdown at his house in Winston-Salem, home of Wake Forest.
Campus has shut down at the Atlantic Coast Conference school, but it’s business as usual for the squad’s head coach.
“We are hanging in there, trying to make it in these unique times like everyone else,” said Manning, MVP of the 1988 NCAA Tournament. He also was a member of Self’s national title staff at KU in 2008 and Self’s NCAA runner-up staff in 2012. KU won eight regular-season Big 12 titles during his nine years working with Self in Lawrence.
“The daily routine now is a lot of phone activity, reaching out to my current players, reaching out obviously to the recruits,” Manning said.
“It is a lot harder situation than I thought just because it is a lot of phone conversations, a lot of texts, a lot of interactions along those lines as opposed to face-to-face that you normally have on campus with the players. All day long we have a group text in which we communicate with one another.”
Manning noted that in some ways, “It’s not that much different (than before coronavirus). As a college coach, you are ‘on’ 24/7. But instead of being able to interact with people face to face, to walk through the gym and walk through the weight room … Now it’s purely phone conversations and texts.”
Manning’s 2019-20 Wake Forest team went 13-18, 6-14 in the ACC. Two of those conference victories came against Duke and North Carolina. Overall, he’s compiled a 78-111 mark at Wake after going 38-29 in two campaigns at Tulsa.
“I enjoy being a head coach,” Manning said. “As a player I was very naive in the sense of all that went into running a program. I had no idea. As an assistant coach you start to really understand that.
“As head coach you understand it even more. You make sure you have good people around you, ones you can trust and you work well with. At the end of the day you are preparing young people for life.”
In his eight seasons as a head coach, Manning has yet to coach a game against his alma mater.
“If it happens, it happens,” Manning said. “I’m not in any hurry to do that, from that standpoint. Eventually it could happen.”
Manning right now, of course, is more concerned about coronavirus and its possible effects on college sports and everyday life than anything else.
Personally, he is following guidelines of medical professionals.
“I’m spending time with Julie in the house a lot, watching a lot of TV,” Manning said. “I’ve got bad allergies. The pollen count here is pretty (high) in terms of kind of wiping me out in regards to going out. Usually I like to ride my bike or hop in the pool and swim, do some type of walking. There’s a regimen of activities I can do to keep myself going.”
Manning said he also checks in with his players regularly.
“For us, this happened really quickly on college campuses from the standpoint of getting to the situation we are in now with a lot of social distancing,” Manning said. “Our campus is on lockdown. That happened very quickly. All of our classes are now online. It was an abrupt stop to our lifestyle. Everybody has to make adjustments for the best.”
The chaos really started on March 11, when the NBA announced plans to put its season on hold after Utah’s Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
“I thought it was something very serious in that regard for the NBA to come out as early as they did, also to make that announcement,” Manning said.
“I thought, ‘This is a very serious situation.’’’
Then a day later, most college postseason tourneys were called off, including the ACC tourney.
On Tuesday, the Olympics were delayed for one year.
“I thought given with what is going on it was a good decision, to be honest with you,” said Manning, a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team in 1988. “A lot of questions need to be answered. A lot of fears need to be addressed in the sense of this virus and how are we going to move forward and handle situations like this.”
Manning said he believes it’s important for Americans to look at the bright side.
“I mean, we are thankful. The mindset we adopt is we are thankful to have another day,” Manning said. “We need to be blessed and take advantage of it the best we can. Right now we are in a difficult and troubling situation. We have to continue to find ways to continue to share concerns of our fellow citizens. It is hard to do because of social distancing and things of that nature. Every day you are still trying to figure out how to navigate the situation.”
He’s looking forward to a return to normalcy, which would including periodically checking in with his buddies at KU.
“We’ve not had any conversations recently,” Manning said. “A lot of times we text, and if this was a normal situation obviously I’d send out messages to all our friends in postseason play. I always follow the Jayhawks, as you know. I’m sure there will be a time we start text messaging again. We’re all in the same situation, spending a majority of time reaching out to our players.”
This story was originally published March 28, 2020 at 11:22 AM.
