Wake Forest Fires Head Basketball Coach Danny Manning

Wake Forest has made the decision to part ways with Head Coach Danny Manning after six years.

Manning finishes his six year tenure at Wake Forest with a lackluster record of 78-111 (0.413) overall and 30-80 (0.273) in the ACC. He managed just 1 winning season, 1 ACC Tournament win, and 1 NCAA Tournament appearance (if we’re counting the play in game as an appearance) during his time with the Deacs, all coming in the 2016-17 season on the back of John Collins.

What looked like a promising step in the right direction proved to be a one year exception, as the Deacs won just 35 games total in the three years after making the NCAA Tournament. After back to back 11-20 seasons in 2017-18 and 2018-19, Athletic Director Ron Wellman inexplicably brought Manning back for another year, stating that the decision was strictly due to basketball reasons. Manning proclaimed at a very strange press conference set up to announce his retention that the team was destined to take a step in the 2019-20 season. That step was never realized, and the sixth year under Manning ended the same way as all the rest, save 2017—a losing record, a first round loss on Tuesday in the ACC Tournament, and no hopes of any postseason play.

As the Deacs move on, all eyes now move to the possible candidates to save a ship that has been sinking since 2011. After a decade of losing, Wake Forest is desperately in need of a home run hire to revitalize the fan base and put Wake Forest basketball back on the map. As mentioned above, the short list of candidates includes Wes Miller (164-126), Steve Forbes (130-43), Pat Kelsey (163-93) and Ryan Odom (74-44). I wouldn’t be surprised to see John Beilein (571-325) to pop up but monetary questions would arise. The long wait is over Wake Forest fans, and in the words of Skip Prosser, “We’re going to be good again.” Go Deacs!