It was not supposed to end this way for Danny Manning and Wake Forest.
Manning learned the tricks of the trade as both an administrator and assistant coach at his alma mater, Kansas. He took over at Tulsa in 2012 and quickly led the Golden Hurricane to the NCAA tournament in his second year on the job. Wake Forest swiftly hired him away that offseason and, by his third year in Winston-Salem, Manning had the Deacons back in the NCAA tournament. Then the bottom fell out, and Manning was dismissed after winning just 14 ACC games in three seasons.
THE ROSTER
Manning and his staff won their share of recruiting battles, reflected by the enrollments of Chaundee Brown, Jaylen Hoard, Isaiah Mucius, Doral Moore and Bryant Crawford. However, the past several months hadn't been their best on the recruiting trail as the Deacons won't enroll a single Rivals150 prospect in the fall.
Wake Forest's new coaching staff will inherit a roster with several holes and question marks. Leading scorer Brandon Childress just exhausted his college eligibility, while third-leading scorer Brown recently entered his name into the transfer portal. The Deacons did land transfer commitments from Ian DuBose and Isaiah Wilkins, and there is hope that rising junior Isaiah Mucius can take a big step as a junior.
COACHING CANDIDATES
The next step for Wake Forest should be adding a strong coaching staff with a quality network of contacts based up and down the East Coast. It's too much to ask for for the Deacons to regularly win recruiting battles against the in-state bluebloods, but the program can still excel by identifying and developing select prospects that could thrive within a specific playing style. Just as NC State quickly rose in the fluid middle of the ACC standings, Wake Forest could follow the same trajectory.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic could make the hiring process difficult, but there are four names linked to the Deacons' vacancy that would make a lot of sense.
RYAN ODOM
UMBC head coach Ryan Odom, whose father led the Deacons to two ACC titles and an Elite Eight in the 1990s, is expected to be one of the top names involved with the job. The 44-year old is one of the top up-and-comers in the business riding the monumental upset that his 2018 squad celebrated over top-ranked Virginia in the NCAA tournament.
Odom has been an assistant coach at two programs within the state, won at an in-state Div. II program and boasts a 62-percent winning rate as a head coach. He recently signed a contract that will pay him a base rate salary of $425,000 through 2023 but Wake Forest, despite the hefty buyout owed to Manning, should still have enough in its coffers to get the deal done.
WES MILLER
A Carolina guy to the core, UNC Greensboro head coach Wes Miller has been viewed as a possible successor to Manning for over a year now. The 36-year-old has created one of the most challenging mid-major programs in the country and has led the Spartans to two conference titles and an NCAA tournament berth in his nine seasons in charge. Miller got to this point by walking on at North Carolina, before then spending time as an assistant coach at Elon, High Point and UNCG.
Accumulating 80 wins within the past three years alone, Miller has made his program one of the elite in the Southern Conference. Outgoing, humble and a young face that should do well with the boosters and alumni base, Miller’s parents are long-time Wake Forest donors and the university's basketball athletic facility is named after his father.
EARL GRANT
College of Charleston head coach Earl Grant has spent the majority of his career in the area. First as an assistant coach at The Citadel, Winthrop and Clemson, and now as the head coach of the Cougars. Just 43-years of age, Grant is someone that has done a great job of both recruiting talent and developing it into potential NBA draft selections, with graduating senior Grant Riller being the latest example of this.
The North Charleston native has won more than 60-percent of his games as a head coach and is thought to be one of the top up-and-comers in the sport. Grant may not have the Wake Forest ties like Odom or Miller, but he is a winner in every sense of the word and could do the same in Winston-Salem.
STEVE FORBES
A basketball journeyman that finally received the chance to lead his own program at the division-1 level five years ago, success has not been hard to come by for Steve Forbes. He has won 24 games or more in each of his seasons at ETSU and has achieved a postseason invitation in four of those campaigns. Forbes was originally ensnarled in the NCAA investigation that brought the firing of Bruce Pearl at Tennessee in 2011, though the 55-year old coach has been a major threat on the recruiting trail and in the coach’s box.
He has more than enough experience coaching at power conference programs thanks to the time that he has spent time on staff at UT and Texas A&M. He has recruited the junior college route and the high school realm and while he might not be the sexy hire, he is someone that will not back down from the more prominent faces within the ACC.
