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Danny Manning Credibility Watch

Our last coaching search Wake got turned down by it's top choices, landed on a coach without much experience out of necessity. He's struggled but in year 3 has his best team and Wake's best team in 6 years, and next year looks to be a better team.

Firing him anytime in the next 18 months would be disastrous for the program, even if he isn't the promised land coach, he needs to be given time to stabilize the program which seems to be happening.
 
Yes, we should expect the team to excel. But we need to be realistic. I've been watching Wake bball since 1968/69. Danny took over the team at our lowest point. Add to that the ACC is on a huge upswing. It's totally unrealistic to think he could turn it around immediately or even in two years.

We do know the team and the program are in better shape than when he took over. He still has a ways to go.

Many of you love KenPom. If he's as bad as some of you are certain he is, how does he get a team without a single Top 50 player into the Top 50 teams?

It's impossible to know how good a coach Danny is at this point. We are grossly undermanned, yet we are becoming very competitive. We do have to take the next step, but we are on the right track.

As several of us who have been around sports for many years have said, running Danny out of Winston at the end of this year (which won't happen) would ensure us getting a mediocre or newbie coach. If Danny goes any time in the next three years, our only option is to spend whatever it takes to get a top name. Otherwise, the program is basically dead.

No top coach would take a position at which he'd be the fourth coach in a decade. I know you don't want to hear this, but it is the way it is.
 
Fuck Your Couch said:
Our last coaching search Wake got turned down by it's top choices, landed on a coach without much experience out of necessity. He's struggled but in year 3 has his best team and Wake's best team in 6 years, and next year looks to be a better team.

Firing him anytime in the next 18 months would be disastrous for the program, even if he isn't the promised land coach, he needs to be given time to stabilize the program which seems to be happening.
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I agree with this, and that was pretty much the substance of my last longer post. Manning can get us back to being mediocre, but ultimately we need to hire someone who will make us great. It's not completely out of the question for wake forest to become a basketball powerhouse. We have some history, and good potential. I hope in my life time I see this come to pass, and that the word "rebuilding" becomes another redacted term.
 
DeacDaddy said:
I agree with this, and that was pretty much the substance of my last longer post. Manning can get us back to being mediocre, but ultimately we need to hire someone who will make us great. It's not completely out of the question for wake forest to become a basketball powerhouse. We have some history, and good potential. I hope in my life time I see this come to pass, and that the word "rebuilding" becomes another redacted term.
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The fact that we are KenPom Top 50 and a Top 50 offense with little talent and little depth should show that Danny can coach.

It's hard to manage a team when don't have the horses. As Skip said, "It's not the Xs and Os. it's the Jimmys and Joes."
 
He's recruited decently while Wake has been god awful, if he recruits better with Wake being just mediocre then Wake could get back to decent shape. I get the sense sometimes he's treated like he's a [Redacted] level disaster, when it's not even close. We don't have the luxury of firing an even just a so-so coach right now.
 
Bottom line is we were in position to beat Nwestern, Xavier and Florida State on the road, and Clemson at home. Thats pretty good coaching if you ask me. Sometimes the players gotta finish and execute and not make dumb mistakes.
 
This team is in fact young as well. Our top 3 players are sophs, even tho Woods is a grown ass man.
 
BigDeac8 said:
Bottom line is we were in position to beat Nwestern, Xavier and Florida State on the road, and Clemson at home. Thats pretty good coaching if you ask me. Sometimes the players gotta finish and execute and not make dumb mistakes.
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Nice trolling.
 
DeacDaddy said:
I agree with this, and that was pretty much the substance of my last longer post. Manning can get us back to being mediocre, but ultimately we need to hire someone who will make us great. It's not completely out of the question for wake forest to become a basketball powerhouse. We have some history, and good potential. I hope in my life time I see this come to pass, and that the word "rebuilding" becomes another redacted term.
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What I don't get is how anyone speaks in such absolutes like this.

Roy Williams is no in-game coaching master... But UNC isn't trapped in mediocrity because of it. Shaka Smart was beloved by this board, but he has 7 losses to unranked teams and a losing record at Texas - despite having 4 and 5 star guys along with limitless resources at a huge school that can admit anyone.

It's not even that hard to imagine based on how close Manning was to having Giles starting at the 3 for us this year. As a one-and-done he'd likely still have landed Brown or even someone higher to replace him next year. But more than that, the most critical piece of creating a program that can compete every year is recruiting. Full stop. Guys outplaying their rankings, players perfectly fitting a system for a year or two - it happens. But great programs get consistently great players, and as a small school with legit academics and a fairly homogenous, reclusive campus - it's an uphill battle. Having a big name helps. Taking a modern, relentless approach to recruiting helps. Having an eye for talent and a reputation for player development helps.

I get that people see him on the sidelines making questionable decisions and think, this guy is too restrained, he's not seeing all the angles, he doesn't manage timeouts well, etc... And if you suspect he'll never improve or whatever, then fine. But to have an opinion in year 3 that it's an absolute impossibility that Danny Manning will ever lead a legitimately successful program just doesn't seem reasonable.
 
Pilchard said:
Wake Forest is currently #44 in the country. If WF finishes the season #57 or better, it would be WF basketball's best final rating since the 2009 WF basketball team which included 4 future NBA players, and was rated #1 in the country in mid-January.

I guess some people get off on staking to a position on the world-wide web and never moving off of it to claim some sort of anonymous superiority on this message board, but the bottom line is that WF basketball is the best it has been in at least 7 years, is bringing in its highest rated recruit in a decade, and is in the best shape it has been since Skip Prosser's death.

To those that matter and/or are reasonable, Danny Manning's credibility is strong.
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I like this response, especially the last sentence. All of the knee jerk reactions on this board are meaningless, yet somehow incredibly frustrating to read.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
DeacDaddy said:
I agree with this, and that was pretty much the substance of my last longer post. Manning can get us back to being mediocre, but ultimately we need to hire someone who will make us great. It's not completely out of the question for wake forest to become a basketball powerhouse. We have some history, and good potential. I hope in my life time I see this come to pass, and that the word "rebuilding" becomes another redacted term.
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Manning has already gotten us back to the upper end of Mediocre. Perhaps he should get more than 2 1/2 seasons to get us higher considering what he took over.
 
knowell said:
You act as though an RPI rating mid season is validation of how good the team is. That validation will be in the end of year record. If Wake ends up the 44th best team in the country, then that will mean something. So far, this team has not beaten any tournament teams. Last year's team had more impressive early season wins and finished with 2 ACC wins.

Let's hold off on the coronation until we after we get the first quality win.
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That's Kenpom. They are #20 in RPI.

And Kenpom is designed precisely to gauge how good a team is at any present moment.
 
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RChildress107 said:
I'd love to be Duke or UNC but for now I'll take Wake Forest from 1990-2010. A top 25 program that competes for an ACC title every 3-4 years.
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Isn't this the entire crux of the thread? Whether Manning is the guy to get us to that point?

I don't think anyone can definitively claim that he is or that he isn't. You can make an argument for one side or another, or you can make the case that it's premature altogether, but claiming absolute certainty on the matter is foolish.
 
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