I think Danny Manning is doing a really good job of finding talent and developing talent. However, I don’t think he is a great in-game adjustments guy. These are not new observations, obviously. But I was thinking about this after the Syracuse game, and I think Danny’s issue is the following:
•As an ex-NBA player, when he teaches and coaches guys who are below average to above average college players, he simply accepts mistakes. It is like he chalks it up to the fact that they are not future NBA players. This seems to allow him to accept mental mistakes and so far has meant we have teams that lack elite or even solid intensity. Crawford is intense, but that seems to cause half his mental mistakes. Then, he backs off and makes lazy mistakes.
•That said, if you are a borderline NBA talent, Manning is a good coach to play for. He knows what NBA players need development-wise. For example, Oliver Sarr. He could have played him only at the 5 all year long, but he has let him play the stretch 4 to almost no success on the offensive end because that is going to help Sarr get to the next level. It has helped on Defense btw, but hurts us on offense.
I started to compare him to our recent history of coaches, and came up with the following pro/con list:
Dave Odom – Pros: Developed talent across the board, everyone improved with some exceptions, coached mistake free basketball and solid D. Cons: Weak recruiter with some obvious exceptions; Did not embrace the challenge of recruiting to Wake but instead, used it as a crutch
Coach Prosser – Pros: Great life coach, great recruiter, exciting program leader. Consistent. Each year, our experience and talent dictated wins and losses. We seemed to win every game we should have and lost those we weren’t favored. Cons: Not a great in-game adjustments guy. No track record of getting players ready for the NBA. With the exception of Josh Howard, I think while a good coach – player improved under him, he was not great at getting a borderline NBA talent better. In other words, Justin Gray and Big E didn’t develop into NBA players by learning a necessary missing skill – range for Big E and point guard skills for Justin. Ditto for LD and Strick. You could easily argue that none of those guys were NBA players, but …
Dino – See Prosser minus the Great Life coach skill.
Coach Bzd – Pros: Knows basketball real good Cons: Knows people less good
Coach Manning – Pros: Workmanlike coach and recruiter, finds hidden talent, develops NBA talent into NBA players Cons: Not yet a good in-game coach; Doesn’t develop non-NBA talent well, accepts mistakes as part of the package with flawed players.