deacondamo
El Jefe
Voted a 5.
Unlike with [Redacted]--who it was obvious from day one would fail here--Manning at least has a chance to be good, possibly even great. His teams seem to defend and get on the defensive glass. By all accounts, he's a terrific big-man coach, and hopefully learned a lot from Self. The biggest concern is recruiting. He has a paper-thin resume from his time at Kansas, where Dooley and Townsend did most of the heavy lifting, and hasn't lit the world on fire in his (extremely limited) time at Tulsa. Apart from the incipient racism and/or laziness of the, "He played in the NBA so he must be a great recruiter!" line of thought, there's little reason to suspect that he is or will become a great recruiter, and that's what we need the most right now.
Good post, and I agree. I also voted a 5. He has potential. He is certainly not a "WOW" coach, but he has the opportunity to succeed here. He will need strong assistants.