With Danny Manning fired by Wake Forest Basketball, which coach is primed to take over the Demon Deacons program? And over the next few seasons, key players such as Bryant Crawford, Doral Moore and Keyshawn Woods left with eligibility remaining to pursue professional careers or play elsewhere in college.The Demon Deacons appeared to be trending upward in 2017, when sophomore John Collins led the Demon Deacons to a 19-win season and a .500 league mark along with a spot in the NCAA’s First Four.RALEIGH, N.C. -- Danny Manning never built a winner at Wake Forest. Wake Forest went 13–18 and 6–14 in conference play last season.
Wake Forest has parted ways with basketball coach Danny Manning after six seasons, the school announced Saturday. Last season, they went 13-18 overall and 6-14 in the ACC, finishing in a tie for last in the conference.The Demon Deacons appeared to be trending upward in 2017, when sophomore John Collins led the Demon Deacons to a 19-win season and a .500 league mark along with a spot in the NCAA's First Four.But Collins left to become a first-round NBA draft pick, while junior Dino Mitoglou left to play professionally in Europe. Games against in-state ACC foes Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State often drew significant numbers of fans wearing the blues or red of the visitors. Manning received an extension after his lone NCAA tournament trip in 2017, although the private school typically doesn't make terms public.Manning had said after the Pitt loss on March 10 he "absolutely'' expected to return, as well as in subsequent interviews in recent weeks.The Demon Deacons never finished above .500 in the ACC under Manning, who had a 14-42 conference record over the past three seasons. A former assistant coach for Wake Forest University’s men’s basketball team has been sentenced to probation and community service in New York over an … The pandemic played a role in the timing of Manning's dismissal, Currie said in a video teleconference Saturday.Currie said he and Manning notified the team earlier Saturday in a video teleconference. FILE - In this Tuesday, March 3, 2020 file photo, Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning leaves the court after the team lost to North Carolina in an NCAA college basketball game in … All market data delayed 20 minutes.“Ultimately this is a basketball decision,” Currie said, adding later: “In this particular decision, if you look at the overall program and where we are right now, the economics support the decision.”Fox News Flash top headlines are here. The move came more than six weeks after the Demon Deacons lost to Pittsburgh in the opening game of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, ending the season shortly before the coronavirus pandemic led to a shutdown of college and professional sports.He played 15 seasons in the NBA before getting into coaching, first on Bill Self’s staff at Kansas and then spending two seasons as head coach at Tulsa before taking over at Wake Forest in 2014.Amid that turnover, Manning’s program never was able to build on the 2017 run, going 11-20 in each of the following two seasons.Along the way, once-rowdy gameday environments at Joel Coliseum during the Chris Paul and Skip Prosser era more than a decade earlier grew quiet with large swaths of empty seats. “We never stopped working on this particular program because it is so important to all of us, just like we haven't stopped with the day-to-day duties. While a majority of the college basketball world adheres to … Manning, a former No. "The Demon Deacons made one postseason appearance under Manning, losing in the First Four in 2017.Overall, Manning went 78-111 in his six seasons in Winston-Salem and 30-80 in conference play, including 6-49 on the road in the ACC.Retiring athletic director Ron Wellman announced last March that Manning would return despite a third 20-loss season in five years, saying he expected Manning would see improvement as Currie took over.