More than six weeks after the last college basketball game of the season, the sport finally has its first coaching change in a major conference job as Wake Forest fired Danny Manning on Saturday, according to CBS Sports' Gary Parrish.
Manning compiled a 78-111 record with a 30-80 mark in ACC play during six seasons leading the Demon Deacons after a successful two-year run at Tulsa. Wake Forest qualified for the 2017 NCAA Tournament under Manning's direction but failed to finish above .500 in the three seasons since.
Wake will be entering the coaching market at a precarious time. Over the past 10 years, there were an average of 11.3 coaching changes per year in college basketball's major seven conferences with a low of seven coming in 2013 and a high of 14 both last year and in 2014.
But until Wake Forest entered the market, there had been no coaching changes this year in the seven major conferences as schools have opted to remain fiscally conservative amid the COVID-19 crisis. Manning's buyout is not publicly known as Wake is a private university, but it is believed to be significant.
The lack of other openings should give Wake Forest options as it looks for its next coach without competition from other power programs. Though the school must compete on the court with top programs such as Duke, North Carolina and Virginia in the ACC, it has a proud basketball history of its own. Wake Forest made 12 NCAA Tournament appearances between 1991 and 2005 under coaches Dave Odom and Skip Prosser.