May 7 – Tad Boyle is bringing a former teammate to Boulder.
And just like a significant portion of the campus football team, a prominent name with professional pedigree is joining the Colorado men’s basketball program.
On Tuesday, Boyle and the Buffaloes announced the addition of Danny Manning as an assistant coach. Manning replaces Rick Ray, who spent four seasons at CU before taking an assistant position at Vanderbilt following a season that ended for the Buffs in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
“I am very excited to join Coach Boyle’s staff,” Manning said in a CU statement. “This team has been together for a while and has been quite successful, so I want to come in and be a sponge; learn from them, the things that they have done to be successful and just try to add little nuggets that I can along the way in terms of my experience as a player and coach.
“I would like to thank (athletic director) Rick George and the administration for giving me this opportunity. I look forward to being a part of the Buffalo culture and can’t wait to get to Boulder.”
A member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame and No. 1 overall selection in the 1988 NBA Draft, Manning was a freshman at Kansas in the 1984-85 season when Boyle was a senior. After leading the Jayhawks to the national championship as a senior, Manning suffered a torn ACL as an NBA rookie with the Los Angeles Clippers. Still, Manning played 15 seasons in the league, averaging a career-high 22.8 points during the 1992-93 season.
In 883 career games, Manning scored 12,367 points before retiring after the 2002-03 season. Manning was a two-time all-star and won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award in the 1997-98 season.
Manning returned to Kansas to begin his coaching career, serving in several staff roles under KU head coach Bill Self before taking on an assistant coaching role during the 2006–07 season. Manning was part of KU’s 2008 national title team and earned his first head coaching job at Tulsa before the 2012-13 season. Manning spent two seasons at Tulsa, leading the program to the 2014 NCAA Tournament before taking the head coaching job at Wake Forest.
Manning went 78-111 in six seasons at Wake Forest, reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2017. Manning also served as interim head coach at Maryland for the final 24 games of the 2021-22 season, following another of Boyle’s friends from the KU era, Mark Turgeon. , resigned at the beginning of the year. Manning joined Louisville as an assistant for the 2022-23 season.
Boyle and Manning worked together in the summer of 2017 when they were both assistants on the USA Basketball U19 team under John Calipari.
“He will help us on several different levels,” Boyle said in the CU statement. “Danny brings the ability to connect with young people, being able to guide them and let them know what they should do to improve, but also what they need to do to achieve their ultimate goal, which is to be a professional basketball player. . that many of our players aspire to be. His ability to recruit and connect with families is also there.”
