It’s been a disappointing season for Danny Manning and his Demon Deacons. But despite finishing 11-20 and 4-14 in the ACC, Manning believes he’ll be on the sideline for Wake Forest next year.
“That’s my hope,” Manning said after Miami defeated his team 79-71 in the first round of the ACC Tournament. “That’s always the hope. You know, I feel I’ll be back. I look at the score card, the score sheet and everyone that scored is an underclassman. We had some guys that grew a significant amount this year in terms of their growth from start to finish and that’s how we want to build it. We build it with our young guys and we had a really good freshman class come in and got a lot of key contributions from a lot of guys throughout the season.”
According to reports, Manning’s contract is fully guaranteed and if the school does decide to let him go, it would cost them a cool $18 million. That’s plenty of reasons to give him at least one more year to turn things around.
Five players scored in double figures for the Demon Deacons – Brandon Childress and Jaylen Hoard led with 16 points each, while Chaundee Brown added 13, and Isaiah Mucius and Torry Johnson each scored 10.
It marked the first time that five Wake Forest players reached double-digits in scoring since the 80-56 win over visiting Charlotte on Dec. 6.