Danny Manning officially joins Maryland coaching staff
Mark Turgeon has officially added former Kansas teammate Danny Manning to his Maryland staff as an assistant coach, the school announced Monday morning.
A member of the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame, Manning is a two-time first team All-American, an NCAA champion as a player and as an assistant coach, the No. 1 overall selection in the 1988 NBA Draft and a former head coach at Tulsa and Wake Forest.
"I'm thrilled to add Danny to our coaching staff," Turgeon said in a statement. "I've known Danny for a long time going back to our days as teammates at Kansas and I cannot say enough about him as a coach and as a human being. He has seen it all in the game of basketball and will bring unparalleled experience to our program. Danny has history recruiting in the DMV region and has many ties locally, as well as nationally. I am excited for him to get to College Park and meet the tremendous guys in our locker room."
Manning, who spent last season working as an analyst at ESPN, had head coaching stints at Wake Forest (2014-2020) and Tulsa (2012-2014) before that. Manning won the Conference USA regular-season and conference tournament titles in 2014, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. He also led the 2016-2017 Wake Forest team to an NCAA Tournament appearance. He also served as an assistant coach at Kansas (2006-12) under Bill Self, where he helped the Jayhawks capture the 2008 NCAA Championship.
"I want to thank Coach Turgeon and Damon Evans for the tremendous opportunity to join the University of Maryland men's basketball program," Manning said. "I'm looking forward to reuniting with Coach. We have known each other for quite some time and been through a lot of battles together over the years. I am excited to help Coach build on the success he has had at Maryland. This is a great opportunity to learn from Coach and his staff and be a part of a wonderful conference in the Big Ten."
Manning had a legendary playing career at Kansas University, where his No. 25 jersey is retired. A two-time first team All-American, Manning led Kansas to the 1988 NCAA Championship and collected nearly every individual accolade along the way, including the Wooden Award, Naismith Player of the Year and the NCAA's Final Four Most Outstanding Player. He played three seasons as a teammate of Turgeon from 1984-87.
Manning was selected with the first overall pick in the 1988 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers and went on to play 15 seasons in the league. He was a two-time NBA All-Star, won the Sixth Man of the Year Award in 1998 and scored more than 12,000 career points.
The 6-foot-10 former star forward also brings with him a reputation as one of the premier big man coaches in the game today. Among those he has worked with are former NBA Draft first-round picks John Collins, Thomas Robinson, Marcus and Markieff Morris, Cole Aldrich, Darrell Arthur and Wayne Simien.