How can Wake Forest afford to fire Danny Manning?

If there was ever a reason NOT to make a coaching change, Wake Forest had it before letting another loser go. Granted, the former Kansas All-American led the Deacons to one NCAA tournament in six years, but c’mon, he had a $15 million buyout.

Like most major universities getting ready to reopen their campuses, tiny Wake Forest will have as much financial hardship as any school. Deacons’ coaches, including football chief Dave Clawson, have already agreed to take pay cuts to help Wake build back.

But, somehow, athletic director John Currie got approval to fire Manning, pay him the 15-mill severance package and watch two recruits de-commit right after he canned Manning. How does it happen if a major depression is coming? Was it not worth the wait?

Yes, East Tennessee State’s Steve Forbes did well at the mid-major, but it wasn’t like Wake was hiring away a Hall of Famer from another school. While Forbes won 72 percent of his games in four years at ETSU, he is already behind in recruiting which means he faces a steeper climb than Manning would have in his seventh season.

Unless there is something else about Manning that has not been reported, the move makes absolutely no sense and is bad optics with the nation getting ready to dig out of unprecedented deficit. Do you actually think fans are going to fill Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem to see Forbes when safety is still the primary concern?

The Deacons haven’t been good in basketball since Skip Prosser died suddenly in 2007. And Wake has made one bad coaching move after another, beginning with canning elevated assistant Dino Gaudio after he made two straight NCAA tournaments.

Next came Jeff Bzdelik from Colorado, and alumni and fans were clamoring for his ouster after only two years. Manning seemed like a good hire when he had a winning record at Tulsa, and then his best recruit, John Collins, turned pro after Wake’s only winning season in the Manning era.

He might have deserved to go, but not in this climate.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Bailing Out
Roy Williams probably had reasons for the soft statements. Carolina fans reacted strongly to the video of a team party after the win over Duke. Only Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe were in the video, but a statement from players and managers said it was supposed to be a closed event that other students and […]
Chansky's Notebook: Please, Go In!
UNC men's basketball faces what is an early season must-win at Georgia Tech. Art Chansky says a look at the statistics is painful, but not terminal.
Chansky's Notebook: Leaky Steps Up
Dean Smith used to say he’ll be happy with a one-point win. The legendary UNC basketball coach struggled spiritually between playing well according to his teachings, regardless of outcome, and winning no matter how poorly you play. Since his job was to win and he was so competitive, he chose the latter. If he was […]
Chansky's Notebook: Rock(et) Star
Ben Kiernan was UNC’s MVP of the Notre Dame game. When Mack Brown went over the 31-17 loss, he gave mixed reviews to the two main branches of his Tar Heels’ play. He said the offense was good in the first half and then “went dead” in a scoreless second half. He praised the Tar […]
Chansky's Notebook: Goals and Ambitions
Garrison Brooks has both opportunity and pressure. On paper, the ACC looks as weak as it has been in some time due to widespread losses to graduation and early departures to the NBA, and no sure-shot superstars in the incoming recruiting classes. A beneficiary of this development is Brooks, the Carolina senior who was second-team All-ACC last year and earned the league’s […]
Chansky's Notebook: A COVID Debate
Clemson was livid that Florida State wouldn’t play the game. Let’s be lawyers, and make a case for each of the teams that did not play its scheduled game over the weekend. Clemson had traveled to Florida State when it learned a player with mild symptoms who had practiced with the team all week tested […]
Chansky's Notebook: Draft Dodgers
Carolina and Duke players have lost ground in the NBA draft. Like everything else with sports in the COVID era, the NBA draft goes off tonight after being postponed for five months. And if you look at the various mock draft boards, certain things jump off your screen. First of all, about half the names […]
Chansky's Notebook: A Two-Thirds Bet?
What if Phil Mickelson and Mack Brown amended their bet? With the Masters being moved back to this weekend due to COVID, perhaps the three-time champion should revisit the fun bet he made with Carolina’s football coach back in 2003. The famed lefthander was still seeking his first Green Jacket when he partnered with the Texas football coach at the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Kudos To Carolina
UNC teams did a commendable job beating the odds. Who among us thought the ACC would be playing football and other fall sports last summer? With the pandemic upon us and the medical experts still learning, the seasons looked like a long shot. While other conferences pumped the breaks and/or called off football, the ACC […]
Chansky's Notebook: Extra Motivation
Carolina’s schedule could be working to its advantage. When the COVID-revised list of games came out, it looked troublesome for the Tar Heels with Virginia Tech and Florida State basically bookending Notre Dame and Miami with four rivalry games in a row right in the middle. Coaches usually don’t like that because it takes a […]
›