There are a lot of good coaches in college basketball…but there is only 1 who scored 2500+ PTS as a player and won NCAA titles as both a player and assistant. Danny Manning’s resume on the court is as stacked as this year’s ACC: undefeated state champ as a junior in high school, 3-time Big 8 POY and 1988 national POY/tourney MOP at Kansas, #1 overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft, 2-time All-Star during his 15-year pro career, and a 2008 inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. His coaching career is looking pretty sweet as well: 2008 NCAA title as assistant to Bill Self at his alma mater, 2014 C-USA COY at Tulsa, and now he is running the show for the Demon Deacons. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Bob Davis, 13-time winner of the Kansas Sportscaster of the Year Award who was the play-by-play radio voice of the Jayhawks during Manning’s career in Lawrence, about the magical 1988 NCAA tourney and why Coach Manning got back into the college game on the sideline after the end of his pro playing days.
Danny was a 1984 McDonald’s All-American after playing in Lawrence, KS: did he always know that he was going to stay in the area for college, and how high were the expectations when he arrived on campus? He only played his senior year of high school in Lawrence after his family moved here from North Carolina so his father Ed could become an assistant under head coach Larry Brown. My 1st year here was his freshman year, but people were obviously hopeful he would come to school here. His high school team finished 2nd in the state after losing the 6A title game to Wyandotte High and he was named the 1984 state high school POY.
What are your memories of the 1985 NCAA tourney (Manning scored 7 PTS but missed a 16-footer at the buzzer in a 2-PT loss to Auburn)? I thought that Auburn was really good even though Charles Barkley was gone by then. That Kansas team was very young and was developing as a team but you could still see the possibilities down the road.
What are your memories of the 1986 NCAA tourney (he scored 4 PTS (2-9 FG) before fouling out in a 4-PT loss to eventual national runner-up Duke)? He got in foul trouble, as did a few of his teammates, but they were still in the ball game. Duke had Jay Bilas/Johnny Dawkins, and even though I am biased I still thought we were the better team that night. I would have liked to see a rematch against eventual champion Louisville because we had already beaten them twice that season.
What are your memories of the 1987 NCAA tourney (he scored 42 PTS in 40 minutes while taking 26 of his team’s 45 shots and 12 of the team’s 14 FT in 4-PT win over Missouri State)? The team needed him to have that big game, as Missouri State had a pair of really good guards. It was a low-scoring game and he just happened to have 1 of his career games. He had to be much more of a force during his junior year because the team had lost a lot of talent from the previous year.
Take me through the magical 1988 NCAA tourney:
The team was nicknamed “Danny and the Miracles”: who came up with the nickname, and how did Danny and/or the team like it? I do not know who came up with that: it could have been 1 of many people. Danny did not like taking all the credit but his teammates thought that it was kind of fun. Larry demanded that the offense run through Danny but that group was better than people gave them credit for.
He had 31 PTS/18 REB/5 STL in a 4-PT win over Oklahoma to win the title in Kansas City and be named tourney MOP: what did it mean to him to win the title, and how much of a home-court advantage did they have? I do not think it hurt to play only 50 miles from the campus in Kemper Arena: they played a lot of games there. The Sooners beat them twice during the regular season and had a magnificent year themselves, but it just came down to who was better in the final game.
He was a 3-time Big 8 POY, 1988 national POY, 2-time All-American, and later named Big 8 Player of the Decade: what did it mean to him to win such outstanding honors? Obviously anyone enjoys receiving honors like that, but he has always been a pretty humble guy. Even today he deflects praise and is more of a team guy.
He remains the all-time leading scorer in Big 12 history and the Jayhawks’ all-time leading rebounder: did people realize at the time how prolific a player he was, and do you think that anyone will break his records? Kansas had great players like Wilt Chamberlain/Clyde Lovellette but not many guys with Danny’s stats these days end up staying all 4 years. He deferred a bit to his older teammates during his 1st 2 seasons, but he was unbelievably good and took over during his final 2 seasons. He was also a great defender. After getting hurt in the NBA he had time to study a lot of techniques, which is how he became such a great teacher (like with the Morris twins).
He is 1 of 3 players ever with 2900+ PTS/1100+ REB (Lionel Simmons/Oscar Robertson), and 1 of 2 players over 6’9” to ever score 2500+ PTS (along with his 1988 Olympic teammate David Robinson): do you consider him to be 1 of the best players in NCAA history, and how big a factor was his height in his success? I consider him to be 1 of the best. His height was nice but he was so versatile that he could have played well even if he was a 6’5” guard.
He won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics after getting into foul trouble and failing to score in a 6-PT loss to the Soviet Union in the semifinals (which he later called “1 of the biggest disappointments of my life”): how devastating was that loss? I am sure that all those guys took that loss hard.
In the summer of 1988 he was drafted 1st overall by the Clippers: did he see that as a validation of his college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? It was the next chapter for him: his dad had also been in the NBA.
He scored 14 PPG during his career, was a 2-time NBA All-Star (1993/1994), and in 1998 he was named NBA 6th Man of the Year: how satisfied is he with his professional career? I would have loved to see him if he was 100% healthy during his whole career. He is not the kind of guy who tells stories for hours and hours so I am not sure exactly how he feels about it.
He played only 26 games as a rookie after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery due to a torn ACL, but later became the 1st NBA player to ever return from reconstructive surgeries on both knees: how much of an impact did his knees have on his legacy, and how good do you think he would have been if he had an injury-free pro career? I think that he would have been 1 of the premier players in the NBA if he had been healthy. He still has a great legacy despite the injuries: to come back from 3 ACL injuries is just mind-boggling.
Despite making over $50 million in salary before he retired, he returned to campus to work for the basketball team and in 2008 he won a title as an assistant coach when tourney MOP Mario Chalmers scored 18 PTS and made a 3-PT shot with 2 seconds left in regulation en route to 7-PT OT win over Memphis: why did he go into coaching, and how did winning a title as a coach compare to winning a title as a player? I know that he had a great influence on the team going into the Final 4 in terms of what effect it would have on the rest of their lives. He enjoyed the 2008 title but was happier to watch the players get to celebrate. I think he and his family just wanted to come back and live in Lawrence after the end of his NBA career, which says a lot.
In 2008 he was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame: where did that rank among the highlights of his career? I went to the induction and I think he really appreciated that, as it was obviously well-deserved. He gave a nice speech: he is a very articulate guy even though he is not an extrovert.
His father Ed Manning was a former NBA player/assistant coach and an assistant coach during Danny’s college playing career: what impact did Ed have on Danny’s career, and how close were they? We saw Ed on the road a while back and they would always have a nice private visit. Ed had a lot of influence on Danny as a basketball player. When Ed was on Larry’s staff we all liked him: he was a quiet guy who had a little fire in him.