Tad Boyle is bringing a former teammate to Boulder.
And, much like a significant chunk of the football staff across campus, a prominent name with a pro 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 role at Vanderbilt following a season that ended for the Buffs in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m very excited to join coach Boyle’s staff,” Manning said in a release from CU. “This staff has been together for quite some time and has had quite a bit of success, so I want to come in and be a sponge; learn from them, the things they’ve been doing to be successful and just try and add little nuggets that I can along the way in terms of my experience as a player and a coach.
“I’d like to thank (athletic director) Rick George and the administration for giving me this opportunity. I’m looking forward to being part of the Buffalo culture and can’t wait to get to Boulder.”
A College Basketball Hall of Famer and the 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. Yet Manning ultimately 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’s Sixth Man of the Year honor for the 1997-98 season.
Manning returned to Kansas to begin his coaching career, serving in a number of staff roles under KU coach Bill Self before taking an assistant coach spot during the 2006-07 season. Manning was part of KU’s 2008 national title team and earned his first head coach job at Tulsa ahead of the 2012-13 season. Manning spent two seasons at Tulsa, leading the program to the 2014 NCAA Tournament before taking the head coach spot at Wake Forest.
Manning went 78-111 in six seasons at Wake Forest, reaching the NCAA Tournament in 2017. Manning also served as the interim head coach at Maryland for the final 24 games of the 2021-22 season after another KU-era friend of Boyle’s, Mark Turgeon, resigned early in the year. Manning joined Louisville as an assistant in the 2022-23 season.
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Boyle and Manning worked together in the summer of 2017, when both were assistants for the USA Basketball U19 team under John Calipari.
“He’s going to help us on a lot of different levels,” Boyle said in CU’s release. “Danny brings the ability to connect with young people, being able to mentor them and let them know what they heed to do to get better but also what they need to do to achieve their ultimate goal, which is to be a professional basketball player, which a lot of our players aspire to be. His ability to recruit and connect with families is there as well.”
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