Colorado coach Tad Boyle will add basketball great Danny Manning to his coaching staff in a reunion of former Kansas teammates.
Boyle and Manning spent one season together with the Jayhawks in 1984-85. Manning would later lead Kansas to the 1988 NCAA championship, an improbable run that earned the team the nickname “Danny and the Miracles.”
Manning's addition comes as the Buffaloes prepare to rejoin the Big 12. Manning and Boyle will now regularly face their alma mater.
Manning, 57, begins his stay in Boulder on June 1. He will work with a team that is coming off a 26-win season and an NCAA Tournament appearance. The Buffaloes saw several players enter the NBA draft, including freshman Cody Williams, who could be a lottery pick.
Manning spent the last two seasons as associate head coach at Louisville. He also served as head coach at Tulsa and Wake Forest. Additionally, he was Maryland's interim head coach in 2021-22.
“I am very excited to join Coach Boyle's staff,” Manning said in a statement Tuesday. “This staff has been together for quite a while and has been quite successful, so I want to come in and be a sponge.”
While at Kansas, Manning became the program's leader in points (2,951) and rebounds (1,187). He was inducted into the National College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.
As a senior in 1984-85, Boyle shared the court with Manning, who was a freshman at the time. They crossed paths again as assistant coaches for USA Basketball's U19 World Cup team in 2017.
“I'm excited to add him to the staff,” Boyle said. “Not only is he a great coach, but he is a great human being and he will do nothing but help Colorado basketball.”
Manning was the first pick of the Los Angeles Clippers in 1988. He spent 15 seasons in the NBA with seven different teams. He was sixth man of the year with Phoenix in 1998.
He broke into the coaching ranks under Kansas coach Bill Self, starting as director of student-athlete development/equipment manager in 2003 and rising to an assistant coaching position in 2007. He was on staff when the Jayhawks won the 2008 national title.
Manning was 38-29 in two seasons at Tulsa, where he was named Conference USA Coach of the Year in 2013-14. At Wake Forest, he went 78-111 in six seasons and then 10-14 as interim coach at Maryland after Mark Turgeon resigned.
“Danny brings the ability to connect with young people, be able to mentor them and let them know what they need to do to improve,” Boyle said. “But also what they need to do to achieve their ultimate goal, which is to be a professional basketball player.”
