It’s official: University of Tulsa basketball coach Danny Manning is taking the head coaching job at Wake Forest.
TU athletic director Derrick Gragg says the university made the best offer it could on Tuesday, and he gave Manning time to make a decision rather than calling him every day since then.
"I just needed to have a definitive answer, because I just needed to know: Was I going to the Final Four as an athletic director just representing the university and doing the things that we usually do? Or was I going to be recruiting another coach?" Gragg said. "And obviously, I'm going to be recruiting another coach."
Manning went a combined 38-29 in two seasons with Tulsa, reaching the postseason both times. He led the team to a 17-16 record his first year and improved to 21-13 this year with an NCAA tournament appearance.
Sophomore forward Rashad Smith says it’s tough to see Manning go, but the team knows what it needs to do.
"All the decisions can be made, but at the end of the day, you've got to go out and you've got to perform, so we'll let that handle itself when the time comes," Smith said. "As for now all we can do is kind of just keep working hard and just wait."
Manning’s offers were reportedly $2 million from Wake Forest and $1.2 million from TU. TU does not have a definitive timeline for its coaching search.
