Wake Forest Basketball: Duke win may have saved Danny Manning’s job

As Wake Forest Basketball struggle for the umpteenth season in a row, head coach Danny Manning gets a job-preserving win over Duke.

There hasn’t been much to talk about in regards to Wake Forest Basketball this season, has the 2019-20 campaign has once again been spent languishing near the bottom of the ACC standings. Once again, head coach Danny Manning’s job appears to be on the chopping block. He entered Tuesday night’s home game against the Duke Blue Devils in dire straits.

And then something miraculous happened: Wake Forest won.

The Demon Deacons were in control for most of the first half, but a buzzer-beating three-pointer the game into the half as a tie. That tie persisted through the end of regulation. It continued through the end of the first overtime before foul trouble caught up to Duke and sent Wake Forest home a 113-101 winner. Naturally, fans stormed the court for the team’s biggest home win since a March 2014 upset of No. 4 Duke.

Obviously, it’ll be a memory most fans at the game won’t soon forget. But for Manning, it was representative of something more important – job security.

This is now the sixth season of the grand ACC experiment for Manning and the Demon Deacons. The team has yet to finish above 10th in the ACC standings during that time, with just one postseason trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2017 to show for it all. Things have been much the same this season, with Wake Forest standing at 11-15 and 4-12 in ACC play entering Tuesday’s contest.

Wake Forest did manage to beat Xavier earlier this season, but outside of that win, arguably the best win of their season was on the road against Pittsburgh, a non-tournament team. Once again, the Demon Deacons have been presenting as one of the worst major programs in the sport.

The win over Duke – the biggest in Manning’s time in Winston-Salem – temporarily changes the conversation around the program. Suddenly, the Demon Deacons are capable of taking down legitimate Final Four contenders. Out of nowhere, the team has five conference wins, their most since the 2017 tourney trip.

Of course, none of this exists in a vacuum. Manning is signed to a contract through the 2024-25 season, which means firing him would come with an exorbitant buyout. When Manning was retained last spring, the Winston-Salem Journal pinned the buyout around $18 million.

Still, it’s a lot easier to retain the coach after he defeats Duke. That’s probably true for most schools across the country.

Barring a near-impossible run through the ACC Tournament, the Demon Deacons will be missing the postseason for the fifth time in six seasons. Their final three games of the regular season are against Notre Dame, at North Carolina and at North Carolina State – fans always appreciate a win at Chapel Hill, but otherwise, there are no big opportunities on the schedule going forward.

If Manning does hang on, he’ll be the first coach to get a seventh year at Wake Forest since Dave Odom, who left the program after 12 seasons in 2001 to take over at South Carolina. Remarkable, considering Manning’s 77-108 record at Wake Forest.

The message? Beat Duke and everything will be okay – at least that’s what Danny Manning will be thinking when he wakes up on Wednesday morning.