Wake Forest Basketball: Who could potentially replace Danny Manning in the future?
How would Russell Turner fit at Wake Forest?
There are many reasons I see Turner as a good fit for Wake Forest if they decide to make a coaching change. The first was already mentioned, he was on Odom’s staff during the team’s glory years in the mid-to-late 1990s and can be proof to players that success in the ACC is possible. Another reason Turner would be a good fit for the Demon Deacons is that a calling card of Turner’s teams at UC-Irvine has been defense, which is something Wake Forest hasn’t exactly excelled in under Manning.
Taking this past season as an example, Wake Forest had a -1.5 scoring margin, ranking 301st in points per game allowed with 74.9. In contrast, UC-Irvine gave up nearly 10 fewer points per game with 65.2 and ranked 12th in the country in allowing their opponents to shoot just 38.8% from the field, whereas Wake Forest opponents shot over 43%.
When it comes to rebounding, the Demon Deacons weren’t a bad rebounding team, ranking in the top-50 in defensive rebounding (27.58) and 68th in total rebounds per game (37.74), but UC-Irvine was one of the best all-around rebounding teams in the country, ranking 17th, 58th and 22nd in defensive (28.16), offensive (11.5) and total rebounds (39.66) per game, while also ranking third in the country in rebounding margin, in fact, their work on the glass has been the strongest part of Turner’s teams throughout his 10-year stint.
Offensively, the Anteaters are also a solid team, efficiently shooting over 47% from the field while sharing the ball at a good clip, racking up nearly 15 assists per game. Both of those categories are areas where Wake Forest struggled as well, ranking 200 or worse in each.
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At this point I don’t know if Wake Forest will move on from Danny Manning, maybe that win over Duke will provide him one more season. But, if that is not the case, they could do a lot worse than making Russell Turner their first phone call to gauge his interest in coming back to Winston-Salem.