For a lot of fans, Danny Manning was the failed coach at Wake Forest, a guy who seemed so introverted that you wondered how he could lead a team, much less win.
Yet he was a superb assistant coach and by all accounts is a tremendous big man coach.
But Manning was unquestionably a brilliant basketball player.
Manning grew up in Greensboro and was on track to attend UNC when Kansas coach - and former Tar Heel - Larry Brown had the rather inspired idea of hiring his father, Ed, who was at that moment a truck driver, as an assistant coach.