In April 2020, after a basketball career spanning over 35 years, Danny Manning was fired from his head coaching position at Wake Forest. The program had just two winning seasons in ten years, six of which Manning was there for, so the Demon Deacons parted ways with the former NBA All-Star.
As all that unraveled, Manning’s former teammate, Maryland men’s basketball head coach Mark Turgeon called his longtime friend.
“I was like, ‘Why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that,’” Turgeon said about advice he offered to Manning on that phone call.
“And he said, ‘Turge, I want to coach still.