Danny Manning Heading Back To NCAA Tournament With New Team

Danny Manning’s impressive and improbable run through the NCAA tournament as a player decades ago might be overshadowed by what he’s done as a head coach.

The Tulsa Golden Hurricane hired Manning in March of 2012 and just two years later Danny has the team in the “Big Dance” for the first time since 2003.

Manning’s Tulsa squad has made a rather Cinderella-like run all season, going 13-3 in Conference USA and sharing a piece of the regular season conference title. Manning’s squad won the tournament title outright when they upended the Louisana Tech Bulldogs, 69-60 in the final game.

All of this comes after Danny arrived at Tulsa and saw them struggled a year ago, finishing with a record of 17-15. This year, Manning’s squad won 21 games, the first time the school has topped that mark in five years.

It was 1988 when Danny Manning became a nationally recognized name, leading the Kansas Jayhawks to an NCAA National Championship as a player, under then head coach Larry Brown. Manning’s team was the beginning of a juggernaut dynasty at Kansas that continues to this day.

Danny probably hopes he can bring Tulsa back to a perennial Tournament team, considering the program has become a shadow of its former self. Tulsa, long before Manning arrived, considered itself one of the better mid-major teams. From 1995-2003 it went to eight NCAA Tournaments and had two Sweet 16 runs.

The program brought Manning in because it had gone more than a decade without a tourney appearance and needed to jump-start flagging interest. It appears Danny did exactly what he was supposed to do.

CBS Sports.com points out that Manning made this team a post season contender without the help of his two best players from last year who both transferred. The road to redemption isn’t over and Manning’s Tulsa won’t have it easy once the Dance begins.

KUSports.com points out that the Golden Hurricane beat what was a projected 12 seed in LaTech. It seems likely Danny’s squad will take over that spot now that the Bulldogs have likely been eliminated from the Big Dance.

On the other hand, Manning seems to be building something that could be impressive for years to come. Danny’s team has just four players who are upperclassmen and its five best players are sophomores.

Those numbers seem to indicate that this journey to the tourney could be one of many for new coach Danny Manning.