Thursday's Notes - Coaching Search Edition

Although there's no official word yet, Gary Parrish of CBS Sports reports that Wake has offered the head coaching job to Danny Manning and that he's likely to accept.

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It's an interesting choice if not exactly a home run.

A home run might've been Tommy Amaker or Shaka Smart. Manning might not be bad, though.

He spent four years under Larry Brown at Kansas, and Brown, whatever else you can say about him, is a superb teacher. He also worked for Bill Self, also at Kansas, and he's done a nice job at Tulsa in his two years there.

His first year was barely over .500 - 17-16 - but in his second season, Tulsa finished 21-13 and tied for first in the C-USA.

The happiest guys at Wake, should this pan out, should be Devin Thomas, Tyler Cavanaugh, Andre Washington and Aaron Rountree, because Manning is an excellent big man teacher. Just look at who he's tutored for Kansas: Wayne Simien, Julian Wright, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, Sasha Kaun, Cole Aldrich, Marcus and Markieff Morris, Thomas Robinson and Jeff Withey, all of whom were drafted.

That's the good stuff, and for our part, we suspect that Manning's superb grasp of the game as a player will translate into a superb grasp as a coach as well.

There is a downside, according to Dan Collins of the Winston-Salem Journal who writes: "I remain unconvinced that he has either the charisma or the track record  needed to mend the gaping fissures that have split the program and its fan base asunder over these past four rancorous seasons...he is a good, solid, decent hardworking person, but one with a somewhat introverted, cautious nature. Folks I've talked with in Tulsa said he's worked on being more forthcoming and engaging, but a song and dance man he will never be."

Probably a reasonable assessment, but when did Wake ever have anyone like that? Carl Tacy was quiet to the point of disturbing some recruits. Bob Staack was never a huggable guy. Dave Odom never had a problem talking, but a bon vivant? Not really. Skip Prosser could be entertaining but he was more professorial than anything. Dino Gaudio is reasonably outgoing but not exactly magnetic. And Jeff Bzdelik really infuriated some Wake fans by being essentially an introvert in a very public job.

And of course you could have a player engage the fans, not that Wake has a guy like that. Think of what Charles Barkley did for Sonny Smith: Smith hated some aspects of his job, and while he was engaging and funny, he was also somewhat remote, and preferred to be remote about academics. He didn't want to know about issues, frankly, and expected others to take care of them if they came up.

Nobody cared when Barkley was at Auburn. Jud Heathcote was really good at Michigan State, but Magic Johnson just sucked all the air out of a room.

No word yet on BC, but the search appears to be narrowing if flailing. The Boston Globe mentions FGCU's Joe Dooley, Niagara's Joe Schmidt, and Mt. St. Mary's Jamion Christian says he'd listen. Or the Globe says he would.

And NCCU's LeVelle Moton is listening, as you might expect after a great season like he just had.