Former NBA All-Star joins Colorado men’s basketball’s coaching staff

A former NBA All-Star is joining Tad Boyle’s staff

Colorado men’s basketball head coach Tad Boyle announced Tuesday that two-time NBA All-Star Danny Manning has joined the Buffs’ staff as an assistant coach.

Manning, who played alongside Boyle with the Kansas Jayhawks in 1984-85, was selected by the Los Angeles Clippers as the No. 1 overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft. During his 15-year NBA career, he played for seven teams and was the Sixth Man of the Year in 1998.

Manning comes to Boulder with eight-plus years of Division I head coaching experience. He led Tulsa for two seasons (2012-14), Wake Forest for six (2014-20) and was briefly an interim head coach at Maryland during the 2021-22 season. From 2022-24, Manning was an associate head coach at Louisville.

“I’m very excited to join coach Boyle’s staff,” Manning said in a press release. “This staff has been together for quite some time and has had quite a bit of success, so I want to come in and be a sponge; learn from them, the things they’ve been doing to be successful and just try and add little nuggets that I can along the way in terms of my experience as a player and a coach.”

Boyle believes Manning will provide valuable mentorship for CU players looking to reach the NBA.

“He’s going to help us on a lot of different levels,” Boyle said. “Danny brings the ability to connect with young people, being able to mentor them and let them know what they need to do to get better but also what they need to do to achieve their ultimate goal, which is to be a professional basketball player, which a lot of our players aspire to be. His ability to recruit and connect with families is there as well.”

Manning fills the void on Colorado’s staff left by the departure of Rick Ray, who recently joined Vanderbilt as an assistant coach.

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