Wake Forest basketball 2014-15 season preview

Overview: Twenty-six years ago, Kansas won the national championship with “Danny Manning and the Miracles.” After a 15-year NBA playing career, Manning is back in the college game. The former No. 1 overall draft pick spent two years as Tulsa’s head coach, guiding the Golden Hurricanes to a Conference-USA title and an NCAA tournament berth last season. Now that he’s arrived in Winston Salem, Demon Deacon fans hope the former NCAA champion will have what it takes to bring their program back to the postseason for the first time since 2010.

Although former Wake Forest head coach Jeff Bzdelik posted losing records in his first three seasons, he guided the Demon Deacons to their best season since 2009-10 last year, just barely eclipsing the .500 mark. With forward Devin Thomas and guard Codi Miller-McIntyre—last year’s two scoring leaders— returning, Manning has the tools to build on Bzdelik’s work, but it will take much more to pull the Demon Deacons out of the ACC basement.

After Bzdelik’s resignation, stretch forward Tyler Cavanaugh and forward Arnaud William Adala Moto to transfer, leaving Thomas and Miller-McIntyre with an inexperienced supporting cast. The next-highest scoring average among returners is just 3.3 points per game from junior guard Madison Jones. Forward Darius Leonard, a transfer from Campbell, should provide Thomas with some help down low—but not enough to compete with the ACC’s best. With a talented crop of juniors, Manning has the opportunity to build in the two years the way he did at Tulsa, but expect growing pains in his first year in Winston Salem.

One thing that needs to go right: Leonard makes an immediate impact as a transfer, giving Miller-McIntyre and Thomas enough support to keep up with opponents.