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College basketball coaching changes tracker: Wake Forest, Danny Manning part ways

College basketball’s quiet 2020 coaching carousel received a substantial jolt Saturday when Wake Forest fired Danny Manning and launched the first major-conference coaching search of this year’s cycle.

Early indications are that the Demon Deacons have quality options to consider from the mid-major ranks as athletic director John Currie navigates the search without competition from other power schools that have opted to retain their coaches amid the financial uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis.

Search firm Ventura Partners is assisting Currie with narrowing down candidates for Manning’s successor. An initial list of candidates under consideration are East Tennessee State’s Steve Forbes and UMBC’s Ryan Odom, with UNC Greensboro coach Wes Miller and Winthrop’s Pat Kelsey also likely to be looked at, sources told CBS Sports. Wake Forest, for the time being, has promoted program legend Randolph Childress to interim coach. Evan Daniels of 247Sports reports Charleston’s Earl Grant is also someone who could get a look. 

Currie worked with Forbes previously at Tennessee when he helped lead a substantial basketball arena renovation project as executive associate athletic director while Forbes was an assistant for the Volunteers under Bruce Pearl. Forbes is 130-43 with two automatic NCAA Tournament bids in five seasons at ETSU.

Odom is best known for leading No. 16 seed UMBC to an NCAA Tournament victory over No. 1 seed Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. He’s compiled an 82-52 record in four seasons leading the program and is also the son of Dave Odom, who coached Wake Forest from 1989-2001 and led the school to eight NCAA Tournament appearances.

Kelsey also has ties to Wake Forest as he was on the basketball staff from 2001-09. He’s compiled a 163-93 record in eight years as the Winthrop coach, with two automatic NCAA Tournament bids included in that run.

Miller does not have a direct tie to Currie or Wake Forest but is regarded as one of the top young coaches in the country. The 37-year-old former North Carolina player has led UNC Greensboro to four consecutive 20-win seasons, including a spot in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. Miller won 26 games on average the past four seasons. 

Here is the breakdown of the 2020 college basketball coaching carousel.

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