Danny Manning and Tad Boyle are reunited in Boulder with Colorado Buffaloes
Few if any can match Danny Manning's incredible college basketball career. He won a national championship, was widely honored as college basketball's player of the year in 1988 and still remains Kansas' all-time leading scorer by a whopping 800 points. Now the former Jayhawk will be seated next to another Kansas alum in Boulder as Manning will be an assistant at the University of Colorado under head men's basketball coach Tad Boyle.
"What's not to love about Colorado?" Manning said. "You come out here and see the scenery and the weather and then you look at what Tad has done over his course of time here and it's impressive if not remarkable."
Boyle says Manning was skeptical when the idea first arose.
"I asked him point blank, 'Danny why do you still want to coach at this stage of your life?'" Boyle recalled. "He said 'I just want to help influence young men and pass on the knowledge that I have.' What a great answer."
For the record, Danny's 2,951 points in college was 2,687 more points than his new boss tallied. Manning and Boyle spent one year together in Lawrence and while their time together was brief, it was also memorable.
"He was the greatest player I ever played with," exclaimed Boyle. "But it wasn't his greatness as a player that impressed me. It was his ability to be a great teammate, and he was a great player."
"What do you remember about Tad as a player?" CBS Colorado's Eric Christensen asked Manning.
"We referred to him as Cap. He was the captain, he was our leader," said Manning.
While Boyle and Manning have fond memories of one another during their time in Kansas, Manning's memories of playing in Boulder aren't that great. Manning recalls having something happen to him here that never happened at any other point during his college career.
"This is the only place that I got kicked out of a game at during college," said Manning.
"What happened?" Christensen asked.
"Lot of energy, lot of emotion during the course of a ballgame," remembered Manning.
That was an old Big 8 battle, and it's kind of fitting that Manning joins Colorado as the Buffs return to the Big 12.
"For me, it's a walk down memory lane," Manning said. "After I accepted the position, I left a message for Chauncey (Billups), I left a message for Shawn Vandiver and told them 'Hey, guess what? I'm going back to your old stomping grounds. So for me I'm excited.'"
Coaching is nothing new for Manning. He's spent the last 18 years coaching college basketball, nine of those as a head coach. But he's never been back to where it all began: Lawrence, Kansas ... Allen Fieldhouse and sat on the visiting bench and faced his former team.
"I'm looking forward to it from the standpoint of that gym is a special place," Manning said. "Definitely looking forward to going back there. It's just now my allegience has changed to the black and gold when I walk in that building."
Buff fans are hoping that Manning has the same kind of success in Boulder that he had at Colorado's bitter Big 8 rival.
