Wake Forest fires basketball coach Danny Manning

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Wake Forest fired basketball coach Danny Manning after six seasons in which the Demon Deacons had a winning record only once.

The school announced the decision Saturday. That came more than six weeks after the Demon Deacons lost to Pittsburgh in the opening game of the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, capping a third straight losing season.

Manning went 78-111 in Winston-Salem with a 30-80 mark in ACC regular-season games. Those league struggles included a 6-49 mark in league road games and 1-6 in the ACC Tournament while making the NCAA Tournament just once.

In a statement from the school, athletic director John Currie said associate head coach and program great Randolph Childress will be the acting coach for now.

Manning had said after the Pitt loss on March 10 that he “absolutely” expected to return next season, as well as in subsequent interviews amid the coronavirus pandemic that had led to a shutdown of college and professional sports.

“I wish the program nothing but success going forward,” Manning said in a statement from the school.

Manning was the No. 1 overall NBA draft pick in 1988 after leading Kansas almost single-handedly to a national championship so unexpected that the group was nicknamed “Danny and the Miracles.”

He played 15 seasons in the NBA before getting into coaching, first on Bill Self’s staff at Kansas and then spending two seasons as head coach at Tulsa before taking over at Wake Forest in 2014.