NCAA basketball odds: Who will replace Danny Manning as Wake Forest coach?

Despite Danny Manning having a fully guaranteed contract through 2025 and a buyout reportedly worth around $15 million, Wake Forest athletic director John Currie – who was hired last spring and thus Manning wasn't his guy – fired Manning as the Demon Deacons' men's basketball coach over the weekend. Interesting decision considering universities across the country are hemorrhaging money right now due to the coronavirus pandemic and with no NCAA Tournament payout.  

Manning was a legendary player at Kansas but was 78-111 at Wake Forest after being hired from Tulsa and led the Deacons to the NCAA Tournament only in the 2016-17 season. Wake never won 20 games under Manning and was 13-18 this past season and tied for last in the ACC at 6-14.

This is not an easy job because it's such a small school with limited resources and has to deal with the in-state shadow of Duke, North Carolina and even NC State. Here are the candidates to replace Manning and the odds of each to get the gig via SportsLine oddsmakers.

UNC Greensboro's Wes Miller (+300): Miller has a record of 164-126 during his nine seasons with the Spartans, and in the past three seasons UNC Greensboro dominated the Southern Conference with a record of 57-15. Miller's family has strong ties to the school as the Demon Deacons' practice court has been named after his father since 2001. Miller is so highly thought of that there's talk he could eventually replace Roy Williams at North Carolina – Miller played there.

Winthrop's Pat Kelsey (+450): He has gone 163-93 at Winthrop, and the Eagles would have been in the 2019-20 NCAA Tournament had there been one after winning the Big South Tournament. Kelsey also was the director of basketball operations from 2001-04 at Wake Forest, coming with Skip Prosser, and then a Deacons assistant from 2004-09.

East Tennessee State's Steve Forbes (+500): Forbes was once a very successful junior college coach who has gone 130-43 at East Tennessee State, with the Buccaneers winning the Southern Conference's regular-season and tournament titles this past season. However, when Forbes was an assistant at Tennessee from 2006-11 under Bruce Pearl, Forbes was given a one-year show cause penalty for recruiting violations.

UMBC's Ryan Odom (+800): Odom is the son of former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom and of course led the first No. 16 over No. 1 upset in NCAA Tournament history as UMBC knocked off Virginia in 2018. Odom does have power conference experience as an assistant at Virginia Tech.

Charleston's Earl Grant (+1000): Grant led the Cougars to a regular-season title in the CAA and NCAA tournament appearance in 2018, but Charleston struggled a bit this past season, finishing 17-14 overall.

UC Irvine's Russell Turner (+1200): Turner is 209-139 at UC Irvine. His 2018-19 team upset No. 4 seed Kansas State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Turner has Wake ties as he was Dave Odom's assistant from 1994-2000.

Ex-Ohio State coach Thad Matta (+1500): Matta won at Ohio State, Xavier and Butler and left OSU after a 17-15 season in 2016-17 both for health reasons and, frankly, the school wanted a change.

Former Michigan coach John Beilein (+2000): Beilein would be a grand slam hire, but sources have told Evan Daniels of 247Sports that he's not a candidate for this job. In all honesty, Beilein could aim higher if he wants to return to college basketball.