Wake Forest coach Danny Manning talks versatility, not roles

Danny Manning takes the position that positions are overrated.

“We want guys to be basketball players,” Manning said. “Positions don’t mean much to me in terms of putting guys out there on the court.”

So in his first season as the coach at Wake Forest, Manning will be less inclined than many other college coaches to assign specific roles to specific positions. Whereas the rank-and-file systems define players as a point guard, wing guard, wing forward, power forward or center – or in modern terminology, a one, two, three, four or five – Manning’s emphasis will be on versatility and balance.

“All three of our perimeter spots are interchangeable, and both of our big spots are interchangeable,” Manning said. “I think that gives us a chance to be a lot more versatile. I think it gives us a chance to be a lot faster – as opposed to saying ‘This is the point guard. This is the only guy who can bring the ball up the court.’

“I think when you’re out there with multiple players who are versatile, we play good first-shot defense, we box out, and we go get a rebound, and whatever perimeter player has the ball, he brings it up court.”

Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke has for many seasons maintained that a coach, by too finely defining a role, can limit a player’s development and potential.

That’s not to say Krzyzewski and Manning don’t recognize the need for a primary ball-handler at times in a half-court offense. But one of the fastest ways to slow a fast break is to require the player who secures a defensive rebound or turnover to immediately look for the point guard.

“We just want to have a system that perimeter-player wise, whoever gets it brings it,” Manning said.

Manning’s first team at Wake Forest consists of juniors Codi Miller-McIntyre and Madison Jones, sophomore Miles Overton, redshirt freshman Greg McClinton and freshmen Mitchell Wilbekin, Rondale Watson and Cornelius Hudson on the perimeter and juniors Devin Thomas and Andre Washington, graduate student Darius Leonard and freshman Dinos Mitoglou inside.

Although junior Aaron Rountree III, at 6-foot-8 and 200 pounds, is better suited physically for the perimeter, the Deacons’ lack of inside depth might require him to log minutes in the post as well.

Manning’s approach is music to the ears of Miller-McIntyre, who led the Deacons with 12.6 points a game while splitting time between point guard and wing guard. After preferring to play point guard as a freshman, Miller-McIntyre said he felt he was more effective as a sophomore when he was playing off the ball alongside a more natural point guard such as Jones.

He realizes now that, like many college players, he might have been too concerned with the distinction.

“Mentally I think I focused too much on being a one or a two, because after watching film a lot over the summer with Randolph Childress, it was almost like it didn’t matter which one I was,” Miller-McIntyre said, “because most of the points I scored were in transition. I wasn’t coming off screens and knocking threes down.

“Now it’s almost like either one, it doesn’t really matter. Each position is running almost the same action every play, so it’s just all about a matter of being aggressive, no matter what position I’m at.”

Manning said he feels that he has a number of players – Miller-McIntyre, Jones, Wilbekin, Overton, McClinton, Watson, Hudson and even Rountree – with the ability to lead the fast break. At least that’s what they’ll be asked to do when they find a rebound or turnover in their hands.

“I think a lot of times when a team has a primary handler – a point guard, if you will – you can make it a little bit harder on him,” Manning said. “There will be times and situations – a half-court offense – where we will say ‘OK, we want you to initiate offense,’ or whatever.

“But a lot of times we want all of those guys to feel comfortable enough to get that ball and get up the court with it.”