New Louisville coach Kenny Payne is expected to hire Danny Manning as an assistant coach, sources told ESPN.
The hire could become official as early as Friday afternoon.
Manning joins Nolan Smith, who left Duke after six years on Mike Krzyzewski’s staff, as assistant coaches on Payne’s staff. The Cardinals have one assistant spot still open.
One of the greatest college basketball players of all time, Manning won a national championship at Kansas and was the National Player of the Year in 1988 before being the first overall pick of the 1988 NBA draft. He spent 15 years in the NBA before returning to Kansas to work under Bill Self for nine seasons.
In 2012, Manning was hired as the head coach of Tulsa, where he led the Golden Hurricane to the NCAA tournament in his second year at the helm before leaving to take the Wake Forest job. He spent six seasons with the Demon Deacons, going to one NCAA tournament, before being fired in 2020.
He spent last season at Maryland, where he was named interim head coach less than one month into the season following Mark Turgeon’s resignation.
Payne was hired in March as Louisville’s new head coach, replacing Chris Mack, who left the program in January. Payne won a national championship with the Cardinals in 1986 before being selected in the first round of the 1989 NBA draft. During his time as an assistant coach at Kentucky, he developed a reputation as one of the elite recruiters in college basketball, as well as someone who helped improve a number of frontcourt players during his time in Lexington.
He spent the past two seasons with the New York Knicks before returning to Louisville last month.