TU Coach Danny Manning NamedTop 15 Top 15 NCAA Tourney Player

Tulsa men's basketball coach Danny Manning was named one of the top 15 all-time March Madness players, as part of the celebration of the 75th Final Four, the NCAA announced Friday.

Manning will be recognized with the rest of the top 15 players at halftime of the Michigan-Syracuse national semifinal on Saturday night.

Manning was named the 1998 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player while leading Kansas to the 1988 NCAA Championship. He was also named the Naismith College Player of the Year in 1988.

In 16 games over four appearances in the NCAA Tournament, Manning averaged 20.5 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, 1.5 steals and 1.4 assists. He is Kansas' all-time leading scorer and rebounder, with 2,951 points and 1,187 boards in four seasons with the Jayhawks.

Manning is joined by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (UCLA), Larry Bird (Indiana State), Bill Bradley (Princeton), Patrick Ewing (Georgetown), Grant Hill (Duke), Earvin "Magic" Johnson (Michigan State), Michael Jordan (North Carolina), Christian Laettner (Duke), Jerry Lucas (Ohio State), Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston), Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati), Bill Russell (San Francisco), Bill Walton (UCLA) and Jerry West (West Virginia).

The NCAA will honor the all-time team – the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers – and the all-time moment – Duke's Christian Laettner's game-winning shot against Kentucky in the 1992 East Regional final — at halftime of the Wichita State-Louisville national semifinal on Saturday night.

In his first season as head coach at TU, he led the Golden Hurricane to a 17-16 record and 8-8 mark in Conference USA. Tulsa reached the semifinals of the C-USA Championship at the BOK Center in Tulsa, and competed in the College Basketball Invitational tournament.