Kansas Basketball: 15 greatest scorers in Jayhawks history

Greatest scorers in Kansas basketball history: 2. Danny Manning

Kansas’ all-time leading scorer is treated like a conquering hero in Lawrence and he should be. Danny Manning is one of the greatest players in college basketball history, let alone the Kansas program.

He started 146 of a possible 147 games for the Jayhawks and made an impact immediately, averaging 14.6 points per game as a freshman. That would be the only season in which Manning was not named an All-American or the Big Eight Player of the Year.

As a sophomore, Manning averaged 16.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per game while leading a Jayhawks team, headlined by seniors Ron Kellogg and Calvin Thompson as well, to the Final Four for the first time in 12 years.

Once Kellogg and Thompson left, however, Manning became a superstar. He averaged 23.9 points and 9.5 rebounds per game as a junior and then 24.8 points and 9.0 rebounds as a senior, winning National Player of the Year putting together one of the best two-year individual stretches in college hoops history.

That made him the school’s all-time leading scorer (2,951) and rebounder (1,187), yet his biggest accomplishment was guiding the 1988 Kansas team to a national championship.

That team, known as “Danny and the Miracles,” won the title, despite having 11 losses during the regular season, which remains the most losses ever by a national champion. Manning capped off an incredible tournament – and career, really – with 31 points and 18 rebounds in the championship game.

Manning was selected No. 1 overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1988 NBA Draft and made a pair of All-Star teams while playing for them. He had a productive 15-year NBA career, but Manning’s collegiate career is the stuff of legends.

He was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.