Former collegiate National Player of the Year, NCAA champion, NBA All-Star and long-time basketball coach Danny Manning has been named an assistant men's basketball coach at the University of Colorado, head coach Tad Boyle announced on Tuesday.

Manning, who replaces Rick Ray on Boyle's staff, joins the Buffaloes with 18 years of collegiate coaching experience on top of being one of the elite basketball players in the world for the last two decades of the 20th century. He will officially begin his duties on June 1.

"I'm very excited to join coach Boyle's staff," Manning said. "This staff has been together for quite some time and has had quite a bit of success, so I want to come in and be a sponge; learn from them, the things they've been doing to be successful and just try and add little nuggets that I can along the way in terms of my experience as a player and a coach.

Manning began his coaching career at his alma mater, Kansas. He was part of Bill Self's original staff in 2003 as the director of student-athlete development/team manager. He was elevated to an assistant coach in 2007, helping the Jayhawks to the 2008 NCAA championship. Manning remained in Lawrence through the 2011-12 season, helping Kansas to a spot in the 2012 Final Four and advancing to the championship game.

The first pick of the 1988 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Clippers, Manning had a 15-year NBA career, playing for seven different teams. He was a two-time NBA All-Star and won the league's Sixth Man of the Year Award with the Phoenix Suns in 1998. He averaged 14.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 51.1 percent from the field over 883 career games.

A native of Hattiesburg, Miss., Manning had a storied playing career at Kansas from 1984-88. He led the Jayhawks – known as "Danny and the Miracles" - to the 1988 NCAA championship and was the 1988 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player. He was the consensus National Player of the Year in 1988, a two-time All-American (1987, '88) and three-time Big Eight Conference Player of the Year (1986-88).

Manning is the program's all-time leader in points (2,951) and rebounds (1,187). He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008

Manning and Boyle were teammates at Kansas in 1984-85 when Boyle was a senior and Manning a freshman. The former teammates have shared the bench once before, as assistant coaches for USA Basketball's 2017 U19 World Cup team.