Thursday, March 24, 2011

An Hour With Bzdelik: Take 5

MTOW: One thing that people keeping coming back to me with is, you use the word culture, and it’s a vague term to a lot of people. Can you define it? When you say you’re going to build a new culture at Wake Forest, can you give somebody a little bit more tangible definition?

JB: I said that (earlier). In order to reach a team’s fullest potential, you have to be disciplined in all areas of your life. That means going to class. That means being on time when time is involved. That means being respectful. That means establishing a work ethic. That means getting out of yourself and into the team, so you have a team concept. Those things need to be re-established here.

An Hour With Bzdelik: Take 6

MTOW: Do you give specific off-season instructions to each player?

JB: I do coach here, Dan. I do coach here. I do coach here.

MTOW: I was just wondering if that’s part of being the coach of Wake Forest, you feel like. Where you tell each player, I want you to work on this and this.

JB: Dan I do coach. Really, I’m getting a little irritated. I do coach. I spend quality time every week with my players individually and collectively, discussing and teaching to help them get better. We’ve been on the court, they’re in the weight room. I had them each in here (Monday) individually, the whole day watching tapes from the Sweet 16 games. I once again reinforced to them how to play winning basketball. See young players don’t understand what it takes to win at this level. And when I say young, Ty Walker was like a freshman. Gary Clark was like a sophomore. You know, there’s a difference between just playing, just hooping, as they do in the summer time, and playing to win – taking charges, all five guys defending at all times, sharing the basketball, cutting hard for each other, making decisions, good decisions, to find open people, being strong enough to finish around the rim, diving on the floor, toughness to get through screens. These are things they’ve never learned before that they encountered this year, and now they know. And the only way to go through that is to gain experience.

MTOW: I didn’t mean to show you any disrespect. I hope you understand that.

JB: I know that. I’m just saying I think people think we just golf all day long. And I don’t even golf. I hate golf. I’m in here, I’m watching film, getting guys in here.

An Hour With Bzdelik: Take 7

MTOW: How does AAU basketball help a college coach and how does it cause problems for a college coach? All college coaches have to deal with AAU basketball.

JB: It’s a necessary evil. It’s a part of today’s basketball society and culture. It’s just like anything else, there are actually some good AAU programs. But unfortunately there are those AAU programs that are not so good, where people who call themselves adults – and you quote that – people who call themselves adults look to exploit young men for their own benefit and not the benefit and well-being of the young men.

MTOW: And is it a matter of plugging into the right AAU programs, and staying away from the wrong AAU programs?

JB: Right, and one of my philosophies in basketball, and always has been, is I want to recruit quality young men that come from top-of-the-line high school programs and AAU programs, because they know what is expected of them before they come here. Because quality high school programs with quality high school coaches and quality AAU programs will require discipline and unselfishness and teamwork. Then it doesn’t become a shock to them when they get here at this level. So you have to pick and choose. I remember my first head job at UMBC. I inherited a team that was 5-23 in Division II and they decided to go Division I. I seem to step into that. And the first person I called was Morgan Wootten. And I said to Coach Wootten, I explained the situation and the first player I signed was from DeMatha, for example. And that seemed to set the tone, because coming from Coach Wootten, I didn’t have to ask him to go to class. I didn’t have to ask him to get up at six in the morning to lift weights. These were things that were already inbred in him. You look at teams in the Sweet 16 right now and they are teams. Normal guys, normal people doing normal things extraordinarily well. That’s what it is.

An Hour With Bzdelik: Take 8

MTOW: Now there are coaches who say that teams with the most NBA-to-be players generally win in college basketball. That’s what (Skip Prosser) said. That was his philosophy. Do you agree with that?

JB: Obviously there are NBA talented players that are all about all the right things. And that’s when you have something special. (Prosser) is right, in a way. It has to be a player who buys into the team concept – for example, like a Tim Duncan, like a Chris Paul.

MTOW: And Josh Howard did his senior year.

JB: And like a Josh Howard. But it’s like Colorado. Alec Burks has taken them to another level. All those close games, I lost to Texas, Kansas and Kansas State in overtime, for example. Alec was a freshman and those kids were sophomores and juniors. And now Alec is a sophomore. He’s a little stronger, and he’s finishing those games because he’s a year older, and so is everybody else. But he is a player that has taken that program to where Chauncey Billups had taken them. So I agree with that.

MTOW: If there’s a player who comes to you and you think he’s one of the best players in the country and he says, `Jeff I’d love to come to Wake Forest but I’m probably going to be there only one year,’ would you take him?

JB: You know, those kinds of questions are too general. You have to examine each situation. What kind of young man is he? What kind of personality does he have? What kind of demeanor does he have? What kind of respect does he have? All those things come into play.

An Hour With Bzdelik: Take 9

MTOW: Now that you’ve had the luxury of 10 months of hindsight, did you know what you were getting yourself into?

JB: I had both eyes open. I’ve been around this business a long time. I knew that there would be a lot of questions and concerns. I knew that with the extreme youth and inexperience of this team, it’s not so surprising what our record was.

MTOW: The reaction from the fans here at Wake Forest, how was it like the reaction your first year at Colorado?

JB: I think the difference was the fans in Colorado knew me and they trusted me and they respected me. You know we took the Nuggets to the sixth-best turnaround in NBA history, and then we took Air Force to 11th in the nation, to the NCAA Tournament and to the Final Four of the NIT, and people knew me because I was a familiar face and in the neighborhood and on TV and knew the community. So when I went to Colorado, they said `We’ve got your back.’ And I know that that really doesn’t exist here.

MTOW: How do you connect with the fanbase here?

JB: That just takes time to. . .  It just takes time. You can’t build relationships quickly, and my experience in Denver, or Colorado, those were years invested. So all I can do here is roll up my sleeves and do the best I can, with integrity and hard work – and honesty. And I understand the world that we live in today. All I can say is, whatever people say about me in a critical way, let it be known that it doesn’t run my day, at all. And that whatever people can say in a critical, negative way about me, it isn’t even close with how critical I am with myself. And that if they wanted to jump on anyone, do it on me and not these young men – because they’re good young people who will make this university proud of how they’re going to play in the future.

An Hour With Bzdelik: Take 10

MTOW: What would it take for you to get competitive next year?

JB: We’re going to be competitive next year. I believe that.

MTOW: Why?

JB: Because of the valuable experience that they gained this year, and now having an understanding of what it takes to win. They have grown up. This is a humble and hungry group. And those words have come out of their mouths – humble and hungry.

MTOW: Is it harder to turn something around in this day in time with the scrutiny of the internet and all that it would have been 20 or 30 years ago?

JB: If the right people are supportive, you can do it.

MTOW: Is it harder?

JB: I don’t know, because I wasn’t (coaching then). I think again, each situation is unique and different.

An Hour With Bzdelik: Take 11

MTOW: I have to ask you this one. Did you ever cast a wistful eye back to Colorado, given their success this year and the rough year for you here?

JB: I probably wouldn’t be human if I gave you a politically correct answer by saying no. Because I knew how painstakingly difficult it was to create that culture and to go through these young players growing up. And I knew that the vision that we created for that program was in a timely way, right where it is. It was our plan to be really where it is today. It’s like building a home. You build a beautiful home, but you’re not living in it. You moved out right before the paint dried.

MTOW: A national columnist said “My sources at the ACC Tournament said that Jeff Bzdelik will not be at Wake Forest long, and that he’s going to go back and take the job in the NBA.’’ Now are you here for the long haul?

JB: Yes.

MTOW: Convince the people who don’t believe that you are.

JB: No words can. I have too much pride. I’m seeing this through. I’ve been humiliated and embarrassed by the way we performed this year. You can quote me on that. And I have too much pride. So that’s all I’m going to say.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

An Hour With Bzdelik

Twenty-eight seconds is hardly an eternity, but it can seem like one when you ask someone a question and wait that long for their reply.

Such was the case yesterday when I dropped by Jeff Bzdelik’s office for an year’s end, wrap-up interview. The first question I asked was a general one just to get the ball bouncing.

“Now that you’ve had two weeks to sort it out, how would you assess the season?’‘

Running my tape back, Bzdelik took 28 full seconds before giving his one-word response.

“Interesting,’’ he said.

“How did you arrive at interesting,’’ I prodded.

“I’ll just leave it at that,’’ Bzdelik replied.

I’m happy to say that the interview did actually pick up from there. As I transcribed it this morning, I was struck by how good it turned out and how forthcoming Bzdelik can at times be. Ask the right question in the right way and he’ll go to places a lot of other coaches I’ve known would never dare tread.

He can also take offense at a moment’s notice, even if none was intended. I picked that up this season when Mike Shalin, a writer we hired to cover Wake’s game at Boston College. asked him if the Deacons could enter the ACC Tournament playing as though they had nothing to lose. They were, after all, 1-15 in the ACC, seeded No. 12 and had just lost by 16 to the team they were destined to play four days later.

Bzdelik’s response, which you may have read, was to the effect that he’s never approached any game not thinking he could win, and to intimate he had disrespected him as a coach. I don’t believe Shalin intimated any such thing. I’ve heard the same question asked a gadzillion times in my years as a sportswriter and never seen a person respond in that manner.

So I wasn’t totally surprised when Bzdelik rared up in a similar fashion to a question I asked yesterday. But one of the things I came to like about Bzdelik through his most trying of all seasons is he can’t carry a grudge past the next question. I’ve known so many coaches who, having been asked a question they didn’t like, completely shut the interview down and stormed off. With Bzdelik, a question later he’s back in the groove and answering questions as though there had never been any contentiousness in the first place.

I’m convinced that some of the problem he had winning over the Wake fan base is that so few people really know him. I’ve been around him dozens of times, and I can’t say I know him all that well. That was another reason I was excited about the interview, in that it was another chance to get to know him better. There are things about him I do like. He does care for his players, and he wants to do his job the right way, or at least the way he perceives to be the right way. We share a love of music, although he’s much more into the Zac Brown Band (who he said he’s going to see at Joel Coliseum on April 6) than am I. But I can’t hold that against him. A person’s taste in music is their own.

But his is a personality that doesn’t really project, and I’m fairly certain the fanbase is having more trouble connecting with Jeff Bzdelik, the person, than they did with a Skip Prosser or a Jim Grobe. The subject even came up in the interview.

As is our standard practice, we’ll run a summary of the interview in tomorrow morning’s paper, after which time I’ll present the entire interview verbatim here on MTOW in smaller, digestible pieces. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Bye Go-To Guy

Ari Stewart was always one of my go-to guys after a game. Sunny and talkative by nature, Stewart put things in a colorful way that looked good on the page. And he has a delightful sense of humor, making him one of the Deacons you could kid around and get away with it. He knew how to take it, and even give it back.

So as I found out earlier today, I’ve lost one of my go-to guys. Actually I lost him some time back, certainly by the ACC Tournament if not before. When a player is suspended so he can take care of academic matters at a time the school is on spring break, it doesn’t take a Woodward or Bernstein to figure out he isn’t long for the program. And he wasn’t, as I wrote in Greensboro.

The Nike dropped this morning when Coach Jeff Bzdelik said Stewart has asked for, and been granted, his release from the program. I’ve got a call in to Ari to see what his plans are, and I’m hoping to hear from him. On my message I said if nothing else I want to wish him well.

Stewart had marvelous abilities as a basketball player. I loved his spring that allowed him to elevate over defenders and he had a great touch on his jumper. And he wasn’t afraid to take the big shot as he proved by drilling the 3-pointer with 16 seconds remaining in overtime against Texas to give Ish Smith a chance seal the Deacons’ only NCAA Tournament win since 2005.

His problem was he had a really shaky handle, so shaky he couldn’t dribble more than a time or two before the sharks swarmed in a took the ball away. And he didn’t commit himself to the kind of physical discipline and focus it takes to be a good defender in college basketball. For those two reasons, he fell out of the favor of the coaching staff, and his time dwindled to the point he played only four minutes in his last game for Wake at Boston College.

Bzdelik sent a message that day by playing Ryan Keenan, a walk-on, for 14 minutes. He explained the move saying that coaches don’t determine playing time, players do.

But by then Stewart’s career was over at Wake. If anyone paying attention didn’t know it, they probably had a pretty strong inkling.

Good luck to you wherever you end up Ari. And wherever that is, I envy the beat guy covering the team.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Grobe: Whitlock Measures Up

The cleats clacking along the concrete yesterday were those of Nikita Whitlock, giving me a chance to throw out the first question of the spring.

“So Nikita, what do you weigh these days?’‘

“Coach I’m heavy,’’ Whitlock said, for some reason elevating me to a profession that would never have me. “I’m heavy Coach.’‘

So what are you?

“I’m ranging from 255 to 258,’’ he said. “I’m up there.’‘

So what do you think you can be when you open next season?

“In the 250 range,’’ he said. “Anywhere around 250 will make me happy.’‘

Are you tired of getting asked your weight?

“Naw,’’ he said with a grin. “It keeps me honest.’‘

Whitlock became a flash point for the criticism leveled at Wake during last season’s disappointing 3-9 campaign that featured one rout after another and nine straight losses. There were many in the Peanut Gallery convinced that Whitlock, at 5-10, 240 pounds, was simply too small to hold his own in the interior lone.

Coach Jim Grobe was convinced otherwise.

“He’s the deal,’’ Grobe said. “He’ll be a guy who if he continues to improve—and I hate to ever say anything good about a kid until he’s done it; potential by definition means you haven’t done it yet. But he had a really good freshman year, and if he will avoid that sophomore slump, which of all the kids we’ve got he’ll be the one to avoid it, then he’s basically an unblockable guy. The only way they’ll put a hand on him is to tackle him.

“So I’ve got to get on the umpire every week to keep an eye on one guy. Keep an eye on that nose guard.’‘

And he’ll ask Wake Forest fans to do the same.