Monday, December 13, 2010

No Better Time to Play Wake

If I were a fan of East Carolina, UNC Asheville, Bucknell, St. Francis or Winston-Salem State, I would be miffed my team doesn’t have Wake Forest on this year’s schedule. And if I were a fan of Appalachian State, I’d be cursing a blue streak.

For while the Deacons are 7-0 all-time against East Carolina and UNC Asheville, 5-0 against Bucknell and St. Francis and 4-0 against the cross-town Rams, they’ve beaten the Mountaineers all 20 times they’ve played them in a series that began in 1951. Of course, before yesterday, the Deacons had beaten UNC Wilmington all 12 times they’d played the Seahawks, going back to the first game of the 1977-78 season.

So if I were Coach Jason Capel of ASU, or anyone who cares about his program, I’d be thinking that if Buzz Peterson, in his first season at UNC Wilmington, can beat the Deacons with a couple of unheralded freshmen and whatever remnants he has from last season’s 9-22 meltdown—and not just beat them, but build a 21-point lead while dominating the final 30 minutes—then Wake is fair game for anybody.

And Capel would be right.

I’ve scoured the record books for another Wake team that has suffered as many ignominious setbacks, to no avail. The 1987-88 squad, Bob Staak’s third of four, lost to Siena, Furman and Coastal Carolina, all at home. But it did beat Winthrop and UNC Wilmington, something Jeff Bzdelik’s first team was unable to do.

My own sense is that losing to Stetson and Winthrop in Joel Coliseum and UNCW in Greensboro is worse, especially considering that Stetson, since cuffing the Deacons by 10 in the opener, has lost to such juggernauts as Bethune-Cookman (78-66) and Palm Beach Atlantic (61-55), whereas the Seahawks, before beating Wake, had lost to North Carolina A&T (84-79 in overtime).

If Capel is cursing his luck, then Mike Dement of UNC Greensboro, Gregg Nibert of Presbyterian and Scott Cherry of High Point have to be loving theirs.

All have games scheduled against Wake, with Dement getting his crack against the Deacons this Wednesday.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Welcoming Nikita With Open Arms

So I walked up to Nikita Mescheriakov before practice yesterday and asked ``How do you say ‘Chomping at the bit’ in Belarusian?”

Being from Minsk, he wasn’t hip to that particular down-home expression.

“It means anxious, ready and raring to to,’’ I explained.

“Oh,’’ he said and let fly a torrent of words, none of which I could even begin to understand. But whatever he said was said with enough conviction to make me believe that his bit will be well-chomped by the time Wake Forest plays UNC Wilmington in Greensboro at 2 p.m. Sunday. Wouldn’t yours?

For 12 months now Mescheriakov has been in the NCAA’s answer to limbo, that curious state where a player can practice with a team but not play in games. So Mescheriakov, who transferred to Wake from Georgetown last fall, has been participating in drills and running sprints, but consigned to a seat on the bench during games. I liked his quote, the one we used in this morning’s story for the Journal. Mescheriakov Eager to Get Off Bench

“I’m ready to get the suit off,’’ Mescheriakov said. “It’s much more exciting to be in a uniform and be out there playing for this team instead of sitting on the bench and watching the game from the side.”

It’s actually hard to tell who is more excited, Mescheriakov or head coach Jeff Bzdelik. In his first eight games at Wake, Bzdelik coached a team with a decided dearth of depth, size and experience. And in Mescheriakov, he will be able to plug in a player who provides a fair amount of all three. Mescheriakov is not the second coming of Darius Songaila, or at least if he was he didn’t show it during his two years at Georgetown. But he is 6-8, he has physically matured in his year at Wake, and he will give Bzdelik another option at power forward instead of sophomore Ari Stewart and freshman Travis McKie—both of whom are natural wings who have been forced to play major minutes out of position—and freshman Carson Desrosiers. He said he’s ready to bang inside, and he’ll have to in order for Wake to improve its rebounding and interior defense.

In talking with Bzdelik, he’s ready to see what Mescheriakov can do. I don’t imagine many minutes will elapse Sunday before Mescheriakov is in the game.

“He will be a welcome addition,” Bzdelik said. “He brings experience, toughness, a great ability to shoot the basketball.

“It helps us at a position that we need help in, and that’s power forward. He gives us an experienced, mobile (power forward) who can really shoot the ball.”

As for the final attribute, I had already mentioned to Bzdelik what he obviously already knows, how he has a wealth of players who can hit jump shots. I started rattling off the list, Stewart, McKie, J.T. Terrell, Gary Clark and C.J. Harris.

“Nikita might be the best shooter of all,’’ Bzdelik said. “He can really shoot the ball.’’

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Turnovers and the Shots Not Taken

Back in my early days in the business, before the digital revolution made everything so predictable, instantaneous and precise, I could often be found hanging around the photo department when I probably should have been doing something else. The photographers on my first paper, guys like Keith “Big Daddy” Richardson and Fred J. “Rhetoric Frederick” Peace were these outrageously hip characters and what they did was fascinating. To watch them put the undeveloped print in the chemical solutions and see it gradually, bit by by, outline by outline, detail by detail, come into sharper and sharper focus was like alchemy to me.

It has occurred to me more than once that watching a team develop is like that, although there at least seem to be many in this era known for its immediate gratification who might not see the metaphor. Snap judgments are made at the get-go that are changed only grudgingly, after the weight of overwhelming evidence has collapsed the original position. I personally have never felt the need to be the first to arrive at any conclusion or truth, and have instead endeavored to leave open the possibility of surprise. The only thing I really know from covering sports all these many years is that you never really know.

So what I’m seeing slowly and gradually develop at Wake Forest is a team that handles the ball like it’s a hot, butter-smeared potato and rebounds like a runt of the litter trying to maneuver past stronger siblings to its mother’s milk. There are obvious reasons for both deficiencies, but the result is that through eight games the Deacons rank dead last among ACC teams in turnover margin (minus-4.6 per game) and next-to-last to N.C. State in rebounding margin (minus 1.5 per game).

But there’s one thing the Deacons do exceedingly well, and that’s shoot the basketball. Gary Clark, Ari Stewart, J.T. Terrell, Travis McKie and C.J. Harris have all displayed a nice touch on their shots, which is why Wake ranks fourth in field-goal percentage (.459), first in 3-point percentage (.440) and second in free-throw percentage (.771). Think of how many Wake teams of the past screamed for another good shooter or two, and you would almost have to consider Jeff Bzdelik’s first team an embarrassment of riches in this regard.

I really can’t see Wake developing into a strong rebounding team, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the addition of transfer Nikita Mescheriakov to the rotation this Sunday against UNC Wilmington will make a big difference, and maybe Melvin Tabb will return from his time off to concentrate on his academics to provide even more frontcourt size and strength. Maybe. I still harbor serious doubts the Deacons can successfully bang throughout the season against the bigger, stronger teams in the league.

But the Deacons, even with freshman point guard Tony Chennault recovering from a broken foot, can clean up their handle. Coach Jeff Bzdelik knows it and his players know it, which is why it has been a point of emphasis in practice all season. If Wake can cut its turnover total from the 23 it had against VCU and the 22 against Elon down to around a dozen a game, then think how many more shots they can get.

Obviously, Bzdelik has thought about it.

“Our Achilles heel right now is we just turn the ball over a little bit too much,’’ Bzdelik said after Saturday’s victory over Holy Cross, before the team broke for exams. ” We had 10 turnovers in the first half and shot 58 percent, and if we can just cut that down another four or five possessions then we could score another four or five or six or seven points very easily with the way we’ve been shooting the basketball.

“And if we move the ball, we have guys who can really shoot the ball. I know you’re not always going to make your shots, but it gives you an opportunity to have open shots, shots we practice every day. And that gives us a legitimate chance to make shots when we move the ball and find the open man. So we need to learn to just hit the open man and make the extra, extra pass and we can become an efficient offensive basketball team.’‘

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Clark’s Performance No Mean Feet

Gary Clark scored 16 points against Holy Cross and the Deacons won by 11.

If his feet hadn’t been so big Fats Waller then he would have scored 19 and Wake would have won by 14. I counted at least three times that he stepped on the 3-point line while drilling a jumper.

Some coaches, Rick Pitino among them, are said to go apoplectic when a player does that. I wondered in the post-game gaggle if Jeff Bzdelik shares that pet peeve.

He doesn’t.

“The ball went in,’’ Bzdelik observed. “That’s first and foremost what I care about, and it did. We can nit-pick all we want. Sometimes my mistake as a coach is I nit-pick too much, as I’m sure they’re back there (in the rear of the interview room) probably smiling.’‘

Clark said he knows he has been prone to step on the line since he arrived at Wake. That’s one reason, he said, his 3-point percentage over his first three seasons was .324. He has certainly found the range, and is making .714 of his attempts from 3-point land this season.

“I think I’ve gotten better,’’ Clark said. “My first few years a lot of times I made shots I thought were threes and I stepped on the line. I thought my 3-point percentage should have been higher over the years.

“So my 3-point percentage from my freshman year is way lower (.278) than it should have been because I stepped on the line so many times. But this year I’ve gotten better. I try to shoot them a lot deeper if you look, and I’m not thinking much about the line. But if it does happen, I mean I’m not worried once the ball goes in. I’ll get the points back some kind of way, or we’ll get the points back as a team some kind of way.’‘

There is very little about Clark that Bzdelik can find fault with over the first eight games of the season. Clark, after averaging 2.7 points over his first three seasons, is scoring 11.1 points a game while shooting .538 from the floor and a cool .900 from the free-throw line going into Sunday’s game against UNC Wilmington at Greensboro Coliseum.

“Gary’s an outstanding shooter and he’s a very confident shooter,’’ Bzdelik said. “I want to say something about Gary Clark too. I had a fan ask me the other day on campus why isn’t Gary Clark – who is a senior and who is playing very well – why isn’t he starting? To Gary’s credit, he told me `Coach I don’t need to start.’

“So he put his own ego aside from a starting standpoint to just being a leading member of this basketball team. And that’s the kind of young man he is. He thinks about other people and he knows he’s going to play. I’m very confident in his ability. He’s an outstanding young man, and a player who played behind some upper classmen. And now he’s getting his chance to show what he can do and he’s walking the talk.”

Monday, December 06, 2010

Coach Convinced Sousa Is Real Deal for Real

You may have noticed that I’m not as big a recruiting buff as some other sportswriters. There are deep-seeded reasons for that. For while I agreed with Bill Dooley when he said over and over (and over and over) that ``recruiting is the lifeblood of a program,’’ I prefer to report on matters I know for sure. And in recruiting in general, and in football recruiting in particular, whatever information I have to impart is, at best, second-hand and more likely to be even less-reliable than that.

The best football player I ever saw at Wake, Riley Skinner, nobody wanted. Wake wasn’t even sure it wanted Skinner until the last scholarship of the class of 2005 was still available after the other 21 had been spoken for.

And the most honest comment on recruiting I’ve ever heard came from Coach Jim Grobe. When asked how good his class is, he will invariably say `I’ll tell you in two or three years.’‘

On the other hand, I recognize that fans and alumni do, understandably, want to know who is going to be playing for their teams. So when I get wind of a player committing to Wake, I try to get the player or his coach on the phone to a) confirm that the reports of his destination are accurate and b) find out something about the recruit worth reporting. I’ve yet to have a coach tell me the school was stupid for landing the player, and that he’ll never pan out. Of course he’s going to wax enthusiastically about his player. He is, after all, his player.

Having established all the disclaimers, there are times when a recruiting story can be a pretty big deal. Say if a player commits to Michigan, and then changes his mind and casts his lot with Wake Forest, that’s pretty juicy stuff. And say he’s a quarterback who also could have gone to Louisville or West Virginia, then that’s a bigger fish to fry than writing about a offensive guard who chose the Deacons over Presbyterian and Western Carolina.

Or say, I get the player’s coach on the phone and he goes on and on and on and on and on about the player’s ability and makeup and how he is absolutely certain that Wake pulled off one of the steals of the century, then that carries a bit more weight than the coach saying “Johnny is a great player and an even better person who is destined for great things at whatever he does.’’

I got a coach like that on the phone this morning. His name is Coach Andy Hamre of Lake Nona High School in Orlando, Fla., and given the amount of time we spent talking about Kevin Sousa, the quarterback who committed to Wake over the weekend, I feel like Hamre is my new best friend. Sousa did commit to Michigan before changing his mind during his visit to Wake this weekend. He was recruited by more than 20 programs, including Louisville and West Virginia. And Hamre did sound absolutely certain during our 15-minute conversation (during which he was doing the talking and I the listening) that Wake had scored big-time on this one.

“He still has to learn some things that he has not experienced yet,’’ Hamre said of Sousa. “When you get to the next level, the game comes at you at a different speed. And once he gets comfortable with that, the speed of the game, I think he’s going to blossom. I think he’s going to be one of those kids potentially, that we’re going to be talking about saying `How did this kid get under the radar of so many other schools?’

“Wake has had a great eye for talent that way and I think they’re right on the money with Kevin.’‘

Because Sousa didn’t start playing football until his sophomore season, he’s still somewhat raw. Because he played at a high school that wasn’t in existence until the fall of 2009, he played his junior season on a team without any seniors and his senior season on a team that wasn’t as good as most of the teams they played in talent-rich Central Florida.

“It’ll be real fun to watch him excel when he’s surrounded by some talented kids, some players who will give him some protection and some receivers that can get down the field and make plays and make him look even better by catching some balls – because this year if he didn’t put the ball right on the money or he didn’t get rid of it in three seconds, he was either going down or scrambling around for his life.’’ Hamre said. “There wasn’t many times that he got sacked because he’s just kind of guy. You just don’t take him down. Just all the things you would ever want, if you had to put the dream player together, he’s the one.’‘

Hamre gave me so much information that even after writing the bulletin for the Journal and another, fuller piece, that will run on tomorrow morning’s edition, there were tidbits I wanted to pass along. Two were anecdotes that told me something about Sousa’s desire to be something special.

The first dealt with his insatiable thirst for learning how to play quarterback.

“He’s probably the best student of the game I think I’ve ever been around,’’ Hamre said. “He’s the kind of kid that when we would come back from an away game, would be waiting outside our offices as coaches were looking at film. We’re looking at him saying `Kevin, why are you still here? You should be home.’ He says `Naw, I’d like to get a copy of the film because I want to break it down tonight.’

“I’m just saying, you don’t get that many kids like that. As a matter of a fact, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that. I’ve had kids come to me over the weekend and say they would like something, but he wouldn’t even go home. He wants to start looking at it. And he’s the kind of kid that learns. And I think that probably the biggest upside to him, as far as I’m concern, is he’s still pretty new to the game.’‘

The second related Sousa’s willingness to do anything he can to make himself a better player and his team a better team.

“Kevin is the type of kid to say `Coach put me wherever you need me.’ ‘’ Hamre said. “He’ll say that. He told me many times `Coach, if you want me at offensive tackle for a situation, call me. I’ll go there.’

“And I know he meant it because this is Kevin: Kevin would get his drill done early in one of our first periods or second periods of the practice, and then I’d look up and Kevin would be gone. I’d go `Where’s Kevin?’ (They’d say), `He’s down there with the offensive linemen working with them.’ The kid’s running down there and doing some drills with them. I mean actually doing some of the drills with them. He’s like `Guys, if I can do this, you can do this.’ And the problem was he was better at it than they were.’ I’d say `Kevin you’ve got to stop going down there. They’re getting demoralized because you’re better.’ ‘’

So maybe, just maybe I’ve come up with a recruiting story worth the space it takes to print it. Check it out tomorrow morning and let me know.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

Saturday Basketball As It Should Be

If guys working for newspapers set the time for tipoffs instead of guys working for television networks, then most every Saturday basketball game would begin at 1 p.m. I’m not even an early riser and I was on hand in plenty of time for Wake Forest’s game today against Holy Cross. So after enjoying the game, seeing some good friends, writing my story and plowing home through the snow (it actually had melted on the highways, truth be told) it’s still only 5:50 as I’m sitting in my den writing this.

And when I’m done with this, I’ll crack open a cold party beverage, toss a few spicy chicken wings in the microwave and hunker down to some Saturday night sports whose game times were indeed set by guys who work for television networks. Life is grand.

Jeff Bzdelik is clearly feeling better about his team as well after the Deacons won their third straight. I liked Holy Cross’s team. Coach Milan Brown, who stood directly in front of me most of the game, had a good scheme and is players executed it well and played hard. Their 0-6 record notwithstanding, I’ll bet the Crusaders could take Stetson and might even knock off Winthrop on a good night on a neutral floor.

But the Deacons, who got so easily rattled in their first few games, seem to be getting a grip as November has passed into December. Holy Cross made a run at them late, paring a 15-point lead to six, but I never got the sense that Wake was in any trouble whatsover. The Deacons, for the most part, kept running their offense and getting good shots. One of the best came when Travis McKie drove right of the lane and kicked into the right corner to C.J. Harris, who drained a 3-pointer to run the lead back to 10.

“Big shot,’’ Brown said as the ball went through the net. “We didn’t need that.’‘

Afterward, Bzdelik was a happy man.

“I’m extremely proud of my young basketball team,’’ Bzdelik said. “In the midst of final exams, and tutors and papers due, they’re showing improvement. We defended a little bit better today. We shared the ball, at times, better today. We found a way to win another game. It’s all positive.

“Now we’re going to take some time off for finals so they can totally concentrate on what’s ahead for them academically. And we’ll get back to practice on Wednesday.’‘

Bzdelik downplayed his decision to not start J.T. Terrell, the hero of Tuesday’s victory over Iowa, because Terrell was late for this morning’s 8:30 shoot-around. Seems like I wasn’t the only one to sleep late this morning. But that’s pretty much standard practice for any coach anywhere, to require his players to be on time and to make measures when they’re not. Terrell’s shooting touch had gone cold since Tuesday, but he did hustle his way to four rebounds. Bzdelik praised his effort afterward.

Bzdelik was also really happy with the play of Harris, McKie and Gary Clark.

Harris made six of six shots from the floor to score 16 points to go with four rebounds, three assists and a steal. He also had three of Wake’s 17 turnovers.

“C.J. Harris is a very intelligent player, a very efficient player,’’ Bzdelik said. “He’s growing into becoming a leader. I think he’s becoming more comfortable in his role at point guard. He played an outstanding game, not only offensively but defensively as well.’‘’

McKie, who was 0-for-3 against Iowa, bounced back with 18 points, 11 rebounds and two steals.

“Travis is one of those, I think, throw-back players, to be honest with you,’’ Bzdelik said. “When the smoke clears at the end of the game he fills up that stat-sheet. It was like our last game against Iowa, he offensively didn’t put up points. But he filled out the stat sheet with rebounds, assists. (He was also) stunting defensively, helping out – things that don’t show up in the stat sheet.

“He does a lot of things that we’re starting to take for granted, but are so important as far as winning.’‘

And one of the best stories on the team is Gary Clark, the senior who after waiting three years for his big chance, has played really well over the first eight games of his final season. Today he started in place of Terrell, and contributed 16 points by hitting six field goals on 11 attempts.

“I think first and foremost what Gary does is he plays with a great passion,’’ Bzdelik said. “And passion and energy, that’s contagious. It really and truly is. It’s contagious. And when you have a senior doing that, it uplifts everybody, including this arena.

“And I want to say something about our crowd. We had a great crowd for an early Saturday afternoon game to support these young guys as they continue to get better. We really appreciate the people supporting us. That means a lot to us. And so, Gary’s passion and energy with which he came out and played today – along with the crowd – these are things that are very important to a young team.’‘

And what is important to this not-so-young sportswriter is a good time on Saturday night. So if you’ll excuse me, the cold beer, hot wings and big-time football await.

Friday, December 03, 2010

The Wellman Inteview: Part V

MTOW—What is your concern on the impact of contributions to Wake Forest athletics? Where are you now with the renovations of BB&T Field, what phase?

WELLMAN—I don’t know what phase we’re in. We’ve probably had four or five phases, and today we had a meeting about it and we’ve got six or seven more phases to go. We’ve got a long way to go. And we’re confident that people will step up. I still think there’s an enthusiasm about our football program. They’ve seen what this coaching staff can do. We have loyal, loyal donors, and they’re going to stick with us because they see a bright future. They’re intelligent people. They recognized what happened this year. They’re frustrated by it, but they also know that the future can be very bright. We want in the next couple of years to put a video board up – a really exciting video board. It’s interesting, I went to Yankee Stadium this year and I walked in and thought `That is the biggest video board I’ve ever seen, and it’s really out of place here. You don’t need a video board like that.’ Well I ended up watching the video board over 50 percent of the time. So we want a video board that is going to entertain the fans. Our future competition are big-screen TVs. We have people sitting at home watching big-screen TVs. Well we want them to have big-screen TVs at the stadium, and enjoy the environment of the stadium while having all of the replays and everything on a big-screen TV at the stadium. So that’s our goal. And then we want to renovate Bridger Field House. That’s what, 12 or 13 years old now and it’s used every day of the year. And it’s hard use. It’s food, it’s dances, it’s everything. We need to do that. We want to do Deacon Hill. We want to do some things there that will tie in the baseball park with the football stadium.

MTOW —Will there still be grass on Deacon Hill?

WELLMAN—Oh yeah, we’re going to have grass up there. We don’t know what we’re going to do up there. But we want it to be used as often as we possibly can, even 365 days a year. I don’t know if you noticed Navy, but when they re-did their hill, they opened it up for 365 days a year. And the more people we have going through that stadium, the more enthused they’re going to be coming to a game. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ll get it done eventually.

The Wellman Interview: Part IV

MTOW—The basketball season is early, but there were a couple of really bad losses. You’re not used to losing to Stetson and Winthrop. Would you please assess the first six games of what you’ve seen from Coach Jeff Bzdelik.

WELLMAN—We’re in a transition period and Jeff is doing a great job. I am so enthused about the future of our basketball program. The way he runs a practice and the effort that is being expended by the players, and the teaching points that are being made by the coaches – I love coming to his practices. It’s a classroom. It’s a time when you see passion come out of the players. They’re being treated well. They’re absorbing, or trying to absorb everything that he says. He has such knowledge of the game and he has a wonderful way of teaching it to the players. They’re responding to him. But it’s still a period of transition. We need to remember too that this team wasn’t picked very high in the conference by all the prognosticators before we lost Tony Chennault and before we lost Tony Woods. When you lose your center, who we anticipated being pretty good, and a point guard, who even though he’s a freshman was going to be pretty good, you’ve lost an awful lot. Jeff has not made any excuses. But that’s the reality. There aren’t many teams in America that could lose two starters at those positions and overcome it very effectively. We’ll overcome it. I’m very confident that this team will show progress throughout the year. We’re not going to win a national championship this year. That’s not going to happen. But what we’re looking for is improvement, intensity of play, a transition year that is going to produce the results, eventually, that we want.

MTOW—And what is the concern about the crowds, because I’ve never seen that few people watching Wake Forest play basketball?

WELLMAN—Again, our fans are frustrated and disappointed. We hope that they will come back. We think that they will come back. Our crowds have always been mediocre especially in November and even in December. The fans in this conference are ACC fans. They love ACC basketball. And if you look at our history, and just about everybody in the ACC, the crowds aren’t nearly as great in November and December as they are in January and February. So we think our crowds will pick up and our fans will come back as they see that this team is improving. And that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to produce a quality product for our fans to really enjoy it and we’re confident that will happen.

The Wellman Interview: Part III

MTOW—So what has been the reaction from fans and alumni to the football season?

WELLMAN—Well everybody’s frustrated. And it ranges from `Doggone it, I wish we could have done better,’ to `What in the world is going on?’ Really there’s some anger and there’s just some slight frustration. And that’s what makes fans. They care. Being frustrated or disappointed or any other emotion is acceptable to me because that just demonstrates that they really care about what we’re doing. I just worry when there isn’t a reaction. That’s a real concern.

MTOW—I know it’s common for you, after every season, to meet with a coach and evaluate the program, where it is and where it’s going. Have you had the opportunity yet to meet with Coach Grobe?

WELLMAN—We have not. We’ll meet in the next couple of weeks.

MTOW—You mentioned after the 08-09 basketball season that you and Coach Gaudio sat down and looked for ways to improve the program. Obviously you lost an assistant coach in Pat Kelsey, and you and Gaudio both said there was a mutual agreement that additional coaching changes needed to be made. Will you have that kind of input with Grobe?

WELLMAN—We talk about everything. I have never mandated a coach do something with an assistant coach. I hire the head coach and the head coach hires the assistant coaches. The only time that I would ever intervene on an assistant coach is if there is an ethical or moral issue – or a compliance issue. Then I would intervene. But beyond that, Jim Grobe and Jeff Bzdelik and (baseball coach) Tom Walter, all of our head coaches, know a heck of a lot more about their sport, and the roles and the strengths and weaknesses of their assistant coaches, than I do.

MTOW—So you won’t break that precedent this time?

WELLMAN—No. Heavens no.

The Wellman Interview: Part II

MTOW—Personally I thought Jim Grobe had built enough of a safety net that the team would be as bad as this year, as reflected by the 3-9 record and margin of losses. What was your reaction to that?

WELLMAN—Well they’re very good coaches, but that doesn’t mean you can overcome as many obstacles as we had this year. And when you develop a pattern that has been successful for you and you’re depending upon that model, again, and you don’t have it available, your coaching schemes, your philosophy, is thrown out of kilter. And so major, major adjustments have to occur. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. And sometimes regardless of what you try, it’s not going to work. I don’t think the coaching staff did a bad job coaching this year. I don’t know of any more that could have been done. They didn’t become bad coaches this year because of the record. There were other things that led to what the record was this year.

MTOW—Do you see the 3-9 and the way they lost as an aberration?

WELLMAN—Yes. It was definitely an aberration. We started to improve by the end of the year. You could see improvement especially defensively, players understanding their roles a little more, the experience being evident. We have good speed, for instance, on our team. And Monday through Friday our speed factor is really good, and then on Saturdays, maybe because we’re a little hesitant because young guys are not sure exactly what they’re doing – they’re thinking too much rather than just playing football – all those types of things lead to the type of season we had this year. But the one thing I was encouraged about was I did see improvement. I think all of our fans could see some improvement as the year progressed – maybe not as much as we would have liked to have had, which would have produced a few more wins. But there was enough improvement to encourage me about the future, for sure.