Comments

I agree with all those who state to release B is correct. He does not deserve another season. Jack Murdock coached one year, after he went 8-18, in 1966 & he went 4-10 in the ACC. I watched B’s former team set a school record tonight in Boulder, winning their 24th game; they are going to the semi’s of the NIT at MSG. The B word was not mentioned. The new coach scraped his Princeton offense, installed a running offense designed to take advantage of the mile high altitude; it was worked for 18 home wins for CU this year, per the ESPN announcer. The place was packed, the kids on spring break were jammed in there; it looked like & sounded like Joel used to, before B came. Now Ari Stewart is gone; he won or helped win some big games for us last year, but unlike players under Skip & Dino, Ari did not develop under B. He regressed. As Dan put it earlier, he fell through the ice. I see so many younger sharp coaches in the NCAA & NIT for that matter & wonder why are we still fooling around with B? Why fire a guy who lost 31 in 3 years & keep a guy who lost 24 in one year, to set a school record?
Wellman should swallow his pride on this one, bite the bullet, & send B through the ice. Now.

memphisslim on 03/23/2011 (1:56 am)

Here’s my problem with saying we can’t compete because of rigorous academic standards. 2 words for you. DUKE University!  They are a private school as well.  Pretty damn hard to get into too.  Yes Wake is a small school Undergrad enrollement is only around 4500, but guess what. Dukes is only 2000 more.  ALSO don’t you think the academic credentials for Princeton are a little harder?? Hell they played a pretty good game against UK barely losing by 2.  You know what else? Princeton also only has an undergrad enrollment of about 4500.  A lot of small schools made the NCAA tourney. Morehead State has a total undergraduate enrollment of only 7500 students and they upset frickin Louisville.  Xavier undergraduate enrollment is only around 4500 as well. 
I know they didn’t do much this year, but Davidson college.. Their undergrad enrollment is only like 1600 frickin students.  At least they had a winning season.

Winstonman78 on 03/19/2011 (9:12 am)

Is anybody going to suggest if we fire Jeff Bzdelik tommorrow that Shaka Smart is not available?

I think not.

He’s smart. He’s aggressive. His style suits the type of players we have (smaller quick sharp shooting guards). He has ACC credentials. He’s proven he can coach above his talent level. He’s dang sure not afraid….

He has no ties at all to his current midmajor program (that’s recruiting successfully in ACC land). His kids are all Seniors so next year is not as likely to be as good as this year.

This is a prime example of a coach that is most certainly available to Wake Forest this year that probably won’t be available next year.

Now is the time to act.

Joey D on 03/18/2011 (11:08 pm)

Joey D - Well said.

Deacon - You said,“NC State is a good example of why its hard I think for Wake and State to find coaches willing to step into the immediate shadow of Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski.”  I disagree.  Real coaches are not afraid of the competition, they are inspired by it. 

Maybe the real reason NC State was turned down by the coaches it pursued was that Herb Sendek had just taken NC State to 5 straight NCAA tournaments before he was terminated. If that begins to sound a little familiar, think Gaudio. (No it wasn’t 5 for Dino, but you get the drift.) 

The reason for firing Dino was given as poor late season and post season performance.  This was in spite of the fact that his post season record improved every year.  If there was a problem last year getting a real coach to take us seriously, don’t you think that it could have had more to do with the perception of our AD’s high expectations and lack of patience. That certainly makes more sense than being afraid of Roy and Coach K.

A young gun, up & coming coach is not going to be scared off if we fire Bz after this fiasco of a season.  He will also not be scared off at the prospect of competing against Roy and Coach K.  But what serious coach is going to consider coming here (as long as Wellman’s the AD) without an acceptable explanation of the what’s and why’s of what happened with the Wake basketball program in March and April of 2010?  Would you? 

So there may be a good reason why we had to settle for Jeff Bzdelik.  But I don’t think that two (or even five years) of Buzzball is going to make it all better. 

And IF there is a valid reason not to fire Bz, concern that good coaching candidates will be scared off by his firing, ain’t it.

gt on 03/18/2011 (6:46 pm)

David: This has been one of the worst seasons I can remember for WFU basketball. And yes the AD should take responsiblity for his actions. The AD did know Jeff Bzdelik and they did work together. We both would agree that Ron Wellman is a smart man. I don’t think he would be the first person to hire a friend for a job. I’m sure in Ron Wellman’s mind that he may have thought that Bz might be a good match for Wake, and no one has accused Ron Wellman of deciding that no matter what I’m going to hire my buddy Jeff Bzdelik even though there are others I could have hired, but people are going to ask questions about his motives when Jeff Bzdelik had an awful record and was still hired and has led Wake to one of the worst seasons ever. Ron Wellman has done alot of good for Wake (hiring Coach Grobe and Coach Prosser are excellent examples). Having said that he has now made two bad decisions that has sent the Wake Basketball program in a tailspin (firing Dino Gaudio and replacing him with a coach that has an awful track record). Yes the term buddy hire has been put at there (the ACC insider used that term at the beginning of the year). I am not in the least worried that my comments or others who dare to disagree with the AD are going to sink the WFU program, it seems two bad decisions by Ron Wellman has caused the Wake Ship to start sinking all on it’s own.

Craig Carter on 03/18/2011 (1:32 pm)

David,  Have you seen the other teams’ boards over the years? The Wake fans, even in the current situation, are like nuns compared to those schools.

hugh on 03/18/2011 (12:55 pm)

Deacon,

First, let me be very clear in my assessment of this team. As I stated earlier, it is the WORST college basketball team I have ever watched play live and I’ve watched a lot of bad basketball.

I simply refuse to blame a group of 8 young men, 7 of whom came in very highly regarded. I saw players get worse instead of better and that is 100% coaching. If these players were not coachable, they would not have gotten to where they are.

The coach, meanwhile, is quite unproven as a college coach. He has never landed a top 150 recruit. He has never developed a player into NBA pick. The Colorado team that almost made the tourney this year, 4 Srs who were recruited before he arrived, and 2 Fr recruited by Coach Boyle and brought with him from N. Colorado in their 7 man rotation.The other player is a So. Bzdelik did nothing but draw a paycheck from the university for 3 years.

Second, re your assessment of Wake Forest basketball history. I see ONE losing season in the last 20 years, that a 15-16 year with a very underachieving team. I see the 3rd best conference record in the last 10 years in the toughest league in the country.

If a coach doesn’t want to or doesn’t believe he can come in and compete against Roy and Coach K quite honestly I don’t want him at all. We don’t expect to win every time, but we do expect to compete every time and we have with rare exception over the last 2 decades. Keep in mind as we talk of our small size and rigorous academic standards, that the school in Durham is only slightly bigger in size and carries an even higher academic standard. Wake Forest is to quote the fight song, “a class of the finest”, we should expect no no less.

Third, re firing a 1st year coach. Any coach worth a flip should recognize 8-24 is unacceptable at a school with the tradition of Wake Forest. To not fire him lowers the standard of the program.

Joey D on 03/18/2011 (12:31 pm)

Everyone has a selective memory but y’all haters take the cake. So Wellman’s a cronyistic, moron for hiring Bzdelik? Well who hired Grobe? And Grobe and Bz can’t be compared? Well duh, just based on longevity. And the fact that Grobe was left with a pretty nice stable of players by Jim Caldwell, the previous coach who ended up being respected enough to be an NFL head coach. (And at least bother to learn your history. WF’s football history is bad but there had been a fair number of bowl games before.  The uncharted territory was the Orange Bowl, which frankly was achieved b/c of the ACC tie in). That’s not to detract from Grobe’s amazing work with the football team. Just pointing out the reality that he came into a stronger situation, relatively. As far as I can tell, Wellman has made exactly 0 illogical hires. Bzdelik may be the first, but after one season any rational logic woudl find the jury still out. If nothing else, hasn’t Wellman earned the benefit of a doubt? Further, with fans like some of y’all on here, it ain’t gonna be easier to hire at ‘Ol “Fire The Coach” Wake Forest in the future. If I’m the coach at Butler (or wherever) doing my due diligence on a WF job offer I’m gonna see these comments and think: hmmm WF’s fair weather fans have the patience of kindergardners. I think I’ll look elswhere - like NCSU, Clemson, UVa, Miami, Anywhere U.  At least they give a guy a couple of years breathing room before they start calling for a coach to be fired and accusing the well-respected AD of cronyism.

David on 03/18/2011 (11:29 am)

It is true that Wake Forest will not be able to lure a coach from a top program to Wake Forest. That is not the issue. Wake fans want to lure a young up and coming coach from a smaller school that has had success there. I am old enough to remember what the Duke program was like before Coach K. became their coach. Duke usually fought it out with Wake and rarely competed favorably with NCSU or UNC. This should be our model. We need to hire a young coach with a promising record. We may swing and miss with this strategy, but I think we keep trying this until we find the right fit. If Wake had chosen a coach that fits the above description and he had a rather dismal season of 3 wins in the ACC and 12 wins overall, I think there would be very few people complaining. We chose an older coach with a mediocre to poor track record and then had the worst season in Wake history. Wake fans should never see this as acceptable.

Ken Nowell on 03/18/2011 (8:43 am)

Good comments from The Deacon.  There is no reason, however, that we can’t aspire to have a program as successful as Duke or Carolina.  And State has two national championships-two more than we do.  We could have a smaller, but more per capita effective fan base than these other schools if we would all keep pushing in the same direction.  We have to give Bz a chance or no sane coach would ever aggree to replace him.  We have to hope he can lay the groundwork or change the culture or build the foundation-or whatever RW is calling it these days-for our next Bones or Skip and our next run at greatness.  I’m hanging in there and looking for opportunities to help. Comeon Deacons!

DannyB on 03/18/2011 (8:23 am)

The Deacon,

You make some excellent points here.  UNC was able to hire Roy Williams from Kansas.  We certainly could not make a move of that magnitude.  Ron Wellman is tasked with building the entire athletic program by hiring lesser-known coaches, and not even the best talent evaluator is always going to find the diamond in the rough. 

However, you did remind me of one of my biggest problems with the Wake Forest community, which I love.  Many within it are too willing to accept the status quo of mediocrity that you properly detailed below.  Why can’t one of the smallest and most academically rigorous schools in the country be a national (or at least an ACC) contender every single year?

I completely rejection the notion that we can’t put put together a team of eight to nine guys who can compete with anyone during any season.  The attitude that doesn’t believe that Wake Forest athletics should be a consistent contender is the same attitude that has caused our most talented teams to fall flat when it mattered most.  They were content to be on SportsCenter and to be ranked number 1 in the middle of the season.  Had they demanded more of themselves and if we demanded more of them, perhaps those trying to temper expectations for the program would be singing a different tune.  I simply think that expectating greatness always precedes achieving it.

DC on 03/18/2011 (8:07 am)

Unfortunately my right honorable friend, we are NOT Duke or UNC…  We expect someone to come and coach in the shadow of much more successful programs, and quite frankly some coaches are not going to take that risk.  The Butler coach is a good example of one I suspect turned Wellman down, and obviously he could see our current team was not up to par and remained at Butler where he is in the NCAA tourney again… We as fans seem to think that a coach will leave a successful program for ours based on the prestige alone, because looking at our history, we have rarely put more than 3-4 consistent years together at a time. Our expectations have grown larger than our reality can feed it…  Lets take a look at what the last 26 years of WFU basketball has looked like…

Bob Staak

85-86 8-21 overall 0-14 ACC Final Rank: N/A
86-87 14-15 overall 2-12 ACC Final Rank: N/A
87-88 10-18 overall 3-11 ACC Final Rank: N/A
88-89 13-15 overall 3-11 ACC Final Rank: N/A

Dave Odom

89-90 12-16 overall 3-11 ACC Final Rank: N/A
90-91 19-11 overall 8-6 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
91-92 17-12 overall 7-9 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
92-93 21-9 overall 10-6 ACC Final Rank: 16
93-94 21-12 overall 9-7 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
94-95 26-6 overall 12-4 ACC   Final Rank: 3 /ranked in top 10 during year
95-96 26-6 overall 12-4 ACC   Final Rank: 9 /ranked in top 10 during year
96-97 24-7 overall 11-5 ACC   Final Rank: 9 /ranked in top 10 during year
97-98 16-14 overall 7-9 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
98-99 17-14 overall 7-9 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
99-00 22-14 overall 7-9 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
00-01 19-11 overall 8-8 ACC   Final Rank: 23 / ranked in the top 10 during the year

Skip Prosser

01-02 21-13 overall 9-7 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
02-03 25-6 overall 13-3 ACC   Final Rank: 8 / ranked in top 10 during year
03-04 21-10 overall 9-7 ACC   Final Rank: 17 / ranked in top 10 during year
04-05 27-6 overall 13-3 ACC   Final Rank: 5 /ranked in top 10 during year
05-06 17-17 overall 3-13 ACC Final Rank: N/A
06-07 15-16 overall 5-11 ACC Final Rank: N/A

Dino Gaudio

07-08 17-13 overall 7-9 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
08-09 24-7 overall 11-5 ACC   Final Rank: 12 / ranked in top 10 during year
09-10 20-11 overall 9-7 ACC   Final Rank: N/A

Jeff Bzdelik

10-11 8-24 overall 1-14 ACC   Final Rank: N/A
So for those who expect to be right there with Duke and Carolina… here it is.

Out of the past 26 years of Wake Forest Basketball, we have been ranked in the top 10 SEVEN times, and finished the season with a postseason top 25 rank NINE times.  There were a few years where we cracked the top 25 but were unable to finish in a ranked position.  Thats hardly fitting with the argument that somehow we are going to draw coaching talent to rival the cornerstones of the ACC, is it?

The point I am trying to make, is that this is Wake Forest.  We fight the good fight, we have good years, but we also face the reality of being one of the smallest and most academically rigorous institutions in the country, and we pay a price for it in the sports end.  We get good players, but we also face droughts, and every coach has had one.  Of course Bzdeliks is more like a Gobi Desert, but every desert ends somewhere nicer, so hopefully what we get out of Bzdelik will position us to come out of the desert and find that paradise of a coach to build a program here like the ones we envy and sometimes despise down I-40…

And hopefully a coach like the ones we all want, and couldnt obviously get last year, will see a university and a fanbase that supports its institution and its athletic programs despite adversity (of course, lets hope they dont read the comments on your blog Dan, no offense intended!).

The Deacon on 03/17/2011 (10:28 pm)

I think the reason that the Wellman / Bzdelik connection is mentioned so often is the fact that it is almost impossible to understand why Jeff Bzdelik was hired in the first place? I just don’t buy the line that Bzdelik was the only choice out there. It seems that those who make this statement have no idea if it is true or not. Just because there are Wake Fans who dare to question Ron Wellman and others does not mean that those fans are not knowledgeable or don’t care about their school. I imagine that for the most part most Wake Fans do not question coaching hires, but this season is different. The historic losses are many and have been mentioned numerous times. Also, why would any AD go out and hire someone to come in and only stay three or four years. Again, those who might think this are guessing and for the most part want others who object to this hire to remain silent. I don’t think that is going to happen. I think for the first time in a long time Wake Fans are acting like fans from UNC or Duke. They are stating:  Why do we have to settle for less, why can’t we be in the top five in the nation in basketball? Why should we compare ourselves to NC State? Why don’t we compare ourselves to UNC or Duke? Fans should challenge decisions that make no sense, even if it may seems like ranting. I am well aware that the administration at WFU thinks that those who object to this hiring are just being obnoxious and are not in the know, however I would remind them that these fans who dare to object to this hiring also give money to the University and buy season tickets.

Craig Carter on 03/17/2011 (3:48 pm)

I read the article with the State player’s dad, and I cant help but feel this is a major problem now for both NBA and college sports.  Too many players wanting to “just play” rather than learn fundamental basketball.  It makes our college game look like backyard basketball, and the NBA is full of talented players unable to transition from “just playing” to being part of a well-oiled machine.  Now I know there are exceptions, but it seems to ring true, especially with the formation of the D-League where young players can be sent to learn the game rather than just play it.

As far as coach vs players, no coach goes into a job and alters his playing style/strategy to match what kind of player is already there.  Most do exactly what Bzdelik is doing, reteaching their philosophy and bringing in players to match that philosophy.  Now I am not a Bzdelik supporter in that I look through any color glasses other than transparent ones, so I am definitely not happy about how this season played out.

But, having said that, I cannot help but disagree with JoeyD, because this team is perhaps the most fundamentally flawed team I have ever seen take the floor in Black and Gold.  While the talent is there in spurts, its just a lack of basic skills that seems to be the glaring problem.  Several of the announcers in our ACC games also mentioned the lack of movement, the lack of good passes at times, the complete lack of rebounding (mostly due to either strength issues with Walker and DesRosiers, or just plain inability to stay in position and rotate properly), and no real ball-handling leader.  Even during the Staak years, with the issues he had with recreational beverages, the players had fundamental skills, and the first few Odom teams were not heralded recruits, but workhorse type players who played their butts off with the full knowledge that for many of them, a career in the NBA was not to be had.  But I digress…

Now, I agree that overall improvement did not seem to be there at all.  I did think that Terrell, while not a scoring machine in the second half of the season, did begin to play defense with some degree of improvement from the first half where he played little defense at all.  But the defensive intensity was never there, our inside players were too weak to play the post, or in the case of Ty Walker, often completely out of position due to overzealous shot blocking.  The oft-mentioned highly rated freshman class definitely fit the Prosser-type of fast play, but without a good supporting cast of at least one or two veteran starters, hit the freshman wall and never recovered.  Without a consistent inside presence, its hard to get defensive stops and offensive series that produce positive points. 

I will finish by stating that the Wellman/Bzdelik “must be good buds and thats why he got the job” rant is a tired and less than credible argument in the face of a university which is very careful of who it hires.  Wellman for all his independence does answer to an experienced Board of Trustees and a President who was the leader of the only independent academic/sports powerhouse in the NCAA.  It is foolish to keep harping on it so much.  The more believable theory, I think, is that the first couple of choices did not want to come here, and Wellman turned to someone who is willing to come here and only stay a 3-4 year period, leaving the door open for possible coaching hires down the road from the ones who turned it down earlier.  NC State is a good example of why its hard I think for Wake and State to find coaches willing to step into the immediate shadow of Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski.  How many good coaches turned State down last time?  A lot… and I doubt it will go much smoother this time either.  Wake is in that same boat.  Comparisons with the non-Big Four schools and their coaching hires downplays the extreme fanatical reactions among the core group of the Big Four.  People at Virginia, or Clemson or Georgia Tech don’t view Carolina and Duke as their archenemies to be crushed as State or Wake fans do.  We expect a lot from a coach, and quite frankly, beating the other three Big Four teams is at the core of it… 

So I agree with Dan, one more chance.  If there is good solid improvement putting at least back into the top half of the ACC again, then perhaps we can return to supporting our university and alma mater with the uncoditional support its quite frankly deserving as the lone light in the darkness.  If not, then I will join everyone I suspect in calling for a change, but its a chance we have to take.  Firing Coach Bzdelik wont change last season, but it will put any decent coach completely out of reach.  Who would want to come coach a school that fired 2 coaches in 2 years?  We would be in worse shape than NC State….

Thanks Dan for a wonderful blog season…

The Deacon on 03/16/2011 (8:57 pm)

Lee: Most Wake fans know Jim Grobe and sir Jeff Bzdelik is no Jim Grobe.

Craig Carter on 03/16/2011 (6:44 pm)

In other words, this was the year to establish who is Alpha Dog—the players or the coach—and that backstage drama became more important than what happened on the court. 

So where does that leave us?  Well, next year we get to see whether the new Alpha Dog can lead the pack to anywhere other than over a cliff.

RaleighDeac on 03/16/2011 (5:32 pm)

Coach Grobe can win another big one for the Deacs—get into a it’s him or me deal with Wellman so that our nepotistic AD and his buddy Bz will hit the road together.

Class of 1977 on 03/16/2011 (4:56 pm)

Craig,

You can’t really call the football team we had last year competitive.

Lee Jackson on 03/16/2011 (4:35 pm)

FYI… I love Grobe and hope he never leaves, but my point is that you can’t take one season of winning one game and look at that and call a guy a great coach or a horrible coach especially in his first year. The anti-BZZZ buzz is just small minds that can’t see the big picture. If you give the guy 4 years and he doesn’t make any strides then he wasn’t the man for the job but this guy was dealt a losing hand and lost this year. It doesn’t make him a loser.

If Coach Grobe does read this which I seriously doubt, please don’t resign because I said you only won one ACC game twice in your ten year history here.

If I was a Wolfpacker then I would have called for Lowe to go because he has a future NBA team and still can’t win… you know… kind of like Dino did every year he was at Wake…

Lee Jackson on 03/16/2011 (4:31 pm)

You cannot compare Grobe to Bzdelik. Grobe came here and made us better and took us to levels we had never dreamed of before for our football team.
Hey Bzdelik- take us to the Final Four and we’ll get off your back for a few years. Until then, you need to make our program better, not the pitiful mess that we’re in right now.

eh on 03/16/2011 (3:53 pm)