Comments

As good as our guys played against Miami they played just as bad against State yesterday. It was as bad as I have ever seen Wake play all the way back to Carl Tacy. I just want to make one point. These players have been playing together since October. With the exception of a few minutes against Maryland and the Virgina and Miami game the performance and improvement has been minimal. Players can only improve if they have Coaches that can teach and motivate. I have seen very little from any of our Coaching staff. No, I am not in practices, I am sure they practice hard, I am sure they love playing. I am sure they want to win. But the bottom line is simply this, take this team and allow a Coach like Coack K, Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, and many others and they could take this group and maybe not win all of the games but you would see tangible improvment and growth. Take a look at Seth Curry at Duke. This kid was at Liberty University. Wasn’t recruited by Duke or any other ACC school and went to Liberty. He wasn’t a star at Liberty, but because his Dad helped Coack K on the USA team he talked Coach K into giving him a scholarship. With Coack K’s teaching and motivation look at what this kid has become. All of the so called experts that rated our class in the top 10 couldn’t be all wrong. So you have to ask yourself, then why have we not shown any more progress? The margins are still the same as they were early on, we still are loosing by 20 to 35. we are still turning the ball over 15 to 20 times, we still have been getting hammered on the boards, Carson got beat how many times down the floor yesterday? This is just ABC basket ball. I’ve seen Coaches at the Y show more coaching ability.

Come on people, look at this Coach. Look at his track record, he is not a good coach never has been! In every job he’s had in the college ranks he has started with terrible loosing records and has had no where to go but up. Our Coaching staff has got to be the worst I have ever seen. And by the way the four second play that was drawen up at the end of Miami game is a play that is used all the time by NBA teams. Many of you are using that one play that he drew up to solidify his coaching experience. If he were as good as he is made out to be, you must ask yourself, why hasn’t he been at any school longer than 3 years? I have yet to see him get into the face of a player, he gives me the impression he would rather be anywhere but where he is. The most emotion I have seen Bzdellick show was at the news conference. I was behind the bench yesterday and he was pitiful. The Coaches didn’t coach, the players didn’t respond. How did Carolina respond after loosing to Duke? How did Duke respond when they got beat by St. Johns? Both were ready, ready to play. They were motivated and determined they would be a better team than what they showed. Our team comes out deflated, slow and clearly not ready to play. Even Bzdelick said the practices were not as good as the ones leading up to the Miami game.
Everything starts and ends at the Head Coach.

Tony C on 02/14/2011 (12:11 pm)

Sometimes you have to take the brunt of a loss from a coach as a writer who has to ask questions just minutes after the tough result. I don’t blame Bzdelik either, and haven’t taken the acrid response toward me personally. It didn’t help me create anything as a writer but it, at least, got a passionate coach who was inches away from victory to stay in the room long enough to reflect for others. As a general rule I don’t like to ask the first question - something I learned from a long-time friend and colleague of mine - but in this case I felt we’d all lose out if I didn’t speak up and ask something just to keep him accessible.

Sam Walker on 02/13/2011 (5:55 pm)

Coaching isn’t our problem. The play we ran with 4 seconds left was beautifully plannned and executed. It was the best 4 second full court play I have seen since Valpo won in the final seconds of the NCAAs. The shot just didn’t go down.

Our problem is obvious—we don’t have Tony Woods or anyone like him. Big bodies like the Maryland and Miami centers just kill us down low. Carson is a good player who will be a star—when he can play the 4. Mckie will be a star—when he can play the 3.  Losing our center and a pretty big reserve power forward( Tabb) have killed us. And we didn’t even have Stewart last night. 

Hopefully, some unsigned low post player in the class of 2011 will realize that this group og young players will be very good over the next few years if they get a little help in the post. Unless we get another qaulity big man to join Daniel Green in our recruiting class this year, we won’t have much chance to improve significantly. the coaches have to come through this spring and get that big man we so desperatley need.

wfu22fan on 02/10/2011 (11:44 pm)

He had already lost enough games for a lifetime before this season ever started.  I am sure he is a nice man but the decision to hire him was a mistake and until the Univeristy recognizes this, fans will stay away, students will stay away, and the coach will continue to be mad.

M on 02/10/2011 (7:52 pm)

Dan,

Am I the only one who thinks you cant win games with 3 guards, a small forward and a center. You can’t double down effectively in the post. You can’t rebound. You cant play effective defense.
Wake played as well as possible given the tiny line up we are playing. Wake will never win without playing at least one more big guy at a time. I think we will really miss Melvin Tabb before all is said and done.

Ken

Ken Nowell on 02/10/2011 (2:59 pm)

I also think the team showed some real heart last night. Unfortunately, they are just not use to winning..Until Carson adds some strength, he is little to no help defensively..Over a 1-2 minute stretch last night, he did score 3 points (basket and 1 of 2 foul shots). But, during this same period, his man scored 6 points—and, there was not much resistance offerred by Carson defensively. He needs a lot of off season work in the weight room. Ty has earned more playing time..He’s not any stronger, but at least more active. We continue to have break downs rebounding missed foul shots—hard to understand..That’s mental..

beachdeac on 02/10/2011 (2:53 pm)

LEAVE WELLMAN OUT OF THIS!

Wake Forest is FORTUNATE to have a front man like Ron Wellman. He makes what he thinks is the best decision and stands by it. He doesn’t trash people or abandon them even when it is hard.

I don’t think to much about people who hate to lose. It’s more important that you recognize what changes need to be made to win. Both Ty and Carson are better than Johnson. If he played both at the same time and doubled Johnson, Wake would have won by 20 and Johnson wouldn’t have gotten double figures.

That’s not Wellman’s fault.  Also, Ty Walker is a pro. He should get an entry pass at some point since we have so many point guards on the court at all times. Ty didn’t miss a shot so pass him the ball.

Stop putting this poor season on Wellman. He’s an AD but he depends on his hires to perform. Bz isn’t but Wellman isn’t trashing him because he’s classy.

The only worse use of our talent would be to bench Walker (which Dino would have done). We have the talent to succeed, we just aren’t using them properly. at least we have a zone offense now. But Carson needs to play more and with Walker more for Wake to succeed NOW.

Brian Thacker on 02/10/2011 (2:31 pm)

I was proud of the effort the Deacs expended last night. They really tried hard. But, again, turnovers and defensive lapses did us in.

Walker needs more coaching regarding when to jump. He jumps, then is coming down as his man goes up to score or rebound. He is really susceptible to a fake. My grandson could fake him out of his shorts.

This game—-and the 22 point loss to Miami in the first round of the ACC tournament last March—- may have been lost 3 years ago when the Wake coaches would not offer Reggie Johnson the scholarship to Wake he so badly wanted.Not having faith in that young man’s willingness to lose weight and work on his game is coming back to haunt us. What appeared to be Reggie’s family and friends were really enjoying watching him have his way inside and hitting those 2 clutch free throws.

According to what I have read about recruiting, we don’t have much going with any big, strong bulky men for 2011 or 2012. Reportedly, Lekan Ajayi, the 6’11’ rebounding machine and teammate of Anthony Fields, the PG commitment from Quality Ed in Winston, has dropped us from consideration. I was hoping we might get a pipeline set up with Quality ED;we may, but we need Ajayi.

Jerry on 02/10/2011 (2:23 pm)

Wellman reminds me of soon to be Egyptian Prez. Mubarak…

Has lost support of his subjects but refuses to let go…

Hemorrhaging red ink on the bottom line will be his achilles heel!

Tom on 02/10/2011 (2:05 pm)

Lee, great catch on Wellman’s post game comments.  I’ve often said he lives in an alternate universe.  I guess he assumes that the people listening on the radio (who weren’t at the game) could get excited that there was a lot of fan support and full seats.  Too bad when the 11 o’clock news comes on, it paints a mysteriously different picture of the stands.  Its hard for any of us to go to a game nowadays.  Just a byproduct of losing, and many times, losing badly.

Dano on 02/10/2011 (1:51 pm)

1. There were like 50 students there last night and the lower bowl was 1/2 empty. Those are some high dollar donors that decided they would rather do something else than watch our joke of a program. Apathy is a terrible thing.

2. Can you believe that we really promoted the piano juggler in email? Seriously, things are that bad.

I hope Buzz will do the right thing and resign. Nobody has faith in him except Wellman, and both may be shown the door together.

KristyKrunchy on 02/10/2011 (1:31 pm)

I’m sure Bzdelik was upset about the officiating but from what I’ve seen the entire season he spends very little time working the officials or even interacting with them. Other coaches (and all the successful ones) are masters at working the refs and it shows up in the calls they get.I know that Coach has had a lot of things to work on this year, but I’m not sure how you can expect to get the close calls when you don’t work the refs the way the other coaches in the league do…

Andy Y on 02/10/2011 (1:02 pm)

I am a week and a half late in this response, but, as one of the rare college basketball fans in Colorado who watches all of the local teams, I have to say some things about Jeff Bzdelik that seem to have been missed by the average fan.

Bz did not build or improve the Air Force program.  Joe Scott, the current coach at Denver, did.  Bz came in after Chris Mooney’s one year on the job, added no new players, and used the offensive system the players knew better than he did to win a lot of games.  He developed nobody and left for Colorado when the coming downward spiral was obvious.  But he made sure the local media gave him all the credit.

At Colorado, which, by the way, was not dropping to the Mountain West anytime soon, he was replacing an inferior coach.  He lucked into a fairly good, but often selfish, player in Alec Burks because he had a good assistant, Steve McClain.  In fact, the appearance was that McClain, now at Indiana, was the one that had the real relationship with the players.  Otherwise, we mostly had a lot of NBA junk with clueless one-on-one play at the end of close games, which tended to be lost.  But the local media, which basically ignores college hoops, kept raving about the progress he was making.  (The same guys who called him incompetant as the Nuggets’ coach.)  And when he left, you could still see that the structure he built wasn’t going to have much staying power. 

Bz can appear to be an OK guy at times, but.  Don’t worry, Wake fans, he will be gone soon, since, despite what he said, he is always looking for that next job.

Dave Germeroth on 02/10/2011 (12:37 pm)

Dan you’re spot on. How can you not have some understanding for Coach B? He’s honestly done and said every blasted thing he could already that could be said about this miserable season. What else is there to say? I don’t blame him a single bit for being mad.The man comes off to me as a consument professional; so I’m not suprised that he’s yet to truely breakdown in public. It’s frustrating to try to teach the right way to do things and have the “students” constantly do the wrong way.Not to mention then be blamed for the “students” continual use of the wrong way.Crazy.

b w allen on 02/10/2011 (11:47 am)

I have a couple of questions, Dan. 1) Where are all the students? I was at the game last night, and there were just a handful of students. School is in session, so what gives? 2) Where are all the fans? I sat in the lower arena and there were empty seats throughout, and the upper arena wasn’t even close to a quarter full. I was listening to Ron Wellman on the post-game radio show last night talking about the great fan support the program was getting, but the crowds would suggest otherwise.

Lee on 02/10/2011 (11:13 am)

Mr. Collins,

I really enjoy reading all of your articles and your blog.  I enjoy reading most of the comments that others share as well.  However, that is why I am writing today.  This is the first time I have ever posted a comment on any blog.  I am a graduate of Wake Forest, class of 2004, and I have been following Wake basketball ever since I was a child with my father.  This does not make me an expert but I do believe it allows me to have an educated opinion on Wake basketball.  Every winter and spring we look forward to watching the Deacons play.  This season has been a disappointment for both of us because of the struggles of the team.  Neither of us wanted to see Dino go and felt that he deserved more of a chance because we believed that the program was going in the right direction. However, we still watch every game and talk to each other on the phone before, during, and after every win and loss.

I am writing in because I know what it means to be a Demon Deacon.  I know that Wake Forest stands for integrity, sportsmanship, and doing things the right way.  That is why I was disappointed to read one of the comments on the article published in the Journal about last night’s game.  One writer, as you have probably seen, said that some fans are calling for “Ron Wellman’s life”.  He said that he is calling for his job, but not ready to go that far “yet”.  He also calls Coach B a “piece of crap”  These comments are extremelly frustrating and disappointing.  I did not agree with letting Coach Gaudio go, I do however know that Wake Forest is above comments like these.  I am sure these individuals read almost all of your articles and posts.  How can they read about the great act of generosity that just happened with our baseball coach and one of his players, and then post a comment like that the next day?  I do not mind if this blog gets posted or not.  I just felt that these comments were not what Wake Forest is about and hope all of those associated with the university continue to do the right things.  Thank you for listening.

pcrowleyjr on 02/10/2011 (10:50 am)

Dan,

I don’t blame Bzdelik either.  In fact, I am encouraged by his mood.  I want a coach who truly hates to lose.  Everyone says they hate to lose.  But the great competitors seems to hate it just a little more than everyone else.  If my coach displays some of that attitude, then it has to trickle down to the rest of the team. 

No doubt that this season is wearing on Coach Bzdelik.  But if he does a good job laying the foundation of skills and attitude with this team, he will be much better off during future seasons.  I’m sure he realized this again after he cooled down a bit after last night’s brutal loss and is now hopefully focused on the next sequence of practices and games.

DC on 02/10/2011 (10:34 am)

A tough loss, sure but when you’ve been averaging 20+ point losses this is a solid step forward.  Despite being down by nearly double digits twice the boys played through it and got right back into the thick of things.  If all of our losses this season had been this close a lot of the Bzdelik bashing wouldn’t exist.  We expected to have large amounts of losses but to be competitive and tonight we were.  Keep your heads up gentlemen, this was a solid game and if you play this hard night in and out, you’ll get more wins.

Jeff on 02/10/2011 (9:50 am)

I’m sure Coach Bzdelik does hate losing, though his head coaching record would indicate he has a fair amount of experience with it.  I do appreciate the effort given by the kids last night.  I still can’t believe J.T.‘s shot didn’t fall.

Thanks for taking a minute to chat in the concourse last night.  It was great to finally meet you.  Keep up the good work!

Steve on 02/10/2011 (9:49 am)

None of us long-time loyal Deacons are happy with the results this year.  However, I left the Joel last night feeling surprisingly serene.  Yes, we lost and that part totally sucked.  On the other hand, I saw great effort from the team.  I saw several offensive sets that were run perfectly and this is something I don’t recall seeing over the last couple of years.  I thought Bzdelick’s game management over the last 4 minutes was very good.  JT played perhaps some of his best ball as he played under control last night.  Travis is simply a beast, going about his business quietly and getting his rebounds and points.  Basically, I’m looking beyond the emotion of this horrid season and actually seeing a team slowly coming together.  Perhaps, they are coming together too slowly for us, but they are improving.  I was baffled as much by the hire as Bzdelick as anyone else.  Actually, I was upset by it.  However, he is our coach, that isn’t going to change anytime soon, and rather than spend unneccessary enegy on anger, rancor and a variety of other emotions, I’m going to continue to look for positives in the baby steps we’re taking.  “By the inch, it’s a cinch, by the yard, it’s hard.”

Jim on 02/10/2011 (9:34 am)