Comments

Isn’t Bzzzz now tied with Dino in victories after March 1… and he caught him in one season… OK I know that Dino did win a couple of games in March we’ll call them flukes…

Lee Jackson on 03/11/2011 (10:23 am)

Bzdelik needs to go, and Wellman needs to follow close behind him.  They also need to leave their paychecks from the past year on the table as they go, as neither of them did anything to earn them.  Never have I seen such a blatant display of giving a friend a job even though he didn’t deserve it.  Anyone could have led this team to more than 8 wins.  This is the absolute worst season in the 105 year history of Wake Forest Basketball, and I can absolutely GUARANTEE you that I will NEVER buy another ticket to a Wake Forest Basketball game until Bzdelik is fired from this program.  If you are in your mid 50’s and are a career .500 coach…well guess what?  You are a mediocre coach…and you have NO business coaching in the ACC.  Carmelo isn’t going to come along and save his rear this time.  Bzdelik, get out NOW!

8-24 worst year EVER! on 03/10/2011 (10:49 pm)

I graduated Wake in ‘90 and suffered through a dismal 4 yr. period of hoops yet we students drove the 30 mins. to Gboro for our “home” games and did not mind it, knowing we would probably lose…yet Keith, Kitley, Ivey and crew battled and they battled hard and that is why we went to the games.  This current team gave up on the coach in December.  They have not battled at all.  Talk all you want of the quality of players..they are good players, they DO NOT want to play for our current coach, no matter what they say to the press.  He needs to take the high road and resign.

Dray on 03/10/2011 (10:40 pm)

At last the season is over.  I feel as though I have just come from a root canal…....with no novacaine.

red on 03/10/2011 (8:58 pm)

It is unbelievable to see how far WF basketball has fallen. Every article regarding WF in the last couple of weeks (including the summary of today’s game) refers to the team as the worst in ACC history.  Has anyone gone back to the U. Colorado web page and looked up the team results during the past three years?  15-16,9-22, 12-20.  How does someone with that record get a job coaching in the ACC?  They must have been happy beyond belief when they got rid of Bzdelik and got 500k to boot.  Only in America.

Marcelo on 03/10/2011 (7:12 pm)

As the season is about over with the latest blowout in the ACC tourney, I am very frustrated watching this team and I feel like I need to vent a little bit.
I completely agreed with the dismissal of Gaudio.  Gaudio was not able to win in the postseason and it was hard to watch a team choke year after year. Wellman’s first mistake was hiring Gaudio in the first place. When Prosser died, the right thing to do would have been to give him 1 year with the interim title and look for a permanent head coach instead of offering him a long-term contract.  It wasn’t that big of a surprise when Gaudio turned out to be a weak coach at the ACC level. He may be just fine a mid-major but not at an ACC program.
Wellman’s move to get rid of Gaudio was the right move.  However, this only made sense if we got someone better. Wellman turned around and found a coach with no proven success at any level.
Looking back, this season has been about what we should have expected- Bzdelik came in to Colorado and got rid of 5 players his first year. They sucked at first and battled back to being mediocre. Now, at Wake, he has run off (for one reason or another) Woods, Tabb, Stewart, and who know’s who else.  Bzdelik has now set the bar so low that just making the NCAA tournament will be a big deal in a few years.
I don’t think Bzdelik really understands WFU fans. We expect greatness. We got frustrated by not winning national championships with talent like Duncan, Childress, and Aminu. We will settle for nothing less than at least a deep run in the tournament every year. Bzdelik comes in here and thinks that having a team that competes for a NCAA bid is good enough. That won’t satisfy this fan!
One more thing- Bzdelik needs to stop talking about what he did at Colorado and Air Force. He needs to understand that his resume DID NOT qualify him for his job. His friendship with Wellman is the only thing that I can see that was in his favor.  Bzdelik is going to have to prove himself to Wake fans and so far, he has not done that.
Hopefully next season will be better…but, I’m not expecting much.

DeacfromtheOdomyears on 03/10/2011 (6:03 pm)

As I write this Wake is down by 16 points to BC with the half almost over. The men’s basketball program is now (today) at a crossroads. What bothers me the most is that it seems that Ron Wellman’s pride is worth more than the player’s, fans, students and the future of the basketball program at Wake. Are we going to continue to have a coach who has presided over the worst season ever for WFU basketball because of an AD who is publically unwilling to admit his mistake and find a new coach after today’s game? The great history and accomplishments of this basketball program is worth much more than the pride of one man who will not admit his mistake.

Craig Carter on 03/10/2011 (4:51 pm)

Go and look at Colorado, and see what he did with the players he inherited—he ran off five in his first year.  Five.  He’s doing the same thing here.  I’ve never known any other college coach who “cleaned house” like that, and to do it twice….

Befuddled on 03/10/2011 (4:13 pm)

The biggest potential victims here are the players, particular those who do not fit the mode to which Bz is accustom to.  Great coaches are able to coach a diverse set of individuals, develop them, motivate them, and the best out of them.  Based on the events of this season, this does not appear to be a strength of Bz.  So the question now for Ron is, right or wrong.  Although you had good intentions and hired someone you could trust, hired someone with potentially good value ( which I would respect in today’s world, but I somewhat question based off of how player issues were handled this year.  These are smart but young kids that need both guidance and displine. Right or wrong he may have begun losing this team from the moment Tony Woods left.  Strongly displining him, but mentoring through that situation mY have created a great amount of good will between him and his players), but maybe you let your person bias limit your search and ability to not only find a coach with strong values but also a proven record, someone who the player could immediately respect (based off of his track record), someone who may have been more prepared to coach and recruit in the acc, someone who may have been a better fit for wake, someone who does not have to spend half thief time defending why they belong here because and despite of thier record.  If be was wrong (which some could argue, the results of this season could suggest), is it fair to the players, to the fans, and to the school to drag this out.

Frank II on 03/10/2011 (3:27 pm)

EXPERTS RATED THIS CLASS…. who cares where they were rated… ever seen a first round NBA pick tank? Look at some of the cursed first picks in NBA draft… Anyone remember Kenny Green getting grabbed out of our program with the 8th pick in the 1984 draft (I think it was 84). COme on… until a kid actually gets in the league you can’t say he has anything other than potential. And besides the Woods issue, the Chenault injury, whatever happened to Tabb that we’ll never know, we had a team of youngsters.

Lee Jackson on 03/10/2011 (1:35 pm)

I have to agree with Joe here. Dan - I appreciate that you posted Bz’s comments, but there seemed to be an undertone that his new benchmark for Wake Forest is making the NCAA tournament. Really? I thought the reason that we have a new coach is because of a lack of post-season success. I don’t want to hope every year that we make the tournament - I want us to be a contender.

Rich G on 03/10/2011 (1:12 pm)

What is it with this guy?  He constantly refers to what he has done in the past.  Dan was asking about the future of WAKE FOREST BASKETBALL.  Note to Bzdelik, you would win over more fans if you stop hyping your previous stops, because in retrospect you weren’t so good there, either!!!!!!!  I have had it. 
Congrats, on accomplishing the worst season in ACC Basketball history.  Bzz is doing a great job at setting the bar so low for ‘11 -‘12, that 12 wins will buy him a 3rd year, as Wake throws away it’s basketball program.  Enough of this guy and his BS coachspeak.

RonnieFranchise on 03/10/2011 (12:08 pm)

I know this is not the forum to start a debate with others from the “peanut gallery”, but I am frankly astounded by a couple of the comments. For anyone to say “this season is about what I expected” is flabbergasting. You really expected this team to be one of the worst in the country? You expected us to lose to some of the worst teams in the worst conferences at our home court? You expected us to be 70 or 80 points lower than any other team has ever finished in the RPI. We could have dramatic improvement in each of the next two seasons and still finish last in the league. I have definitely seen less talented Wake teams finish much more respectably. As to the comment about Coach-K, he gets only the very top recruits. They would never even look at the recruits we are bringing in. They almost always have several Mcdonlds-All-Americans on the bench waiting to contribute. How we expect an obviously inferior coach to compete by recruiting much lower rated kids is beyond me. I think we have to go after the best kids we can get and mold them into a team. In some ways a coach is like a parent. You can blame the kids to some extent, but odds are the real culprit is bad parenting.

Ken Nowell on 03/10/2011 (9:45 am)

I would like to think that Wake would be better next season. Except that they will have the same coach, who has lost everywhere he’s been. Thank you Mr. Wellman, for leading Wake into the college basketball netherworld. If that was your intent when you hired Beezeldick, you succeeded greatly.

Ferd Fisher on 03/10/2011 (8:57 am)

Coach Bz had his say- now I get mine in the fall. I’ll be voting with my wallet until i see him give us an ACC caliber team. He’s got a LONG way to go.

Kathy M on 03/10/2011 (8:46 am)

Dan,

Thanks for the report. I agree that with experience and some more talent we should be much better. As painful as it was to watch, this season is about what I expected. Lack of point guard and no inside presence equals losses in this league. It takes more than a season of playing together with kids of this age and with their talent to win consistent. Go Deacs!

Bo on 03/09/2011 (9:22 pm)

My response to this Bdzelik is that Air Force is 1-70 against ranked teams.  How many of those games did he coach.  1 and 70!  I don’t think its going to get much better.  Wake had more talent than their record and they continued to make the same mistakes at the end of the season they did at the beginning.  Sorry but the bright moments were way too few.

jay vaughn on 03/09/2011 (9:20 pm)

Dan,
Your first line asked if we,like you, were looking for hard evidence that Wake would be a better basketball team next year.

You got a lot of coach-speak b.s. from Bz to pass along to us.

We are still looking for hard evidence.Hopefully we will get it next season.

Sorry about Ari.I hope he and Bz don’t give up on each other.

It is easier to dismiss and write off a person than to work with them. It is very hard work to work with and help young people. I believe that is a coach’s Job One.

Jerry on 03/09/2011 (8:53 pm)

The Colorado references are so tired. I’m real impressed that they “MIGHT” make the NCAA Tourney.  WFU might make the NCAA Tourney also - all we need to do is win the ACC Tourney.  Seriously Coach - can you please stop talking about other teams.  If you concentrate on Wake only, maybe you will realize that this has been a historically bad season and alot of coaching needs to be done between now and next season.  For Wake fans everywhere - enough about the Buffs.  Oh I almost forgot - we don’t care about Air Force either and the one great game that they played against Wake.  Give it a rest.

Joe on 03/09/2011 (8:40 pm)

A well-coached and very tough-minded Cleveland State team completely outplayed and clobbered a Wake team with far superior talent in the first round of the NCAA Tournament a mere to years ago, and the reason was discipline.  As many commentators have stated, those Wake players were much more concerned with showing off their skills for the NBA than with playing team basketball.  Coach Gaudio was very fortunate to have incredible athletes on his teams (that Coach Prosser recruited, mind you), and his record merely shows what a talented group of players he had, not what a good coach he was.  Wake should have won many more games and gone much further in the NCAA Tournament than they did with the talent that they had.  Don’t look at what he accomplished - look at what he SHOULD have accomplished.

I, for one, like the fact that Coach B is throwing down the gauntlet and making it clear that there is a new sheriff in town who will not put up with the sulking, the show-boating, and the free-lance style of play that has plagued this program for the last three years.  And for those who think that recruiting slightly above average players that fit into a system cannot be successful, all you need to do is to look down the road to Durham.  Very few of Coach K’s players ever amounted to much in the pros.  But they invariably play as a team, and Coach K gets the most out of them.  (Plus, most of them stay at least three and often four years!)  Coach Bz is no Coach K and never will be.  But I do think that he will instill a sense of discipline and unselfish team play that will improve this program in time.  In my opinion, things would have been even worse with Coach G at the helm this year.  But, with A.D. Wellman’s itchy trigger finger, we never got the chance to see the implosion that Coach G had set in place under his own watch.  This has been a painful year to watch (or, in many fans’ cases, not to watch) for someone like me who bleeds Old Gold and Black.  I only want the very best for this school and its teams, and I am hoping accordingly that things get better and that if Coach B is still around next year that he will stick to his guns and make this an upper tier program once again.

Matt on 03/09/2011 (8:26 pm)