My Take on Wake - Dino Had His Days

Dino Had His Days

During his three seasons as head basketball coach at Wake Forest, Dino Gaudio woke up 92 mornings with a game to play that day or night.

Most of those days were worth waking up to. The Deacons, who were 8-24 in the ACC the two seasons before Gaudio took over, were 61-31 overall under his command and 27-21 in ACC play There are a lot of ACC coaches, he said on the first floor of the Miller Center on Selection Sunday, 2010, who didn’t make the NCAA Tournament in two of their first three years as head coach, and he was right.

There were three mornings when Gaudio, in the words of fight manager Joe Jacobs, should have stood in bed. The dates were March 13, 2009 (75-64 loss to Maryland in the ACC Tournament), March 20, 2009 (84-69 loss to Cleveland State in the NCAA Tournament) and March 11, 2010 (83-62 loss to Miami in the ACC Tournament). If he’d lost only one of the three would he still be head coach at Wake today? Could be. How about if he won two of the three? You got to think so.

He had other bad days, in 2009 the 77-52 shellacking at Miami, and in 2010 the 79-58 loss at Georgia Tech, the blown lead that resulted in an 87-83 loss at Virginia Tech, the lackluster 68-54 loss at N.C. State and the 77-68 home setback to a North Carolina team that had lost 10 of its previous 12 games. But those losses could be easily squared away, and then some, by the victories worth remembering—of which there were many. Gaudio, as head coach, was 2-2 against Mike Krzyzewski, 2-2 against Roy Williams and 2-3 against Gary Williams. The Deacons won at Gonzaga this year. They beat a Texas team that had been ranked No. 1 in the nation.

But in the end, three days, coming when they did, did him in.

Tough job.

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By Dan Collins on 04/08/2010 (11:59 pm)

Comments

Dan,

I love your stuff but this seems a little too simplistic to me. I don’t think you are off base with the fact those games helped do in Gaudio, but I think there are more reasons he was let go than just that.
To watch Wake Forest play half court offense was like watching paint dry. They looked like a bunch of guys waiting for a bus. If there was an offensive game plan it was poorly conceived and implemented AND after watching this seasons NCAA tournament it is wildly apparent that to win a National Championship you have to be able to play in the half court. I think Dino was a nice guy, but it seemed he didn’t have the knowledge or skill to get Wake Forest to that point. Also, he had no fire and his teams showed this fact. They buckled. I think Wellman made the only decision he could make to ensure the health of the program. I just hope all the recruits stay with us.

Thomas on 04/09/2010 (1:20 pm)

found an article where Mr. Grobe’s seat is said to be just a little warmer.
http://cfn.scout.com/2/959686.html

Doug on 04/09/2010 (11:20 am)

Wellman, being the very intelligent man he is, was very careful to present the FACTS of Feb and Mar the past 3 years. He provided telling statistics about our postseason collapses that support his decision that he had seen enough and was ready to move on.

There have to have been other matters—-leadership, team control,etc that are somewhat subjective.

I believe one of these was the way Dino failed to adequately handle the unfortunate situation with Chas Macfarland. Macfarland was never properly reined in, culminating in his extremely embarassing behavior during the Kentucky game.His behavior was embarassing to all the wonderful Wake Forest community—- in front of a large TV audience.. It was unacceptable. Dino should have long ago restrained Macfarland to prevent that particular episode from happening.

At that time, Dino certainly failed to be a good representative of Wake Forest Univ.

Jerry on 04/09/2010 (10:07 am)

The names I am currently seeing as possible replacements for Dino are singularly unimpressive. There is a real danger here of the Wake program taking a huge leap backward. What has been touted as one of the finest recruiting classes ever at Wake may go south with Dino’s departure and there is no guarantee that Dino’s replacement when named will be any better than Dino.

If his replacement puts together a 61-30 record (Dino’s) in his 1st 3 years (highly doubtful), then everyone will be saying what a great coach we have.

Odds are Wake basketball will not be a factor in the ACC for several years, and that hurts.

Dan, you haven’t given your readers your opinion on Dino’s firing. Let us know, good or bad?

jcg on 04/09/2010 (9:57 am)

Reading your column from today’s Journal gives the impression it may be 10 days or more b-4 a new coach is hired.

IMHO, I still feel Mr. Wellman has already completed his preliminary contacts and has at least two candidates in mind. I would not be surprised to see Country Dan be rousted from bed this weekend, early AM for a press conference.

Many posters on these threads underestimate Ron Wellman. I for one am glad he is steering the ship. He is methodical and will do his homework. Let us all sit back and hope he makes the correct choice, which I think he will…Whoever he selects; expect some criticism from this “peanut gallery.” I for one will refrain from criticsm to see the new coach in action…My only desire @ this point is for him to retain the assistant coaches in place as they are obviously good recruiters and are responsible for keeping next years recruits committed to WFU…

Tom on 04/09/2010 (8:56 am)

John, couldn’t have said it better myself.

Breakaway on 04/09/2010 (8:23 am)

Not a lot of ACC coaches in their first three years get to coach a team with three NBA first round draft picks on it either. Likewise, not a lot of ACC coaches in their first three years get to coach players (some of them first round NBA draft picks, by the way) who they had a hand in coaching. It shouldn’t have been as tough of a job as it was…

DC on 04/09/2010 (6:55 am)

Tough job, yes. That’s why ACC head basketball coaches make the big bucks. A tough decision for Wellman, no doubt, but when the main argument for retaining a coach is that he deserves at least one more year, maybe two, that speaks volumes. No one by this time seriously viewed Dino as the answer for the long term. When the best argument that can be mustered is, well, let’s give him another year (particularly when the general sentiment is next year will be a difficult season with the loss of Aminu and the senior class), it’s time to fish or cut bait. Ron cut bait and the program will be better for it in the long term. With that said, thank you Dino for being a good steward of the program for the last three years. Time for all to move on.

John on 04/09/2010 (2:12 am)