Hold Your Horses
As so often happens at times as these, the reaction has gotten out ahead of the story. Or at least I believe it has.
I hear what’s being said about Ron Wellman hiring Jeff Bzdelik to replace Dino Gaudio as basketball coach. It’s loud and just about united. Sounds like Ron’s pretty much on his own on this one. But what I haven’t heard is that Wellman has actually hired Bzdelik. I’ve seen Jeff Goodman’s take that Wellman has targeted Bzdelik (everytime I write the name I’ve convinced I’ve misspelled it) to be the next Deacons coach. And I saw the Twitter saying it was close. But unless I’m missing something, that doesn’t square with what Wellman said when he called back earlier tonight. He said the next 72 hours will determine if the search can be completed this week. He also said everything you read at this point is speculation, which, granted, is what pretty much any AD is going to say this soon.
But if that’s true, that it will be through the weekend before he even knows if it’s going to get done this week, then he’s not ready to hire anybody yet. He did clarify next week’s schedule to say that if Tuesday or Wednesday was the right time to roll out a new coach that would trump any obligation of attending the ACC meetings. He said he hopes to attend, but imagines that Commissioner Swafford and his fellow ADs will understand if he can’t.
Ron Wellman might just hire Jeff Bzdelik. Sure sounds like he’s at least considering him. But he didn’t do it today and it doesn’t sound like he’s going to do it tomorrow. My guess is that there are others out there to keep an eye on.
Speaking of. . . A friend who often knows a lot said he’d been told this morning that Wellman was talking with none other than Herb Sendek. I gasped. My greatest goal of life is to cover a coach whose signature quote is ``If we continue to improve, we’ve got a chance to get better.’’ Seems like a nice enough guy, and I hear he has a great personality, but all the times I’ve been around him he’s done his dead-level best to keep that personality under wraps. Anyway, I put it together later that Wellman probably was talking with Sendek, but not about Sendek. He might have been asking about John Groce, the Ohio coach who was Sendek’s assistant at State from 1996-2000. That will be a question worth asking if John Groce gets introduced as Wake’s next head coach.
Then there’s always the chance that it’ll be somebody that no one has yet to mention.
Back to the main page.
By Dan Collins on 04/09/2010 (11:33 pm)
Comments
..uh…my two cents. Herb Sendek was NOT a bad coach. He taught man-to-man pretty well. Recruiting…well that’s another story. Maybe co-coaches, Dino recruiting…Sendek showing up on game-days and practices. Seriously WFU could do a lot worse than Sendek, he is an intelligent guy and I suspect NC State kinda wished he never left.
pensive1 on 04/10/2010 (1:11 pm)
Nobody from Wake has called Colorado.
http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_14856376
DP on 04/10/2010 (11:39 am)
My only hope is that Wellman is floating these terrible names through boosters close to the program so that the eventual choice will be embraced by a relieved Wake fanbase when the real actually good choice is made.
I’ll cling to that until the cold reality sets in that Rumplestiltskin’s uncle is really going to be introduced as the next coach of the Deacs.
Jonathan on 04/10/2010 (11:13 am)
Past performance is obviously a tool for projects future accomplishments (or lack thereof). There is no questioning that. But Ron Wellman isn’t playing fantasy AD. He’s in the big leagues, and he’s there for a reason. He is good at this. In Wellman’s own words, you have to look deeper than a prospective coach’s record. Gaudio did’t get fired just because of his record in February/March. He got fired for how he got that record. If Bzeldik has the requisite in-game coaching ability combined with the drive necessary to take Wake Forest basketball to the next level and the comprehensive strategy to do so, then why not hire him? I don’t think Bzeldik is the answer, but I don’t have the luxury of being able to sit down and talk to the guy either.
DC on 04/10/2010 (10:59 am)
Funny comment about Herb Dan! I think maybe a flag has been run up before taking a big step and now it will be lowered, folded and put away gracefully.
Michael on 04/10/2010 (9:00 am)
It amuses me that everyone thinks Wellman will hire someone like Jeff Bzdelik. I do not think so!
Leaders like Wellman will do exactly opposite to what the news reports are revealing. I look for him to announce someone to be coach who has not been discussed on any thread…We will all wait with anxious anticipation…
Tom on 04/10/2010 (8:58 am)
Thank you Dan for at least putting a leash on this thing for the time being. This hire would make no sense, particularly with the recruiting class coming in. Bz has not been mentioned for any open jobs. Ron said in the press conference that folks he was looking at were still available. If he wants to hire Bz, why not let Dino have another year and get this class in here? If this class falls apart because of this hire, then were in really deep trouble. No players + questionable coach = the possibility of setting this program back years. He’s never won a tournament game. Ron said he wanted a guy who could make a run. Either Ron was absolutely full of it at the press conference or this is just one media report from a guy at foxsports with questionable ties to the program blowing smoke and getting everyone in a tizzy. I’m willing to hold out hope in Ron for the time being until this unfolds. Please let this not be true. Please.
John on 04/10/2010 (8:57 am)
OMG the world is ending, the AD is considering a coach with a worse record than Dino, and worst of all, he is someone the AD knows. OMG, woe is us. Well WFU has had a meeting with Bzeldick before in Nov of 2006, Wake went in as a 11 point favorite to play the Falcons with the aforementioned terrible non-coach at the helm and Bzeldick’t team, if you remember, handed the Deacons their lunch. The score of 94 -58 was not as close as it looks. We were out rebounded, they doubled our assist total, halved our TOs, they shot 60% from the floor and 46% from 3 point land. Must have been talent, (the Air Force Academy is known to draw the best talent in the land)(IF YOU WANT TO BE A JET JOCKEY) and not have anything to do with the coaching. Come on, chill out, I want the best coach we can get, and if Wellman thinks it is this guy, or that guy, I trust him and I can’t wait to get my tickets for next year. You know as well as I do that Wake fans, in their Old Gold and Black hearts, know for sure that we will get better soon.
EJ on 04/10/2010 (7:47 am)
Oh fantastic, the two names out there are Bzdelik and Sendek.
I feel much better now that I know Sendek is being considered as an alternative to Bzdelik…not.
Either of these two would be terrible. Great job Ron, you’ve turned us into the laughing stock of NCAA basketball.
Bart on 04/10/2010 (3:49 am)
Bzeldick is a shocking 1-6 in March with Airforce and CU, this got Dino fired but gets this guy considered?
Atlanta Deacon on 04/10/2010 (12:39 am)
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