Comments

Arciel, Thanks for taking another look.  I know I’m wrong from time to time. I just want to be wrong for the right reasons. I’m glad we’re cool.

Dan on 03/13/2010 (11:30 pm)

Dan, I re-read your post and I agree now that it does not look like a spin after all.  You rightly gave Coach Gaudio credit for what he has accomplished, and you rightly pointed out where, or rather when, he has failed miserably.  The only thing we disagree about is whether he deserves another chance next year.  Three strikes your out.

Arciel on 03/13/2010 (10:18 pm)

Hopefully, Ron Wellman is hearing it!
Please take us out of our misery.  Contracts can be bought out and in this case the sooner the better for recruiting sake.

Jim on 03/13/2010 (1:27 pm)

To answer the “when” question being posed in this post: “Next year.”  These guys are done playing.  They don’t have the heart to continue, else, they would have shown it already.

Ronnie on 03/13/2010 (11:35 am)

Hearsay is hearsay, but the fan who overheard Larry Brown refer to Wake as the “worst coached team in America” while chatting with an ACC official pretty much sums it up for so many Wake fans who are frustrated with this team’s lack of discipline.  They have absolutely no ball movement on offense.  It’s just painful to watch.

FloridaDeac on 03/13/2010 (10:04 am)

Ken, Dino is convinced that Ty Walker, at this time, is not physically ready to hold his own. Having watched practices this season, I can see why he feels that way.

Dan on 03/13/2010 (3:47 am)

To JM and jrhunter, In the broad sense, you’re absolutely right. Wake’s last two seasons have turned south after promising starts. But your reference to February fades is not supported by the Deacons’ 6-1 record last year between Feb. 14 and March 8. Of course we all remember what happened on March 13 and March 20.

Dan on 03/13/2010 (3:43 am)

Arciel, We disagree about whether this post is an attempt at a positive spin. I laid out the facts. I said what most people here are saying, that what matters most is what a coach does in post-season. There are many words I could use to describe what I saw Thursday in Greensboro, and last March in Miami as well, and collapse, pratfall and fiasco were three of them. I know how bad it looked. I saw it from up close. I don’t want to spin anything. If you got that impression, I wasn’t clear enough. Sorry.

Dan on 03/13/2010 (3:36 am)

Jason, we agree about the apples and oranges. That’s why I pointed out the fact that Gary and Roy Williams have done it when it mattered most and Dino has not. I used the example of the UNC and Maryland fan bases to illustrate how no coach, not even a Hall of Fame coach, is immune to discontent.

Dan on 03/13/2010 (3:27 am)

I feel sorry for Dino but the Brad Stevens era at Wake can’t begin soon enough for me.

Jonathan on 03/13/2010 (1:42 am)

It is definitely coaching at the root of the problem… no mid-range shooting, no big men near the basket, a point guard who is more harmful than helpful without the fast break, and a team unable to play zone… Please someone tell me if we have 5 players 6’9” or taller, why they play 12 to 15 feet from the basket?  What makes a good post player is position, but our post players are never near the basket or even the lane!!!!  No one can shoot a mid-range jumper, and why why why cant we play against the zone?  Is there no “Zone for Dummies” book we can send the coaching staff???  This didnt start with Dino, it started with Skip, and if Skip was still here, I suspect we would all be saying that exact same thing… Time to part with the coaching staff (but keep Rusty, he is too much of a success story for our school)... I want to rant on but I think everything I wanted to say has been said already…

Pragmatic on 03/12/2010 (11:05 pm)

Nice try Dan.  Yes you have managed to put a positive spin on what Coach Gaudio has accomplished at Wake Forest.  He’s a great x’s and o’s man.  He has successfully coached a team that can guard and can pound the ball down low, and sometime, can run the fast break.  And that has been enough for a pretty good record, bouyed by early season wins, before other coaches recognized Wake’s weaknesses.

The problem is you have to coach the team for all situations.  Outside shooting may not be your best thing, but you’ve got to be ready to take the shot if the other team gives it to you.  It was obvious when things turned for Wake this season. It is when the opposing coaches recognized that Wake has no outside offensive game.  Not that they don’t shoot well, but that they have no outside game at all.  They obviously have not been coached for the outside game.  We saw no screens, no work it in and bounce it back out quick for the shot, no play or preparedness for the outside shot.  You could see fear and disorientation in the players faces when they realized that the low post was closed, and they were forced to the unfamiliar territory of the outside shot.

Yes teams reflect coaching.  And post season play is all about heart.  Fierce, fast, positive thinking heart.  As smart, caring, fair, and honest as Coach Gaudio is, he lacks the kind of heart that inspires teams to play well in the post season.  The kind of teams that win championships.

So if Wake Forest is satisfied with 60-30 records and quick exits in the tournaments, then Coach Gaudio is their man.  But I don’t think that is what the alumni, fans, or even Ron Wellman want for Wake Forest.

Arciel on 03/12/2010 (8:23 pm)

I think the perspective police need to do post a presence on this blog.

Who here HONESTLY! thought Wake would finish higher than 5th in the ACC at the start of the season?

Not me. Why?
Because Ish Smith’s class has been the bane of this program for four seasons.
They can’t shoot and they play STUPID, PERIOD POINT BLANK, They are not BASKETBALL players. L.D. Williams should be at UNC-W or somewhere. He is NOT ACC material and neither is Chas McFarland, a player who I cringe to think of what his GPA at WFU is. Chas is obviously, and utterly apparently, by all accounts, an idiot.
But that being said, a lot of the way this team has played over the past three seasons is because of Dino. They are the worst offensive team I have ever seen. Why? BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO OFFENSIVE STRATEGY! They run NOTHING.
I agree with some of the others, the only reason to keep Dino around is to make sure the incoming recruits stay with Wake. Perhaps these new guys, along with Harris and Stewart (who I think needs to sit in the corner and learn what a GOOD SHOT is *Ahem DINO*) can make up a REAL ACC caliber basketball team.

Thomas on 03/12/2010 (8:16 pm)

I see a lot of insightful comments on this blog and enjoy reading them. I did hear someone mentioning about “waiting until Dino gets his own guys in” next year. Well to be honest Wake is probably one of the top three “athletic” basketball teams in the conference. To be honest looking at Ish Smith at point guard and LD Williams those guys have basketball skills and by all rights should have been developed further during their stay at Wake. My point is, even if Dino get them to come to Wake I think they are owed the opportunity to improve. That’s not happening

pensive1 on 03/12/2010 (6:23 pm)

Lunardi now has Wake as an 11 seed against BYU in New Orleans.  BYU also has a long tradition of first round NCAA gags…If that match up works out, it will be interesting to see which team can play worse!  Unfortunately, I’m also a Cubs fan…Wake has called BB&T Field the “Wrigley Field” of college football.  The Deacs hoops program is the Cubs of the ACC!

Andy on 03/12/2010 (6:09 pm)

Dino must go now, even before the NCAAs, if there is an NCAAs. IMO, the committee should pass. Constant collapses, losing most games due to missed FTs, strange in-game substitution moves. We need a great head coach, not an unproven assistant.

Fred on 03/12/2010 (5:22 pm)

Dan,

Dino is a lame duck coach at the moment.  I don’t think anyone sees him being a long term leader of this program and he does not have the support.  Just giving him “one or two more seasons” to see what he can do with new recruits is just postponing the inevitable.  “Let’s give him one or two more seasons” is not a huge endorsement for any coach - so why wait?  We need to break ties and start fresh NOW.  As one poster put it, see:  UVA/Al Groh.  This fan base is hurting and I’d rather see us head in a new direction. 

Great blog, BTW.

NB on 03/12/2010 (4:29 pm)

I am a true Wake Forest fan, I have been pulling for the deacons since I was 5 years old (30 years ago)  I rarely miss a home game despite living 3 1/2 hours from Winston and I didn’t miss a home game this entire season (even went to 3 away games).  I have tried to support Dino but I am done.  Everything Skip Prosser put in place he is destroying.  I read his comments about the players not playing with “emotion and drive”, which is true but I think it would have been better stated “confused and scared”.  Our athletic players crumble when matched to a well coached not so athletic team.  What happened on Thursday was a coaching disaster.  He put in shooters that would not shoot.  People were screaming from the stands to shoot the ball. No one on offence were running cuts, or even trying to get open.  It appears that everyone is scared to death to take shots and play (except for Ishmael).  I will tell you what happens in March, we start playing in November and our opponents watch our tapes and learn how to play us and we have no ability to make corrections.  We have always been a transition team but now we want to play half court offence, we don’t want to trap at half court when we are down 20 points, no timeouts to stop runs and our token defense collapses with high post screens. Why,why,why?  We look like we are playing pick up ball at the park.    Just like last year, we can’t even win against a Cleveland State with two NBA first round draft picks. I am sick of spending thousands of dollars a year in support of Wake to watch Dino Gaudio mismanage some of the best players in the NCAA.  I think Mr. Gaudio is just flat out overmatched in the ACC.  Come on Dino, do the right thing and retire so we have a chance next year

DeaconFan on 03/12/2010 (4:27 pm)

I agree that “when” matters, but I wouldnt’ limit it to the post season.  Every year, the quality of play in February is worse than January.  March is just a foregone conclusion. 

Last year, people who had been paying attention picked Cleveland State to upset us, and though I was upset I couldn’t blame them; even in our late-season wins it was obvious that we were not playing well or playing together.  The same is true this season.  I listened to Dino explain that February is a hard month because of midterms and travel pressure, and I don’t mean to discount this, but every other team deals with the same pressures and doesn’t decline like we do. 

It’s not just the post-season.  It’s the annual February malaise, and honestly it happened under Prosser as well, especially with Chris Paul’s last team (needing a buzzer-beater to beat NC State then losing to them the next week?).  I agree that we have to look to the coaching staff, and the fact that these spring declines have been happening since before Gaudio took over makes me think the whole coaching staff has to go.  The cause is a mystery, but whatever it is we know the source.

JM on 03/12/2010 (4:12 pm)

Question Dan…When we’re getting beat so bad, why not play Walker, Clark and some of the boys we’re going to need the next couple of years? I just don’t understand why Walker wouldn’t get some time when you’re down so far? Just asking…..

Ken Green on 03/12/2010 (4:01 pm)