Friday, March 12, 2010
It’s When You Win
What Dino Gaudio has done at Wake Forest is impressive. Really impressive.
His first season, he guided a grieving but gritty team to a better finish than many, if not most, expected. His second season, the Deacons were 24-7 for the most victories in four years, made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years, tied Duke for second place in the ACC regular season at 11-5 and and even got a brief but tantalizing whiff of the rarefied air of the No. 1 ranking in the land. His third team, this team, has absorbed the loss of two sophomores to the NBA to win 19 and lose 10 against a stiff schedule, finish fifth in the ACC at 9-7 and, unless the NCAA Selection Committee really holds today’s pratfall in Greensboro against it, make the NCAA Tournament for the second straight season.
His record is a nice round 60-30 and he’s 27-21 in league play. That’s regular-season league play. We’ll get to that.
And along the way he has recruited well enough to help replenish this team with two good ones and have a well-regarded class in the pipeline for next season.
How he has done is every bit as impressive. He has represented Wake Forest in fine fashion and is well-liked by the media and, best I can tell, his coaching brethren.
The reason so many people aren’t really happy with Gaudio right now, then, is not what he has done, or how he has done it. It’s when he has done it. Actually it’s not even that. It’s when he’s not done it. In post-season play, his record is 0-4. And two of those losses, the 84-69 collapse against No. 13 seed Cleveland State and today’s 83-62 drubbing by a No. 12 seed Miami playing without its leading scorer and rebounder were, to put it bluntly, fiascoes. And fiascoes are remembered.
Fans not being happy with you is a part, a really big part, of being an ACC coach. Gaudio knew that when he took the job. Being a big-time college basketball coach is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of people down Chapel Hill way not too enamored of Roy Williams right about now. And it seemed like just yesterday when there was a larger portion of the Maryland fan base than would, today, care to admit it who were riding in the posse on Gary Williams’ tail. But the difference is that in the good years, those constituencies were overjoyed not with just what the Williams Boys did, but when they did it.
Dino, even after today, should get another crack next week to prove that he can not only win, but win when it matters most.
If not then, when?