In case some people missed this in the other coaching thread from a few days ago...
Excerpts from an email that I received from someone that I know in a coaching search firm. The email was a response to one I sent that asked how WF is positioned, who his ideal match would be, and how people view Wellman/[Redacted] situation.
"Wake Forest will have a lot of interest in its position if/when it opens up. It would definitely be among the top schools looking, if not the top school. Wake Forest does not have the history of the super elite programs but I think a lot of people would put them in the second tier of programs (top 25/30) with the ability to become a tweener of those two groups. To many, the past few years of struggles have not really had too much of an impact on their perception of the school. I am not familiar with who WF's AD has on his list but from my conversations with various people throughout the NCAA landscape, I believe that Wake Forest is in a position to land a great coach."
"If I was in charge of hiring the next coach, my #1 fit would be Shaka Smart. He looks ready to take the next step and he has the experience/skills necessary to succeed in high major basketball. He values education and can function well in that environment. I believe that Wake Forest would be a great fit for him."
"Wellman is viewed as a leader among his peers. Everyone knows that he wants the athletic teams run in a specific maner but that is not viewed as necessarily a bad thing and it is not that much different than most ADs. Make no mistake, having Ron Wellman as the AD is an advantage for WF over most other schools."
I mean this e-mail is nice and all and many thanks to KingDeac for posting it, but I'm not outrageously comforted by any of this. Most of this is just vague platitudes and subjective statements that really don't give us any insight into things we don't already know.
For example, we know that Wake will likely be the best (if not one of the best) vacant position this spring. But that's not really the issue. We're not
only concerned with whether Marshall or Smart (or whoever) will choose Wake over, say, VT or BC or Okie St. or Stanford; we're
also concerned with whether the Wake position is better than the jobs Marshall and Smart already have, not to mention the jobs they've previously turned down (e.g., NC State, Illinois, VT) or may be holding out hope for. It's not about beating Stanford circa 2013-14, but about beating VCU and Wichita St. as well as whichever job these guys might think is about to open up.
Also, this guy's e-mail speaks solely in terms of outside perception of the Wake job and whether it's been harmed by the [Redacted] era. Well, this obviously ignores whether Smart or Marshall (or whoever) would've been interested in a counter-factual version of Wake that never had the [Redacted] era. It's possible that the last 4 years haven't severely diminished WF hoops, but that we wouldn't be a realistic choice for Marshall or Smart even that notwithstanding. Remember, the NCAA tournament has changed, seeding has changed, and our conference has changed; there are plenty of other reasons why Wake may arguably not be as attractive as a job as it used to be separate and apart from anything Jeff [Redacted] has done.
Lastly, this guys says that HE thinks Smart would be a great fit for Wake and that's who HE would target if he were Wake. Well of course; Smart's an incredible candidate and any program with a high-major vacancy would be foolish not to at least inquire. But this doesn't say anything about whether
Smart thinks Smart would be a good fit at Wake, much less whether Wake could even pay Smart enough to entice him to leave. The fit has to go both ways. And as much as I get excited hearing that Smart "values education" and "can function well in that [WFU?] environment," I really have no clue how either of these thoughts translates practically to Wake vis-a-vis VCU. Sure, he may "value education," but what exactly does this mean? That he wants a school with fewer students? Tougher academic requirements for the players he wants to recruit? A higher workload for his players once they enroll? Some of these things would seem to make his job harder; not easier.
Again, don't want to sound like a debbie downer or that I'm raining on this info; it's legitimately cool that KingDeac was able to exchange e-mails with someone at a coaching search firm, and it's
really cool that KingDeac shared parts of the e-mail with the board. (I just pos repped KingDeac for said post, in fact.) But I really can't get my hopes up based on this guy's e-mail, given what it
doesn't say coupled with various other considerations that may not travel the wider circles of discussion -- e.g., financial limitations, previous buy-out commitments, RW's personal preferences, etc.
