WF should hire Steve Wojciechowski as our next basketball coach & I believe he would take the job. Here’s why:
1) Private School experience. Wojo knows what it is like to operate in the environment of a small private school—something you hear so often these days as a key need for us.
2) ACC Pedigree. Does anyone really think the head coach at Lehigh or Ohio U or Richmond really has had more real world coaching experience than Wojo? No way. Wojo knows the day in day out of the ACC. You will no doubt hear “why would hire a Dukie.” Remember that the rules from the 90s just do not apply. Miami hired one of our assistants. Clemson hired VT’s coach. Maryland’s Mark Turgeon is likely to move within the ACC. This is a new age and conference realignment has changed the ‘old’ rules. But the ‘old’ rules really weren’t what you think anyway. Bones McKinney played at UNC. Vic Bubas played for NC State.
3) AGE. Wojo is 37 – the perfect age to build a program for the long haul at a place like ours. He understands the reality of technology and social media in today's world. We have to have that going forward. Clawson has shown us what that can do and we cannot afford to hire another old Coach that has never heard of twitter. We need someone who has staying power once they get this thing going. A 55 year old just doesn't have it. Such a hire is a 10 year at best proposition. We need to take a risk on a younger coach so that the payoff is there when it works.
4) Instant Credibility. Wojo has name recognition and he will immediately have credibility with recruits. When the Duke job comes open (a reality this decade), we will be able to compete with and even beat Duke for some players.
5) Class. Wojo has it. Chrissy Collins is a hot head. Wojo simply isn’t. He is well-spoken & can win press conferences. You remember him as the guy who slaps the floor. So what? He was doing what he was told. If you have followed him over the last 15 years, you really know how much of a better guy he is than the normal Duke tree (Collins, Snyder, etc.)
6) He would take the job & he would stay. Wojo has passed on many jobs before but this one would be different. Unlike most, he knows that Wake is a sleeping giant. He was on the Duke teams we used to beat around. Taking this one gives him a major job in the league and area he loves. It is a great chance to get right to it rather than take a mid-major or low BCS job and hope to come back one day. He knows he isn’t going to get the Duke job so this would be his chance to build his own thing. Once he comes here, Duke won’t offer him (they wouldn’t anyway). For him, this would be an end type job—unlike for league outsiders. Even if he thinks he could maybe get the job, a bird in the hand means something to a 37 year old. So does taking on the establishment & not waiting your turn. We literally could steal him right out from under Duke now even if he were to get the job in 7-8 years. If he would build this place over the next decade, only a Kentucky, Kansas, or UCLA type job could lure him away. If that happens because he is such a success, so what?
7) The Future. In 2020, Roy Williams, Coach K, Boeheim, & Pitino will be gone. We would have the senior statesman of the league with the most credibility and he would be 43 years old.
Believe it. Wojo is the man we need to be targeting.
