Country Dan on Dave Glenn Now

[WFU Lurker]

You're missing the point. Buzz inherited CJ and Ari. In Fall 2011, Ari was considered to be a breakout candidate and NBA prospect. They were coming off of excellent freshmen seasons (especially when we compare their freshmen seasons to Devin's and Codi's) and expectations for both were very high.

Unless you know something that the rest of us don't (and I don't think you do), then you have no idea how Ty and Ari responded to Dino. Ari had a good deal of success under Dino and I don't remember hearing anything about him outside of the excitement that he was looking like a very good young player. As for Ty, all I know is that he was advised to redshirt and chose not to. I don't remember hearing about locker room or legal shenanigans during his two seasons with Dino. Please correct me with facts I'm wrong.

You said that Dino left us with nothing. That's completely false. He left Buzz a pretty damn good collection of players in terms of upside with enough returning production that it should not have been hard to win 10 games. Buzz's failure as a coach, IMO, is embodied in the fact that he was never able to get these guys to play up to their rankings, let alone exceed it.

Well, I know Ty missed the team bus at least once during his freshman year under Dino (as in he was sitting on the steps of Collins asking people for a ride to the Joel). And, in general he was a complete asshat from practically day one.

Skip obviously had his love and his respect. I can't speak to whether or not Dino or [Redacted] did, but, in my interactions with him, I never thought "all this guy needs is a good mentor".

 

[Strickland33]

[Redacted] tried to run his system (whatever that was at the time) with a bunch of guys suited for Dino's system. It's not hard to imaging that those players playing the system they were recruited for wouldn't have had more success than they did running a completely different one. They would not have been great, but probably gotten to around .500, which would have been enough to justify firing Dino at that point.

I just disagree with the idea that Buzz had a system. Completely. "Whatever that was at the time" is a good way to explain Buzz's system.

JT was billed as an explosive shooter, Tony as a slash-and-dish-style combo-guard, Carson as a face-up 5, Travis as a versatile combo-forward, and Melvin as a rugged rebounder.

Those guys are essentially the same types that Buzz tried to recruit in his 2011-2013 classes: Chase and Miles as explosive shooters, Codi as slash-and-dish PG, Cav as a face-up big, Tree and Greg as versatile combo-forward, Devin and Daniel as rugged rebounders, and the hodgepodge of fringe talent represented by Anthony, Madison, and Dre.

So, either the dude has no idea how to evaluate talent (I'll give him a bit of benefit of the doubt here) or the presumption that Buzz needs players to succeed is just another fart in the wind.

The difference between Buzz's Colorado/Wake and Air Force teams is the fact that Buzz inherited a veteran and arguably the best roster in Air Force history, a self-selected group of well-disciplined guys who played in a system designed for players lacking in ideal height and athleticism for mid-major college ball. That's not Buzz's system; that's just how competitive service academy teams play.

Maybe we'll have to wait and see, but Buzz's coaching just sucked. He had a single gameplan, when there was a gameplan, and we never once adjusted when the gameplan failed. In game coach, my ass: I'll take Dino's handful of solid inbounds plays and talent-over-coaching strategy over Buzz's clusterfucked, uglier-than-sin coaching any day of the week.

 

[Strickland33]

Because of the players he was left with from when Skip was HC. Dino did not do the same for Buzz. Dino did not come in after a coach had been fired for sucking like Dino was. Who would you say is Dino's best recruit? Travis? Second best?

Dino's best recruit was JT (RSCI #45), #56 Travis, and #66 Carson. Each of those guys was ranked higher than a Buzz-recruited player. At the time, all we had to go on was their recruiting profiles. As the RSCI (which is an index of all reputable high school evaluators) shows, these guys were highly regarded and thought of as high-upside players.

And you're right. Dino wasn't brought in because a shitty coach was fired. He wasn't really hired at all in that respect. You're comparing apples and oranges, IMO. Dino filled a void that was left when a beloved coach passed and when his ideal successor was unable to take the job because his wife was dying. Don't forget, this shitty coach was extended months before he was fired.

 

[thedeacfan]

1. Despite their rankings, they just weren't very good other than Travis, and it wasn't just Buzz's coaching, because they haven't been very good elsewhere, other than JTT has had some flashes. But even we beat USC.

2. Agreed.

3. Not sure I follow that.

4. Dino didn't leave us Tony and Ty. They were recruited when Skip was alive, so Dino did not bring them in. No credit for him there. And he certainly didn't develop Ty at all. F- for his coaching of Ty. Tony was just unfortunate, but again, Skip was HC when Tony was recruited.

Ron and Buzz HAD to re-recruit the Class of 2010. Had they not, we wouldn't have been able to field a full team of scholarship players.

Buzz RUINED the careers of every player he has touched at Wake. Whatever basketball success any of them manages to achieve will be in spite of Buzz and that level of success will be less than it otherwise would have been.

 

[whodatdeac]

The fact RW hired [Redacted] when he said March success was a must means, to me, RW struck out with his first 2-6 choices. But he can't say that publicly.

If RW retains Buzz, I will contribute to the Buzz and RW Out billboards.

Buzz shouldn't have been in Ron's first 50 choices.

 

[deacvision7]

[Redacted] tried to run his system (whatever that was at the time) with a bunch of guys suited for Dino's system. It's not hard to imaging that those players playing the system they were recruited for wouldn't have had more success than they did running a completely different one. They would not have been great, but probably gotten to around .500, which would have been enough to justify firing Dino at that point.

This.

It is so obvious and logical that only clowns like 88 can't understand it.

 

[deacvision7]

Oh, and the two best players in [Redacted]'s tenure here were both Dino Gaudio recruits. Travis and CJ.

Can you imagine how the last 4 years would have gone without those two guys involved?

 

[VaDeac]

Not worth putting in another thread, but since there was Dino talk here, I thought I'd share. Apparently Fran McCaffrey's son is having surgery tomorrow morning, and McCaffery reached out to Dino, who then arranged for CP3 to give McCaffrey's son a call this morning. So good on Dino for that.

Dino told the story about Fran traveling to be with his son and then traveling back to Dayton for the game on one of the Bracket talk shows. Said he'd had the same surgery himself and had encouraging words for the young man. Definitely well above and beyond the token "get well soon."