Staak vs. [Redacted]

[WFdeacon04]

Maybe this has been discussed, but considering I was born in 1985, I would be interested to hear from some of the older ones out there on who is actually the worst coach in our illustrious (kidding) history. If Staak coached in today's era, would he have even lasted 4 seasons? What was his personality like? I have to assume the fan base accepted him more readily than the moron we're currently stuck with...


Staak (45 - 69 Overall, 8 - 48 ACC)

[Redacted] (21 - 42 Overall, 5 - 27 ACC)

VS.

 

[RJKarl]

He liked to drink and bang coeds...how would that have worked out these days?

 

[DirkTheDeac]

Staak banged cocktail waitresses. Bzz drives a Prius. That's really the only difference.

 

[Justicebork]

One would stop at nothing to win a tittle.

 

[coredeac]

At this point, I think we're arguing as to why neither a donkey nor a mule can win the Kentucky Derby.

Both were horrible and neither should be coaching major college basketball.

 

[WFdeacon04]

Then seriously - how did the guy last four seasons as coach with an 8 - 48 conference record? I mean, if all goes really well and we improve to 5 conference wins, [Redacted] will have surpassed that number sometime in his third year. It took Staak four years to get to 8 wins.

... and my math skills are lame - we only need to match our wins next year. Even easier for Mr. Prius...

 

[Ralph Medlin]

The ACC was alot better when Staak coached.


At least Staak's teams competed. I posted a while ago that Staak in his entire Wake career had a fraction of the double digit losses that Bz has already. Look it up.

 

[DirkTheDeac]

Then seriously - how did the guy last four seasons as coach with an 8 - 48 conference record? I mean, if all goes really well and we improve to 5 conference wins, [Redacted] will have surpassed that number sometime in his third year. It took Staak four years to get to 8 wins.

... and my math skills are lame - we only need to match our wins next year. Even easier for Mr. Prius...

Well, I for one am tickled pink that Bzz might be better than Staak. That would ease my troubled mind. And it certainly justifies keeping the sock puppet here for four years at a minimum.

 

[DeacHead]

I see the main commonality, aside from being in way over their head, that they were both what their predecessors were not. Tacy was a very soft-spoken man, almost milquetoast, or at least he could be perceived that way. Staak was high energy who was supposed to excite the fans. He came with the Jim Valvano stamp of approval. In 1985 this "stamp of approval" carried a lot of weight and didn't have the baggage it later would. Similarly Bzzz seems to have been hired to "not be Dino".

A main difference between them though, 1985 Staak had a resume that gave us some optimism. From http://www.goxavier.com/genrel/staak_robert00.html

Staak compiled an 88-86 record (.506) in six seasons as the Musketeer Head Coach. He worked to rebuild, compiling a 28-54 (.341) record in his first three years and a 60-32 (.652) record in his final three years. And he left a strong base for head coach Pete Gillen. Gillen complimented Staak several times during the record 25-5 season of 1985-86, particularly after a couple close wins. "Bob deserves a lot of the credit. He taught them how to win."

So his career was on the upswing when we hired him. The shine did wear off during his first year as he was living a lifestyle that would be impossible for a high profile coach in the current world of camera phones and Twitter.

I'm not going to do the legwork to derive the numbers (point differential, etc), but we were usually competitive versus opponents that were far superior than what you see today in the ACC.

If you're looking for a "who was better?" I won't proffer an answer to that. All that matters is that they're both program killers, at least WFU program killers.

 

[vtwhat etc]

Then seriously - how did the guy last four seasons as coach with an 8 - 48 conference record? I mean, if all goes really well and we improve to 5 conference wins, [Redacted] will have surpassed that number sometime in his third year. It took Staak four years to get to 8 wins.

... and my math skills are lame - we only need to match our wins next year. Even easier for Mr. Prius...

Well, to be fair to Staak... Bz would not have had the luxury of playing BC and VT in the late 80's...

There go 3 of Bz's 5 conference wins...

 

[Adam42R]

The ACC was alot better when Staak coached.


At least Staak's teams competed. I posted a while ago that Staak in his entire Wake career had a fraction of the double digit losses that Bz has already. Look it up.

This, absolutely. Night and day between the quality of ACC hoops when Staak arrived on the scene and what we saw collectively this year in the ACC. And don't take that as a vote of confidence on Staak - just that he was horrible in a much better time.

 

[legacyfan]

The ACC was alot better when Staak coached.


At least Staak's teams competed. I posted a while ago that Staak in his entire Wake career had a fraction of the double digit losses that Bz has already. Look it up.

Staak had Muggsy... that was the difference. That was why his teams competed. He was a horrible coach.

 

[WFdeacon04]

I guess I've just always read/heard the jokes about Staak, but I've never known much about him as a coach.

Guess him and Buzz wouldn't be hanging out on the weekends.

 

[siff]

I lived it. We sucked back then, but as was said earlier, we had the occasional good win and the losses weren't nearly as horrendously bad.

 

[Deac83]

Sure no BC, but MD went 0-14 and 1-13 during two of Staak's years.

In year 3 we lost at home to Siena, Furman and Coastal Carolina. But at the same time we beat #20 State and #3 UNC

As stated in his first two years he had Bogues which kept us from being totally pathetic. I'll never forget that double foul call against Bogues in our 2OT loss to NC State in the ACCT.

Yr 1 - 11 double digit ACC losses (out of 14 games) - 0 ACC wins
Yr 2 - 6 double digit ACC losses- 2 ACC wins against 0-14 MD (upset 2nd seed Clemson in ACCT and took State to 2OT)
Yr 3 - 6 double digit ACC losses - 3 ACC wins #20 State, #3 UNC, bottom feeding Clemson
Yr 4 - 4 double digit ACC losses - 3 ACC wins - 2 against 1-13 MD and #1 dook

Staak did have some really bad luck personnel-wise

- Kenny Green left early and was a 1st round NBA bust
- Charlie Thomas supposedly flunked out of school and wound up at New Mexico IIRC
- We had a freshman Keys? that blew out his knee in one of the first games of the year
- Robert Siler, who might have been the most athletic player we've ever had (he was also a pretty highly recruited in football) blew out both of his knees, but could still jump out of the gym
- Then there was the mystery illness for Sam Ivey who had been on track to be an all-ACC type player in his Jr and Sr year

And if IIRC, he actually was not fired for his record, but for a minor recruiting violation with Anthony Tucker, at least that was the excuse that was used.

When he left Chris King (played in the NBA) was already here and if you believe the story, he was recruiting RR and had gotten him interested in Wake.

 

[PhDeac]

We have CJ and McKie which should keep us from being totally pathetic, but hasn't.

 

[WT901]

Well, I for one am tickled pink that Bzz might be better than Staak. That would ease my troubled mind. And it certainly justifies keeping the sock puppet here for four years at a minimum.

Either you or someone else needs to tell me you're joking.

 

[timdunkandthefunk]

Either you or someone else needs to tell me you're joking.

He's joking. The term "sock puppet" tipped me off.

 

[ChrisL68]

I'll never forget that double foul call against Bogues in our 2OT loss to NC State in the ACCT.

There was also a late 3 that Muggsy hit that left his hand before the shot clot expired by Lenny Wirtz waived off. We got rooked out of a trip to the finals that year.

 

[Deacfreak07]

We have CJ and McKie which should keep us from being totally pathetic, but hasn't.

Muggsy was a legitimate NBA starter. I am a huge fan of both CJ and McKie, but that future for them is a reach. Not saying that I disagree with you, but if we are drawing a connection to Muggsy, it's apples and oranges.