I don't have any grudge against Tacy, but I was on campus during his last years and living in Winston during his last two.
The first final 8 pre-dates my days at Wake, but looking back he had 1 winning ACC year (77 final 8 run) and 1 500 year, in the 7 years prior to my freshman year. Frank Johnson had to redshirt and that season with our very good freshman class went in the toilet.
Franks RS year was a real boon, by having a strong soph class to play with. Looking back I was really on campus for some of our golden years as this was when the resurgence of Wake hoops started.
81 - ACC 9-5, Got to top 5 in the country, lost to UNC by 1 in the ACCT semis (yes some one besides Duncan got to play on Saturday), upset in the NCAAT by unranked BC, when #1 Oregon State had lost earlier, which opened up our bracket.
82 - ACC 9-5, ranked going into ACCT, lost to UVA and Jr. Ralph Sampson by 1 in the semis. Lost to #19 Memphis St in the NCAAT
83 - ACC 7-7, There were fairly high expectations for this season but we lost our last 4 reg season games including the 130-89 State game, then lost in the 1st round of the ACCT to State on a last second shot which was a start of their ACCT and NCAAT runs. I think this was the butter knife year involving Kenny Green and another player (the other guy had the butter knife).
84 - ACC 7-7, ACCT semi's loss to MD and with the improbable run to the final 8 - also Bogue's Frosh year
85 - ACC 5-9, at mid season there was talk of Tacy for coach of the year then it fell apart as we went 1-6 in the ACC down the stretch. ACCT qtrs and the infamous hanging on the rim T that led to the OT loss to UNC.
Interesting that Tacy, one year removed from the Elite 8 run and 3 of 4 great years, winds up quiting in July of 85, thereby screwing us over in a coach search.
Maybe he saw the writing on the wall, Kenny Green was fed up with him and left as a 1st round draft pick as a Soph. Charlie Thomas our next great player flunked out of school and transferred to one of the New Mex schools. We still had Cline who never lived up to his hype. Of course Bogues was a rising Junior. Had Green stayed and Thomas not flunked out we would have had a decent core to the team, while not a Staak fan at all, he wound up with a team where his 5' 3" PG was the best player.
Tacy had some really good years when he had the players but he also had quite a few bad and mediocre years.
Since I'm not his buddy and as many felt like, when he quit in July that set us on the course for 4 years of misery since we had to find the best coach we could that was willing to screw over his players in the middle of the summer.
Maybe we should really thank him, Staak recruited Chris King, who saw Tim Duncan, told Odom to check him out and led to our true glory years in hoops. If Tacy had stayed would Tim Duncan have ever known where Wake Forest was?
And yes I know I'm old and probably 70% of this board doesn't care about this ancient history.
