FreeStateDeac
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Messages
- 569
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- 77
It takes a big person to admit a mistake.
It takes an even bigger person to apologize for the mistake.
Ron Wellman's hiring of [Redacted] was not just a mistake. It was an inexcusable mistake.
If Ron Wellman had hired a formerly successful big-time coach who just could not recapture the magic (think a Tubby Smith), I would be more than willing to grant him total slack at this point. If he had hired the Hot Young Mid-Major Coach of the time, but who just could not make it at the next level, I would also give him complete slack.
Bz was neither. He was a demonstrably awful choice at the time, someone with absolutely no credentials that made him suitable to build and sustain a winning Wake program in the ACC. What's worse, that was blindingly obvious to the entire basketball world and the Wake fan/alumni/donor base at the time and ever since. Wellman then compounded his mistake several times over with his repeated condescending remarks and attempts to censor dissent (e.g., closing down the call-in portion of the coaches show).
The Bz hire wrecked Wake's flagship athletic program, one that has given the Wake community pride for decades. Now it is a joke and thousands of fans who used to buy season tickets and loyally attend games have washed their hands of the entire mess. The Joel is a morgue.
In the corporate world, epic mismanagement of your most important product gets the CEO fired. Period. Wellman won't be fired. Apparently when it comes to the Athletic Director's performance, accountability is not part of the Wake management culture.
At this point, firing Bz is inevitable. Wellman has no choice. The real question is whether he will man up and apologize for this epochal -- and entirely preventable -- disastrous hire.
I hope two things happen: Ron does make a sincere apology and then he makes a superb hire. He showed with the Clawson hire he is capable of doing so. I would really like to see Ron Wellman do both so he can retire with all Wake fans and alumni singing his praises and this awful period of division and recrimination caused by the Bzz hire can be put in the past for good and the process of restoring pride in Wake basketball can begin at full speed.
It takes an even bigger person to apologize for the mistake.
Ron Wellman's hiring of [Redacted] was not just a mistake. It was an inexcusable mistake.
If Ron Wellman had hired a formerly successful big-time coach who just could not recapture the magic (think a Tubby Smith), I would be more than willing to grant him total slack at this point. If he had hired the Hot Young Mid-Major Coach of the time, but who just could not make it at the next level, I would also give him complete slack.
Bz was neither. He was a demonstrably awful choice at the time, someone with absolutely no credentials that made him suitable to build and sustain a winning Wake program in the ACC. What's worse, that was blindingly obvious to the entire basketball world and the Wake fan/alumni/donor base at the time and ever since. Wellman then compounded his mistake several times over with his repeated condescending remarks and attempts to censor dissent (e.g., closing down the call-in portion of the coaches show).
The Bz hire wrecked Wake's flagship athletic program, one that has given the Wake community pride for decades. Now it is a joke and thousands of fans who used to buy season tickets and loyally attend games have washed their hands of the entire mess. The Joel is a morgue.
In the corporate world, epic mismanagement of your most important product gets the CEO fired. Period. Wellman won't be fired. Apparently when it comes to the Athletic Director's performance, accountability is not part of the Wake management culture.
At this point, firing Bz is inevitable. Wellman has no choice. The real question is whether he will man up and apologize for this epochal -- and entirely preventable -- disastrous hire.
I hope two things happen: Ron does make a sincere apology and then he makes a superb hire. He showed with the Clawson hire he is capable of doing so. I would really like to see Ron Wellman do both so he can retire with all Wake fans and alumni singing his praises and this awful period of division and recrimination caused by the Bzz hire can be put in the past for good and the process of restoring pride in Wake basketball can begin at full speed.
