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Culture Change?

7dimes

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Can someone explain what Wellman means by this culture change? I read on another thread that we're trying to become Duke or Butler. What was wrong with the players Skip brought in? He was able to handle 5 star players (he turned Josh Howard into an All-American, which Josh acknowledges and he was a tough personality for three-years). It is obvious that Dino couldn't handle the job. Another poster mentioned the whole culture change came from McFarland being his punk-self and embarrassing the University...he was a punk, but does that require a complete demolishing of the basketball program? Before anyone mentions the rape incident, that came to light well after Wellman fired Dino, unless they hid it from the school/the media which would be inexcusable.

I'm not sticking up for Dino because he certainly wasn't the guy to lead us and Bzzzz is a joke, but what are the expectations for the types of athletes we want? Duke has had a punch of pre-madonna a$$holes (Rivers, JJ), but K knows how to handle them and the kids respect him.

Before anyone jumps down my throat for being a first-time poster, i did graduate from Wake in 03' and have been a life-long fan. This is just flat out depressing and the idea that we try and emulate the lightening in-a-bottle recruiting methods at Butler seems completely flawed. We may have stunk it up in the tournament with Skip, but we had the horses and those years were outstanding for this school and the fans.

So...anyone know the truth behind our culture problem?
 
Culture of losing without being competitive
 
You must not have been around when the "rape incident" was discussed.


And I'm convinced now that the "culture change" was a post-hoc rationale to justify the decision.
 
Hmmm culture change. Possibly the douching of the bball program to get rid of the Miami grade thugs that we inhierited through Dino.
 
Culture is just a corporate buzz (no pun intended) word.

I'm sure the gary clark knob polishing incident had something to do with our need for a culture change, and I'm sure there is probably more to it than that.

It is just convenient to say "culture" because most people (average fans) have no fucking idea what that means, and will just blindly accept it, but people that are fan enough to seek out a message board to talk about wake sports can generally see the notion of a "culture change" is horse shit.
 
Hmmm culture change. Possibly the douching of the bball program to get rid of the Miami grade thugs that we inhierited through Dino.
That's what I'm not fully convinced of...were these guys really "thugs"? A lot of athletes come in with big heads and the coach is able to reel them in and make them into men--sort of their job. Skip proved he could do that, Dino and Bzzz obviously cannot. I just think the notion that we stay away from kids who don't fit the "Wake profile" is really short-sighted. Chill wasn't a typical Wake guy and he turned out pretty well, Josh (regardless of some of his silly off-the-court issues in the NBA) was a rock his senior year at Wake, there are countless of other examples. I'd love to be able to find 3 or 4 CJ's or Travis's every year, but who's to say JTT wouldn't have turned out to be a player with the right coach?
I hope you all are right that the culture speak is just a cover and that we don't stop aiming for the best talent because they have tattoos or play AAU...
 
Culture is just a corporate buzz (no pun intended) word.

I'm sure the gary clark knob polishing incident had something to do with our need for a culture change, and I'm sure there is probably more to it than that.

It is just convenient to say "culture" because most people (average fans) have no fucking idea what that means, and will just blindly accept it, but people that are fan enough to seek out a message board to talk about wake sports can generally see the notion of a "culture change" is horse shit.

That is one way of defining culture, but not necessarily the best way in this case. The only logical answer I can come up with is that, at the time, Ron and the administration felt that there was a program threatening situation (assuming that Wake enjoys a much lower threshold for program threatening than say, Penn State) to which they reacted. So they chose a coach with whom they have a great deal of comfort, with the understanding that "creative destruction" (now there is a corporate buzzword) was required in order to save the program.
 
Culture is just a corporate buzz (no pun intended) word.

I'm sure the gary clark knob polishing incident had something to do with our need for a culture change, and I'm sure there is probably more to it than that.

It is just convenient to say "culture" because most people (average fans) have no fucking idea what that means, and will just blindly accept it, but people that are fan enough to seek out a message board to talk about wake sports can generally see the notion of a "culture change" is horse shit.

30 minutes he watched the do'
30 minutes
And maybe mo'!
 
That is one way of defining culture, but not necessarily the best way in this case. The only logical answer I can come up with is that, at the time, Ron and the administration felt that there was a program threatening situation (assuming that Wake enjoys a much lower threshold for program threatening than say, Penn State) to which they reacted. So they chose a coach with whom they have a great deal of comfort, with the understanding that "creative destruction" (now there is a corporate buzzword) was required in order to save the program.

I'm convinced an "Athletic Director destruction" may be required in order to save the program at this point.
 
Ron brought in a guy that he thought was a great coach that could win. Period. This "culture" stuff is BS.
 
Ron brought in a guy that he thought was a great coach that could win. Period. This "culture" stuff is BS.

The unanswered question is why he though that about Bz. There was NOTHING on his resume that qualified him to take over a program of Wake's stature. The rationale behind the hiring is still a total mystery.
 
We now have a culture of not playing hard, not playing for the whole game and losing by a bunch of points.
 
The unanswered question is why he though that about Bz. There was NOTHING on his resume that qualified him to take over a program of Wake's stature. The rationale behind the hiring is still a total mystery.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that Wellman hired him largely based off one game, AFA's 36 point win over Wake in November 2006. In this OOC beat down he played his starters 27 MPG (season avg 32 MPG), 30 MPG (32 MPG), 29 MPG (27 MPG), 32 MPG (34.5 MPG), and 31 MPG (36 MPG). Stay classy.
 
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it's bullshit. anybody who actually believes it is a fucktard
 
This "culture change" line is spin. Very bad spin, I'll add. The guys that played under Dino were no worse than some guys that have worn the old gold & black in the past. We just didn't have the channels to obtain as much information about their personal transgressions via internet message boards and this Twitter/Facebook stalking phenomenon that sadly starts with HS recruits (seriously, that's just ridiculous). In reality, the problems were better managed (translation = cleaned up) than they have been recently. Sure, there were some bad apples who were repeat offenders -- K. Swinton comes to mind; but let's not exaggerate this "culture" thing to be comparable to Miami or the Tark's UNLV teams. "Walk of shame" regrets, physical altercations and alcohol issues are not new terrain or exclusive to Gaudio's teams.

If the firing was for failing in the post-season, I can accept that as logical. If it was due to some alleged moral conduct issue, while I consider that an irrelevant factor, that's a believable reason. If you think your coach isn't exhibiting the leadership role you want and being "too close" to the players, say that. But don't call into question the character and integrity of a program, which also reflects on the university, when the best response you can come up with is some made up "culture change" excuse, especially when you know damn well any of these so called problems aren't unique to one regime. And while, I still support Wellman as AD, his credibility took a big hit with this culture nonsense.
 
I'm more embarrassed right now than I was at any time while Dino was coach...
 
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