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Jeff Battle and Providence?

This should be cause for massive concern among Wake fans. Battle has shown an insane level of commitment to Wake Forest, sticking with us through great personal tragedy and three different head coaches. If he leaves for an inarguably inferior position then he must be concerned about his job security. This means that [Redacted] either told him to get another job or that Battle thinks [Redacted] is going down the wrong path.
 
Coach Battle is the "glue guy' holding the program together, if he leaves Coach Bz's chances of survival goes way down.
 
deaclite said:
Coach Battle is the "glue guy' holding the program together, if he leaves Coach Bz's chances of survival goes way down.
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hmmmm. While it would suck to lose Battle, getting rid of Buzz sooner is a good thing.
 
deacinwnc said:
That Battle would even interview with Providence is a major indictment not only of Bzzz, but also Wellman. Wellman has been going on and on about Wake's culture change under Bzzz. Well, Battle is part of the Skip/Dino culture Wellman is so publicly seeking to change. He's the last man standing from the Skip regime. I don't know how close Battle is with Dino, but Wellman publicly backhanding the Skip/Dino regime the last few months probably irritated him a bit.
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This may be wrong but I thought I had heard that battle did not have a very good relationship with Dino, and the two of them were constantly going at it, particularly dino's last season.
 
Was in the Projo yesterday. http://hoopsblog.projo.com/2011/04/pc-hoop-recruit.html

PC is seriously one of the worst coaching jobs around, but they have been really serious about upping their game. They desperately need to win in the BE with talk of them not being able to compete anymore. This would be a heartbreaking blow. Ed Cooley is a really nice guy and he is well liked in coaching circles. He will be given a lot of time to turn things around in Providence. I can't say any of the same for Buzz. Coach Battle might just see the writing on the wall. This is really a shitshow. I am not sure I don't see massive transfers if this happens.

Edited to add: I am surrounded by big time PC boosters in my office. Will keep my ear to the ground on this.
 
I would hate to lose the guy, but as a program we're not going to be able to bring in a quality HC and tell him he has to use our staff - Battle leaving the program was more or less inevitable, IMO.

Either way, I wish him nothing but success and happiness and if he leaves I'm glad it is on his terms (at least to some degree).
 
I agree with everything posted here. Battle is one of the most respected coaches anywhere in basketball. The program would survive if he were to leave, but I think we would definitely be worse off for it. I can't imagine a scenario where Wellman wouldn't be fighting to keep Battle.
 
PhDeac said:
No mention of Wojcik doing the same thing only a year ago? Wojcik saw the handwriting on the wall and bounced before things went down. It was a good move. It may have even been a small part of why Kelsey left two years ago.

A note on the whole "lesser position" thing. There aren't many open positions for a top assistant, particularly if he wants to stay the #1 assistant. Aside from some crazy situation happening, his best chance would be to join a new head coach building his staff. That's what Wojcik did last season and what Battle may be doing now. Makes perfect sense and it explains why moving to Boise or Providence from Wake isn't a lesser position, simply a convenient position.

Battle is much more marketable as a head coach as the #1 assistant for a Big East squad rather than as part of a fired staff. He's got to look out for his career.
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Great post. Spot on.
 
I assume Wellman handcuffed his head coaching search to someone who would keep the current staff of assistants. I would think this would breed some loyalty from Battle, so this is a terrible sign.
 
It seems there are lots of ways to rationalize this, and none of them are really good because we're going to lose the most respected coach on the staff. If you're BuzzOut it could be a good sign, right? It suggests the SS Bzz is going down. But that said, it would open up the possibility to bring an untainted Battle back when the ship goes down, eh?

I'm surprised no one has brought up the possibility that "Bzz was brought in to mentor Rusty" is a factor. If that is the plan, then Battle has no future at Wake. I hope to God that hasn't been the plan...keep the key assistants but then backhand them as not good enough.

As a BuzzWaiter, I'm very disturbed. Battle leaving would probably make me become a WellmanOuter more than anything. This entire move has been horribly executed.
 
pourdeac said:
It seems there are lots of ways to rationalize this, and none of them are really good because we're going to lose the most respected coach on the staff. If you're BuzzOut it could be a good sign, right? It suggests the SS Bzz is going down. But that said, it would open up the possibility to bring an untainted Battle back when the ship goes down, eh?

I'm surprised no one has brought up the possibility that "Bzz was brought in to mentor Rusty" is a factor. If that is the plan, then Battle has no future at Wake. I hope to God that hasn't been the plan...keep the key assistants but then backhand them as not good enough.

As a BuzzWaiter, I'm very disturbed. Battle leaving would probably make me become a WellmanOuter more than anything. This entire move has been horribly executed.
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No offense to Rusty, but if that is the plan, we might as well drop out of the ACC bc we obviously have no interest in playing with the big boys. Rusty may be great someday, but he has shown absolutely zero so far. Let him go coach in the midmajors for a while and show us what he can do. Just bc someone was a great player or an alum (see: Matt Doherty, Sidney Lowe, etc) certainly does not mean they are the right fit as a coach.
 
pourdeac said:
It seems there are lots of ways to rationalize this, and none of them are really good because we're going to lose the most respected coach on the staff. If you're BuzzOut it could be a good sign, right? It suggests the SS Bzz is going down. But that said, it would open up the possibility to bring an untainted Battle back when the ship goes down, eh?

I'm surprised no one has brought up the possibility that "Bzz was brought in to mentor Rusty" is a factor. If that is the plan, then Battle has no future at Wake. I hope to God that hasn't been the plan...keep the key assistants but then backhand them as not good enough.

As a BuzzWaiter, I'm very disturbed. Battle leaving would probably make me become a WellmanOuter more than anything. This entire move has been horribly executed.
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I don't see this as much of an indictment on Buzz as others do. Battle may just not see eye to eye with Buzz and wants to try something else. I don't think that makes Buzz a bad coach. It just makes him different than Prosser and Dino.
 
pourdeac said:
It seems there are lots of ways to rationalize this, and none of them are really good because we're going to lose the most respected coach on the staff. If you're BuzzOut it could be a good sign, right? It suggests the SS Bzz is going down. But that said, it would open up the possibility to bring an untainted Battle back when the ship goes down, eh?

I'm surprised no one has brought up the possibility that "Bzz was brought in to mentor Rusty" is a factor. If that is the plan, then Battle has no future at Wake. I hope to God that hasn't been the plan...keep the key assistants but then backhand them as not good enough.

As a BuzzWaiter, I'm very disturbed. Battle leaving would probably make me become a WellmanOuter more than anything. This entire move has been horribly executed.
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I agree it's a bad sign / not good, and the grooming Rusty guesstimation is interesting. But I think you are assigning Wellman ninja qualities he doesn't possess. I don't think he was 8 moves ahead of everyone in hiring Bzd. I think he honestly felt that his combination of great ethics, great Xs and Os coaching and NBA pedigree might lead him to be a homerun hire as opposed to the contact hitters available (brownell, for example, whom people love here but will likely be nothing more than Jeff Jones in South Carolina).

Wellman should be looking golden this week after the clustefuck in Raleigh. I don't think you can read much more into this than what Phdeac has surmised, which I begrudgingly acknowledge as pretty grounded: Battle has got to look out for himself. If there is another coaching change in two years then he's out too and may not land on his feet in the way he could right now.

It's not a good sign no matter how you cut it though. Not entirely surprising, but not good.
 
TBR said:
This should be cause for massive concern among Wake fans. Battle has shown an insane level of commitment to Wake Forest, sticking with us through great personal tragedy and three different head coaches. If he leaves for an inarguably inferior position then he must be concerned about his job security. This means that [Redacted] either told him to get another job or that Battle thinks [Redacted] is going down the wrong path.
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ditto.
 
awakegirl said:
No offense to Rusty, but if that is the plan, we might as well drop out of the ACC bc we obviously have no interest in playing with the big boys. Rusty may be great someday, but he has shown absolutely zero so far. Let him go coach in the midmajors for a while and show us what he can do. Just bc someone was a great player or an alum (see: Matt Doherty, Sidney Lowe, etc) certainly does not mean they are the right fit as a coach.
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The consensus opinion has been Rusty won't be a head coach at WFU, at least before going elsewhere first. He has no college head coaching experience, and has been a college assistant for two years.
 
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