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Wellman

I don't think Wellman blames himself at all for this shit show. I imagine he has his own rationalizations:

1) Bad luck (in Skip dying and then Battle's wife getting sick)
2) The "bad culture" that Dino fostered
3) Kids these days (i.e. all the players leaving including JC)
4) The fan revolt that forced him to fire Bz just when he was turning it around
5) The lack of fan support hurting recruiting

I think there's a lot to this. In corporate America, there can be a slow burn on firing people and Wellman suffers from this. I can hear him saying "Imagine this team with a Sr. John Collins". We are always a recruiting class away from greatness.

#WellmanExcuses
 
I don't know about his intelligence but I DO KNOW he's a complete pompous asshole.

This. My wife (a former hoop player) ran into him at a game and nicely told him she wished Wake would have young girls playing b-ball v. filling in for the cheerleaders (over the holidays). His response was far from pleasant or even courteous. Lots of hubris there.
 
I don't think Wellman blames himself at all for this shit show. I imagine he has his own rationalizations:

1) Bad luck (in Skip dying and then Battle's wife getting sick)
2) The "bad culture" that Dino fostered
3) Kids these days (i.e. all the players leaving including JC)
4) The fan revolt that forced him to fire Bz just when he was turning it around
5) The lack of fan support hurting recruiting

I think you are right. The question, given all that, is what is the man thinking about, now that a major revenue sports team of the University having just lost ugly on national television to a team that already lost in this very short season to Hampton, Longwood and Loyola Chicago. He knows what that means. What is going on with him. Is it his thinking now that he cannot really do anything until the season is over, or that he doesn't want to do anything now to cause Wake to lose their incoming recruits, or that his hands are tied and he can't do anything until the contract runs, or that he can't do anything before then until the trustees themselves originate a consensus wanting a change?
 
Does anybody remember anything about the search to replace Hooks? Any other candidates? The process?

In those pre-internet days, people didn't pay as much attention to that stuff as they do now.
 
I've said this a million times on here (if you want the long, detailed posts with examples and evidence they're searchable):

Wellman has a long track record of being very, very slow to fire coaches (across all sports). He interviews current athletes, he checks all the possible legal and financial ramifications, and he has a list of candidates ready to go.

I genuinely think he thought both [Redacted] and Manning would succeed here. I think he disagreed with Dino on some fundamental issues (tangentially related to basketball) and exercised his power to oust him, having already done all of those things I listed above. I don't think he ever saw Dino as a long term solution, despite the extension.

He's not stupid. He is arrogant and thinks his way is the only way. That he let Buddie run the Clawson search seems promising, but I'd bet anything the final decision was his and his alone.

The reason he's struck out with two basketball coaches in a row, in my opinion, is a combination of bad luck and not taking risks. He saw Bz and Manning as being safe, anodyne picks that would maintain "historical competitiveness" without subjecting the school to the kind of scandals that have rocked college basketball.

This is closest to one of the last possibilities on your list ("he sees the writing on the wall but will wait to season's end to act"). We tend to get a bit delusional about this stuff, but the truth is no billboard, fan campaign, or privacy invasion is going to change his mind. But these things might very well change the minds of big donors and they have his attention.
 
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Certainly not trying to shill for Wellman, but it does seem like every program except for men’s basketball is excelling.
 
Bottom line, Wellman has terrible judgement.
 
Certainly not trying to shill for Wellman, but it does seem like every program except for men’s basketball is excelling.

this statement is made often; I think it's hyperbole

Women's Basketball is not excelling
Women's Volleyball is not excelling
Nor is XC (men or women), track (men or women), men's golf

I don't know enough about women's soccer or tennis but I don't think they are excelling

I believe that is 8 programs (men's hoop makes 9) out of 18 total programs that are not excelling
 
Just to echo what a lot of others have said: He is arrogant and VERY conservative (politically and socially, too, but not the point, though that has caused some clashes with coaches and some AD personnel). He has basically lucked into a couple of these high profile big donors (Flow, Sutton, Shah, McCreary), as he is not a dynamic personality nor a particularly gifted fundraiser, and has enough people on the board who have his back (though there has been some rustling lately). Basically what it looks like and what a lot of people have already said. Some of the board may also have reason not to particularly care about our athletic success, specifically in hoops — nothing nefarious, just some mixed loyalties — and he runs a clean department and keeps it solvent.

Some of these big guys would need to start making a lot of noise for any forced change, and I think most are content with just riding it out.
 
this statement is made often; I think it's hyperbole

Women's Basketball is not excelling
Women's Volleyball is not excelling
Nor is XC (men or women), track (men or women), men's golf

I don't know enough about women's soccer or tennis but I don't think they are excelling

I believe that is 8 programs (men's hoop makes 9) out of 18 total programs that are not excelling
Women's xc had their best finish in 13 years.

Men's xc had their best finish in 17 years.
 
Women's xc had their best finish in 13 years.

Men's xc had their best finish in 17 years.

Yes. Women finished 8th. No NCAA bid. Is that “excelling”?

Men finished 5th. No NCAA bid. Is that “excelling”?
 
Yes. Women finished 8th. No NCAA bid. Is that “excelling”?

Men finished 5th. No NCAA bid. Is that “excelling”?
I'd say so. ACC cross is more competitive than ACC basketball. And only two teams out of the entire region get auto-NCAA bids (was NC State and E.Kentucky)
 
I'd say so. ACC cross is more competitive than ACC basketball. And only two teams out of the entire region get auto-NCAA bids (was NC State and E.Kentucky)

so to be clear, our women's cross country team is "excelling" despite not finishing as high as 7th one time in our conference meet over the last 13 years?

oh, heavens yes!
 
Fair or not, ADs are judged by football and men’s basketball and depending on your situation women’s basketball and baseball. We are decent in two and horrible in two.
 
so to be clear, our women's cross country team is "excelling" despite not finishing as high as 7th one time in our conference meet over the last 13 years?

oh, heavens yes!

Historical competitiveness?
 
I don't understand why big donors would want to keep pouring money into our basketball program with poor results. We aren't winning. Nor do we even look like much of a basketball team on the floor. Our players often leave before graduation. Wellman is an embarrassment in interviews, and so was Buzz. Danny didn't start out that way - maybe because it was easy to look good compared to Buzz - but he seems increasingly clueless now. Does anybody actually think that if they just provide some more money, things will somehow get better?
 
so to be clear, our women's cross country team is "excelling" despite not finishing as high as 7th one time in our conference meet over the last 13 years?

oh, heavens yes!
Huh? They got fifth just last year. What are you taking about?
 
Huh? They got fifth just last year. What are you taking about?

I'm talking about Women's cross country.

In this thread, you said this fall's finish was the program's best in 13 years.

this fall, they finished 8th.
 
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