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Dino Gaudio charged with extortion

DeacDaddy said:
What exactly did Skip see in him
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While being a man of impeccable character by all accounts Skip may not have been a great judge of the character of others. He was also good friends w/ Bob Huggins, a major sleazeball
 
I still think we should have hired Pete Gillen as a one year interim coach/ Prosser goodwill ambassdor and then conducted a real coaching search. Gillen wasn't great as a coach, but he would have been great at talking about Prosser and making some jokes to lighten the the mood a bit.
 
inspectah said:
Not necessarily. Didn't his wife's death leave him a single parent of a teenager? Understandable that he wouldn't have wanted a D-1 HC lifestyle under those circumstances. I think he has only interviewed for jobs pretty recently, so the timing makes sense. We have all met lots of very able people that don't aspire to be the head honcho because they value family time.
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Yes. His wife had lung cancer and he was not in a position to take over as head coach, their son was young- I think 9 or 10- when Skip died. She battled cancer for a long time and was in constant treatment. She died in 2015.

The other thing you have to keep in mind- that staff loved Skip, and they were in shock and mourning his death. Battle and Kelsey took it very, very hard. I know Dino did, too, but they were outwardly grief stricken and almost in survival mode for a while. It was a sad, horrible time for everyone involved with the basketball program.

Battle was taking care of his sick wife, his young son, and trying to console and mentor a team of young men who were also mourning Skip’s death. Some of them thought of Skip as a father, and to some players, he was the only father figure they knew. Battle did what was best for his family and the team.

Personally, I think he would’ve been a better HC than Dino, but I really think he was (and is) content with being an assistant.
 
inspectah said:
Not necessarily. Didn't his wife's death leave him a single parent of a teenager? Understandable that he wouldn't have wanted a D-1 HC lifestyle under those circumstances. I think he has only interviewed for jobs pretty recently, so the timing makes sense. We have all met lots of very able people that don't aspire to be the head honcho because they value family time.
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He’s been the single parent of a 20-something for awhile now. Pretty sure his son was close to graduating high school when Skip died.
 
SC DEAC said:
I still think we should have hired Pete Gillen as a one year interim coach/ Prosser goodwill ambassdor and then conducted a real coaching search. Gillen wasn't great as a coach, but he would have been great at talking about Prosser and making some jokes to lighten the the mood a bit.
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I used to run into Pete pretty often in Charlottesville after Skip died and was usually wearing Wake gear. He always gave me a “Go Deacs” and talked about how we lost a great one.
 
PhDeac said:
This article from November 2015 says his son was a senior in college at the time and that his wife died a year after Skip. So his son is about 27 years old now.

https://www.providencejournal.com/article/20151125/SPORTS/151129479?template=ampart
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https://www.herald-dispatch.com/spo...cle_e129a1db-4d94-56da-9270-709ea8ee4347.html

https://journalnow.com/news/local/j...cle_062d8170-4f76-5667-b559-1bc9e4b6baad.html

That article is wrong. Jordan wasn’t in college when his mom died. Battle could have (should have) moved on before he did but he stayed in WS for Jordan.
 
ImTheCaptain said:
i guess we should've just given the helm to Chill all those many years ago
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Could not have been worse. Maybe not better but in hindsight. WTF? Would have at least been... interesting. (Also, of course not).
 
Gotta say a c*ck off about someone taking care of their child during and after significant deaths in that person's life is... a bit of a miss step.
 
KVegasDeac said:
https://www.herald-dispatch.com/spo...cle_e129a1db-4d94-56da-9270-709ea8ee4347.html

https://journalnow.com/news/local/j...cle_062d8170-4f76-5667-b559-1bc9e4b6baad.html

That article is wrong. Jordan wasn’t in college when his mom died. Battle could have (should have) moved on before he did but he stayed in WS for Jordan.
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The article didn’t say Jordan was in college when his mom died. It says Jordan was a senior in college in November 2015. His wife died in 2008, a year after Skip died. The Herald article said Jordan was 14 in 2008 meaning he was 20 when Battle left Wake and 27 now.

Point being Jordan was in college before Battle left and if he wanted to be a head coach, being a single parent at home likely wasn’t a factor.
 
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PhDeac said:
The article didn’t say Jordan was in college when his mom died. It says Jordan was a senior in college in November 2015. His wife died in 2008, a year after Skip died. The Herald article said Jordan was 14 in 2008 meaning he was 20 when Battle left Wake and 27 now.

Point being Jordan was in college before Battle left and if he wanted to be a head coach, being a single parent at home likely wasn’t a factor.
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But it was a factor. Had Battle left after Gaudio was fired, the trajectory of his coaching career could have been much different. Instead, he chose family over career by (1) not moving his wife further away from family in Fayetteville and her doctors at WFBH and (2) allowing Jordan to finish HS in WS after his mom died. He stayed many times that he was very grateful for the Wake Forest and WS community and how they embraced Jordan and helped him out when he was on the road with his job.

His personal life did affect his career choices.
 
ChrisTheDeacm89 said:
Absolutely this. It was far from the conciliatory approach that we're seeing now on this thread.

And I'll say this, you can be an absolute bonehead and obnoxious jerk to as many people as you want in life, but if your boss tries to guide you in another direction, you'd better have a different tone, or at least not be surprised if you're let go soon after. I know their working relationship wasn't the only reason, but it most certainly didn't help either.
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All I see here is "Ron Wellman is a fucking moron."
 
KVegasDeac said:
But it was a factor. Had Battle left after Gaudio was fired, the trajectory of his coaching career could have been much different. Instead, he chose family over career by (1) not moving his wife further away from family in Fayetteville and her doctors at WFBH and (2) allowing Jordan to finish HS in WS after his mom died. He stayed many times that he was very grateful for the Wake Forest and WS community and how they embraced Jordan and helped him out when he was on the road with his job.

His personal life did affect his career choices.
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Sure. But that was 9 years ago. The only career move he made was another assistant position.
 
someone says their alternative fantasy is that if Battle had taken the job, WF would have been better, and it launches a 3-page argument on how old his kid really is
 
While Jeff Battle would have been a better choice than soon to be convicted felon Dino back in 2007, Battle is now 59 years-old, has been a college assistant basketball coach for 31 years and his son Jordan is now an adult. Maybe the only reason Battle has never worked a head coaching gig is because of family issues, but it also seems that for whatever reason, Battle does not have the overwhelming desire to lead a college basketball program. Perhaps, he is a great assistant coach, and as the result of a number of factors, he decided that is the best professional role for him.
 
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