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Official John Currie Appreciation Thread

I was hard on Currie when it looked like we were going to keep manning during the pandemic bc I thought this was a Golden opportunity to make a big move when everyone else was standing pat. Happy to say that since the manning firing every move by Currie has been an A plus move. Great job John Currie.
 
I love the graphic design of the whole thing and the idea of establishing our territory. Whoever designed that whole thing deserves a lot of props.

I don't know if the intent is to replace "Deacon Nation" but I hope it does. We're not a nation. We're small. "Town" fits better.
 
The Firing Manning and Hiring Forbes will go down as a top 3 AD move in WF history (if not higher). It took tremendous leadership to fire Manning in the middle of pandemic while owing him a significant amount of money. WF became the only P5 job available essentially as the other schools decided to roll with what they had. Then, 2021 Coaching cycle was insane because you had two years worth of hiring/firings taking place. Finding the right coach in that millieu would have been a herculean task.

Hiring Forbes has been a home run and he will be a fixture for years. It's fun to watch Wake bball again.

this is especially true if we got out of the huge buyout as some are suggesting.
 
All this is so true.

And you all haven’t even seen the best part about John Currie yet. The best part is when he screws something up he will acknowledge it and fix it.

He has always been the anti-Wellman. His praise for Wellman at the outset had those who knew John snickering.
 
In retrospect, Wellman lecturing people, after ANOTHER loss, during post-game about wearing socks and lacing shoes and then stating "... we won't be preached to..." may have been the bottom for our athletic program. If not, it was damn close.

Again, Currie is like sunshine thus far. Offers a FAR MORE positive vibe regarding Wake athletics.
 
Yep. IMO we are the most unique school in the country.

Will echo this. A long time ago when I was looking at these things I looked hard at Wake, unc and Davidson. One too small. One too big. Wake was just right. A great education and great sports to boot. Didn't hurt that Duncan was at wake when I was looking at schools.
 
I will never be someone who says "hire X because they went to Wake" vs whoever is objectively the top option but I think it is clear that Currie is able to be as successful as he has been in short time in large part because he is a Deac and fully understands WF & its advantages (and knows areas to cover for). Plus he's a ridiculously talented AD.
 
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This reminded me of running full court with the players (WF team) that summer. I was not there at all when Randolph blew out his knee, but remember the "buzz" about that and "what will we do" conversations.

Good thing Tuck was able to step up and play "shooting guard" at 6'8/220.

Larue might have been a FR, as was Scooter and Blucas (SO) was on the bench. We went LARGE with McQueen (man I loved his game)/Tuck/King/Rodney and Phil Medlin. Somehow Tree Owens did not start.

That's a pretty sweet 9 man rotation (big lineup kind of like baby Cleveland Cavs this year) by the way:

McQueen
Larue - NBA
Blucas
Tuck (6'8) - almost NBA
King (6'8) - NBA
Scooter (essentially an NFL tight end 6'6) - got really good by JR/SR year
Rodney (6'7) - clearly NBA
Tree (6'8) - should have been NBA/great traditional PF skills
Phil (6'9)

We may also have had Hicks (6'11) on that team - just a large squad. I think our only other guard was Castle since Canty was not ACC level. Fitzgibbons (6'8) was a clown and I think Steve Rich (6'10) was also a FR. LARGE, LARGE squad.

I never understood Odom's bizarre fascination with starting Medlin. And I don't think that Rusty was on that team. He started a year later
 
I was hard on Currie for not firing Manning sooner but he has been an A+++ hire for us. he’s one smart ass dude who knows what he’s doing.
 
I was hard on Currie when it looked like we were going to keep manning during the pandemic bc I thought this was a Golden opportunity to make a big move when everyone else was standing pat. Happy to say that since the manning firing every move by Currie has been an A plus move. Great job John Currie.

AIR, think I was as well. Thought his press conference was awful with all the Wellman junk....came across as he was a clone of Wellman. Turns out all that was necessary at the time for decorem.

Like the old adage....can’t judge a book by its cover!
 
The Firing Manning and Hiring Forbes will go down as a top 3 AD move in WF history (if not higher). It took tremendous leadership to fire Manning in the middle of pandemic while owing him a significant amount of money. WF became the only P5 job available essentially as the other schools decided to roll with what they had. Then, 2021 Coaching cycle was insane because you had two years worth of hiring/firings taking place. Finding the right coach in that millieu would have been a herculean task.

Hiring Forbes has been a home run and he will be a fixture for years. It's fun to watch Wake bball again.

Had to look up what happened to Manning. Amazing they put his phone number on the website. You think he's taking calls?
https://umterps.com/sports/mens-basketball/coaches
 
Any idea what kind of compensation Wake had to pay out for Manning firing?

Whatever it was, it was worth it and it didn't prevent Manning from getting an interim head job less than two years later.
 
Nope. I was going into my sophomore year of high school and remember hearing that Randolph Childress was going to sit out what would have been his sophomore year at Wake. My first thought was if I go to Wake, Childress will be a senior when I'm a freshman.

I did this with Paul. He left early and ruined that, but it mattered to me
 
+1

Currie has been fantastic in all aspects of the job.
 
Why “almost NBA” for Anthony Tucker? He played in 62 NBA games for his career averaging about 16 min per game.
 
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