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State of the Buzz, Preseason

Do you approve of the job Jeff [Redacted] is doing as Head Coach?

  • Total voters
    214
  • Poll closed .
ArlingtonDeac said:
Of course they could. Those are some of the best coaches in history, and regularly take players and get them to overachieve or, at the very least, improve. Last year we looked as poorly coached as we were assembled. If you want to play that card, I would counter that no coach could have possibly gotten less out of last year's team than Bzz did. We played to the absolutely lowest level possible for that team. In all seriousness, I think our W-L record would have been the exact same without a coaching staff at all, given that we didn't get any better as a team during the year, and didn't win a single game that we should not have (but lost quite a few that still boggle the mind). What win did Bzz get us, or would we not have gotten with a generic high school coach in charge? What 20 or 30 point loss did Bzz prevent from being a 50 point loss? When you bottom out, everyone is to blame to some degree. Bzz was not an innocent bystander in our being utterly non-compeititve all year.

I'm Bzz-wait, and he's got my support to try to turn this program around, but I'm not sure any coach added less value to a team than Bzz added to ours last year, unless you want to count "culture" and other things that have no tangibility. I'm hoping he was just suffering from growing pains and will rebound with hand-selected players. But some coaches can get the best out of anyone (such as the three you listed). Bzz is not one of those coaches.
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Agreed. Something tells me that the Caliparis/Roys/Pitnos, etc. deal with this kind of stuff all of the time and find some way to consistently win despite everything off of the court, etc.
 
TBR said:
William and Mary handed our asses to us in 2009; Presbyterian handed our asses to us in 2010.
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The two are not remotely comparable. William and Mary was good, potential NCAA at large bid in 2009, where as Presbyterian was just as bad in 2010 as in any year.

I feel like this is going to come up again, but Fairfield, for as bad as they traditionally are, is by far our strongest non-conference opponent this year...
 
RedSoxFaithful said:
To be fair, I don't think any of us realized exactly how bad the situation was that VCU game hit. Even after the Stetson loss, there was some optimism and reasoning that we were watching a group of inconsistent freshmen learning to play together. After the VCU game, I think it became clear that the team had some real ball handling and defensive issues and was going to be fucked come ACC play...I'm not accepting last year's failures any more than I'm acknowledging that they occurred, and expressing some level of optimism that we're on the right track towards recovering from them.
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Your examples are so bizarre. Of all the shit show games to use as examples, you keep bringing up our only loss to a Final Four team. How about the 15 blow out losses in the ACC? Or the embarrassing home OOC losses? We only looked prepared for about 5 games all last season. Bzz hasn't earned any faith or confidence from anyone yet, but this is a new season. For better or worse, he has at least 1 more season to prove himself and I for one hope that he turns things around.
 
Strickland33 said:
The two are not remotely comparable. William and Mary was good, potential NCAA at large bid in 2009, where as Presbyterian was just as bad in 2010 as in any year.
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Wasn't saying otherwise, just clarifying when we lost to whom.

I feel like this is going to come up again, but Fairfield, for as bad as they traditionally are, is by far our strongest non-conference opponent this year...
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Well I was all prepared to disagree vehemently, but turns out you could be right. I do think a lot of people are underestimating Nebraska though.
 
deacphan said:
im buzz-meh. i think he was a low-upside hire with bad results so far in a tough situation. the recruiting has been ok which keeps me from being buzz-out, but i dont think ill ever be buzzin because i cant see him ever taking us to a final 4.
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Truth
 
TBR said:
Well I was all prepared to disagree vehemently, but turns out you could be right. I do think a lot of people are underestimating Nebraska though.
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:werd:

Nebraska, on paper, resembles our team a bit, so I may have to disagree with you there. Toney McCray is very similar to Travis and I have a hunch that he's their breakout player this year. I don't see any of their freshman having a significant impact early on and Jorge Diaz and Brandon Ubel, while big, are kind of soft. So, while they're probably better than us, they're not that much better.

While I do think Nebraska is good, I think Fairfield is going to give us trouble in terms of their frontcourt. Ryan Olander is very solid and word on the street is that he's gotten much better. He's also 7'0, as is freshman Vincent Van Nes (a former Bzz target). Also, ACC fans may remember Rakim Sanders from his days at BC and Derek Needham is considered one of the better scoring guards outside of the BCS.

Other teams I'm kind of worried about (in addition to, you know, all of them, Ferrum included) are Yale and Richmond. Both teams are scrappy on the perimeter with size in the middle.

Unlike most, I think we'll be fine against Loyola (big guys are both awful), Georgia Southern, Wofford (Noah Dalman graduated), High Point, Garner Webb, UNCW, and NC Central. So, that gives us seven wins.

I think we should have a good chance against Dayton, Richmond, Nebraska, and Yale. If I had to bet I say that we probably win two of those games. That's nine wins.

I think that either Arizona State (especially if Jahii Carson is eligible) or Fairfield is going to be a tough out, though not impossible, and that, should we win, DePaul, ISU, Texas Tech, and/or Minnesota is actually a far more winnable game.

In the ACC, we got really lucky. We play Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Boston College twice a piece and those six games are winnable. I'd say that we, at least split each series. That's 12 wins.

Then, we're lucky enough to play the next tier (Virginia Tech, Virginia, and Miami) five games, of which I would hope we could get a win or two. Let's say two. That brings us to 14 wins.

Sadly, I think we are systematically dismantled by the upper crust for any number of reasons and of five games against Duke, UNC, FSU, and Maryland, I really cannot see us winning anything...

That being said and I think this is a kind of best case scenario, we have a shot to win between 14-15 games if everything goes well.

It is a testimony to how far we've fallen that this the case, but damn. How far we've fallen...
 
Nebraska went 19-11 (7-9) last season overall, but went 18-2 (6-2) at home. They did lose their best player (Lance Jeter 30.2 MPG and 11.6 PPG), but only lost one of the 8* other players that played more than 15 MPG (Drake Berenak 17.5 MPG and 4 PPG). A transfer will also be eligible this year who averaged 36 MPG and 14.5 PPG as a junior at LSU (Bo Spencer). In short, it is pretty reasonable to think that Nebraska will be significantly better than they were last year, and last year they beat Texas, Texas A&M, Missouri, and Colorado in Omaha. Kenpom put them at #60 overall and at #24 in defense efficiency. On the plus side (for us), it looks like guarding the perimeter is not their strong point on defense, but, on the negative side, it looks like inside scoring is their strong point on offense.

*Damn they have a deep rotation

I'd love to have 15 wins btw.
 
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It's really tempting to vote BuzzMaybe right now, but thinking objectively, the only reason for that is the fact that we are a year removed from the total disaster that was last season.

We lost 24 games last season. And in the -vast- majority of those, we were not even competitive. Not even close. The 39 point display against Georgia Tech remains the most embarrassed I have ever been as a Wake fan. It's one thing to have a tough season, it's another to have a season like we had. I felt like it was totally inexcusable then and I have to vote that way now.
 
DeacLaw05 said:
BzzOut now, BzzOut forever...

I saw everything I needed to see last year to prove to me that this guy can't cut it in the ACC.
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Couldn't have said it better myself.

rawarr said:
It's really tempting to vote BuzzMaybe right now, but thinking objectively, the only reason for that is the fact that we are a year removed from the total disaster that was last season.

We lost 24 games last season. And in the -vast- majority of those, we were not even competitive. Not even close. The 39 point display against Georgia Tech remains the most embarrassed I have ever been as a Wake fan. It's one thing to have a tough season, it's another to have a season like we had. I felt like it was totally inexcusable then and I have to vote that way now.
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This. There's a difference between having a serious rebuilding year and having one of the worst teams in conference history. Add in the fact that we didn't really show any improvement over the course of the season because we got our ass kicked just as badly at the end of the season as we did in the beginning and I've seen all I need to see.

I'd love for Buzz to prove me wrong since he's going to get at least 3 more years, but I just don't think it's going to happen.
 
I refuse to believe that Buzz will get 3 more years no matter what. If I accept that then I will stop caring about Wake basketball and die a little inside.

If he earns them, then great, if the complete and total shitshow that I expect to come actually happens, then he needs to be gone after this season or next at the very latest. I'll be surprised if he shows any ability to motivate a team at this point. Who the hell would want to play for a guy that behaves like him towards his players? It's abhorrent.
 
Well, he's got this year and when we suck, he'll stick around because he's got this SICK RECRUITING CLASS coming in.

Then he'll get next year and if we are no good, he'll get a pass because of the relative youth of our scholarship players (sound familiar??)

The year after that, I hope to goodness that Wellman makes him put his money where his mouth is. If we don't make the tourney and nothing happens to him, I will lose my mind.
 
Agreed that 2013-2014 is the year for [Redacted] to prove himself. We have to make the tournament and not from the bubble either.

Bad news though, he's getting an extension before that, and it's really going to piss some people off.
 
Has someone taught him how to not dress like a used car salesman yet? For all this talk of "representing Wake Forest the RIGHT way," you'd think no more drooping ties would be mentioned more.
 
deacvision7 said:
I refuse to believe that Buzz will get 3 more years no matter what. If I accept that then I will stop caring about Wake basketball and die a little inside.

If he earns them, then great, if the complete and total shitshow that I expect to come actually happens, then he needs to be gone after this season or next at the very latest. I'll be surprised if he shows any ability to motivate a team at this point. Who the hell would want to play for a guy that behaves like him towards his players? It's abhorrent.
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No way he is gone after this year, so no sense in even wasting breaths (fingers?) over it.

To answer the "who the hell would want to play for a guy like that?" question, why don't you ask the recruits coming in and the players that didn't transfer from here when he came to Wake.
 
Players that are coming in haven't been publicly shit on by [Redacted] yet, so their opinions now are based on the wooing that Battle and Buzz did in their living rooms. Meh.

Players that are still here sure didn't look all that motivated last year, especially coming out of the locker rooms at halftime after Buzz talked to them for 10 or so minutes. Meh.

He lost 3 and a half players from last year's team. That is pretty remarkable turnover for a coach. I think that helps my point more than hurts it. I cannot imagine a scenario where every single scholarship player leaves a team, so I'm not sure what the point was in raising that as even a possibility.
 
deacvision7 said:
Players that are coming in haven't been publicly shit on by [Redacted] yet, so their opinions now are based on the wooing that Battle and Buzz did in their living rooms. Meh.

Players that are still here sure didn't look all that motivated last year, especially coming out of the locker rooms at halftime after Buzz talked to them for 10 or so minutes. Meh.

He lost 3 and a half players from last year's team. That is pretty remarkable turnover for a coach. I think that helps my point more than hurts it. I cannot imagine a scenario where every single scholarship player leaves a team, so I'm not sure what the point was in raising that as even a possibility.
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You asked who would want to play for a guy like that, and at least 8 scholarship players do.
 
Another way to frame that... at least 8 scholarship players don't want to sit out two full semesters to play college ball.
 
12/13 will determine whether [Redacted] is back for 13/14.

The biggest question is who replaces Battle after next year if he leaves.
 
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