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Bob Staak vs. Jeff Bzdelick

siff said:
According to this http://www.uconnhooplegends.com/menslegends/StaakBob.html, Bob Staak currently lives in the Lake Norman area. I'm shocked that I haven't run into him at the Galway Hooker.
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Bob Staak is a good friend of mine and regular golf partner. He lives in my neighborhood and I see Bob on a very regular basis. Was just with him for dinner Friday night. One of my favorite people. Oddly, I was a student during Staak's time at Wake so our first meeting was a little awkward a few years ago. But he is super fun, great guy, nice, funny, and would do anything he could for you. Just an absolutely wonderful guy and everyone I know loves being around him. I could line up a whole bunch of people that would say the same things about him. And you can't find anyone that doesn't like Bob. Now, I've only met Buzz once. But based on what I could tell, they have absolutely nothing in common. And I also think Staak was a good coach while at Wake. He had far less talent than buzz relative to the ACC. No question. And most of the rumors about Staak while at Wake are absolutely completely overblown. Again, I was there at the time and I actually worked at Village tavern when I was in school. I think I only saw him there a couple of times. But I know it's a fun story that he was a wallflower there and Bob knows about Those stories and just laughs. He thinks it's funny now. He's just not exactly what I would call a worry wart and he is very self-deprecating. Awesome, awesome guy. And I just felt compelled to let you guys know. And he drives a Mercedes. Ha
 
Sounds like a good dude..which is more than we can say about Buzz.
 
guitardeac said:
Bob Staak is a good friend of mine and regular golf partner. He lives in my neighborhood and I see Bob on a very regular basis. Was just with him for dinner Friday night. One of my favorite people. Oddly, I was a student during Staak's time at Wake so our first meeting was a little awkward a few years ago. But he is super fun, great guy, nice, funny, and would do anything he could for you. Just an absolutely wonderful guy and everyone I know loves being around him. I could line up a whole bunch of people that would say the same things about him. And you can't find anyone that doesn't like Bob. Now, I've only met Buzz once. But based on what I could tell, they have absolutely nothing in common. And I also think Staak was a good coach while at Wake. He had far less talent than buzz relative to the ACC. No question. And most of the rumors about Staak while at Wake are absolutely completely overblown. Again, I was there at the time and I actually worked at Village tavern when I was in school. I think I only saw him there a couple of times. But I know it's a fun story that he was a wallflower there and Bob knows about Those stories and just laughs. He thinks it's funny now. He's just not exactly what I would call a worry wart and he is very self-deprecating. Awesome, awesome guy. And I just felt compelled to let you guys know. And he drives a Mercedes. Ha
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Not surprising that he's a good guy. Is he still an NBA scout?
 
/thread. I have never heard anybody say anything that nice about buzz.
 
WFU1990 said:
I think Tucker was a transfer from G-Town under Odom.
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Tucker transferred after 1 year at Georgetown. Charlie Harrison transferred from GTown a couple of years later.
 
In my opinion, the big difference was the competitiveness of the ACC. Other than MD, the ACC was brutal in the Staak era. It has huge mediocrity now.
 
Both seem to be/have been much better NBA assistant coaches than college head coaches. Staak went back to the NBA for several years as an assistant after leaving Wake.
I would put Staak ahead of [Redacted] primarily because of the great disadvantage of having home games in Greensboro. I'm not sure anyone could have won at Wake during Staak's time.
IMO there were two reasons Odom was able to do well quickly. First, Joel opened. Second, RR. Wake and Odom worked hard to recruit RR. The luck involved in the recruitment was that RR did not get the grades/test scores to qualify for D1 until around the summer before his freshman year and most other schools dropped of off him. Wake continued to hold a scholarship for him in case he qualified.
 
Does anything speak in Buzz's favor? He is a loser all around. Time to go
 
SkinsNDeacs said:
Not really. Bob Wade coached the greatest high school team of all time. That in itself dwarfs Bz.
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While I don't disagree that that was the best HS starting 5 of all time, Dunbar did end the season ranked #2 nationally to Duane Ferrell's Calvert Hall team. Both were undefeated.
 
On the 1 hand, Staak was a nice guy, not a terrible coach (just didn't recruit well and lost a few players to boot) and had to coach in the staaked deck of the old ACC that had only 1 other bad team. On the other, coeds, female profs and other women of the Wake community are prolly hit on less by Buzzdick. Advantage Staak.
 
If Bob Staak were to coach against Jeff [Redacted], Bob's best player would transfer out and another would get homesick and not return. Then he'd lose a player to an ACL getting off the bus and another in the lay-up drill in warm ups. A piece of schrapnel from a fallen satellite would take out one more player. He'd have to pull guys out of the stands to fill out the team, and he'd have to start one of them. He'd still outrebound the Bz team, and coach the team to victory.
 
So it sounds like he was a lovable social looser. I could deal with that. In fact, I really believe if Bzz had a morsel of social skills he'd still be getting fired this year but he wouldn't have had to deal with the public outcry from fans (but he doesn't so it was beyond justified…so, so, so-so-so justified). You can't act like Rick Carlisle and get results like Isaiah Thomas. Thanks for putting things in context. I was curious because like many of you, I've used allot of not so positive superlatives describe Bzz and you often get the "it's obvious you never lived through the Bob Staak years" response. And they're right, I didn't. This adds perspective.
 
Don't underestimate the fact that the Staak debacle was over 25 years ago and we had success since then, while Buzz is a clear and present danger. Back then, with so many great teams and coaches in the ACC (e.g. Smith, K, Cremins, Valvano), I felt our future was seriously compromised by the Staak era rather than having a competitive regime/personality too. I was also younger and having been introduced to Wake hoops under Tacy, the Staak era stabbed me in the heart. My personal encounter with Staak in D.C. once also left me completely cold. I thought he was a jerk.
 
awaken said:
If Bob Staak were to coach against Jeff [Redacted], Bob's best player would transfer out and another would get homesick and not return. Then he'd lose a player to an ACL getting off the bus and another in the lay-up drill in warm ups. A piece of schrapnel from a fallen satellite would take out one more player. He'd have to pull guys out of the stands to fill out the team, and he'd have to start one of them. He'd still outrebound the Bz team, and coach the team to victory.
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This ^^
 
RangersboysWFBB said:
So it sounds like he was a lovable social looser. I could deal with that. In fact, I really believe if Bzz had a morsel of social skills he'd still be getting fired this year but he wouldn't have had to deal with the public outcry from fans (but he doesn't so it was beyond justified…so, so, so-so-so justified). You can't act like Rick Carlisle and get results like Isaiah Thomas. Thanks for putting things in context. I was curious because like many of you, I've used allot of not so positive superlatives describe Bzz and you often get the "it's obvious you never lived through the Bob Staak years" response. And they're right, I didn't. This adds perspective.
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Don't know if loveable is the right adjective. Definitely social, definitely loser (at least on the court). He did have "personality" and it may have seemed like he had too much of it, especially following "Gentleman" Carl Tacy, who had none but was a damn good coach. But Staak was a far cry from the freak that is Bz. I'd choose him over Bz without question.
 
The one thing Staak did right was take a perennial loser like Xavier and turned them into a respectable program. He earned his shot at Wake - he just didn't have what it took to compete in the ACC.
 
Azdeac said:
The one thing Staak did right was take a perennial loser like Xavier and turned them into a respectable program. He earned his shot at Wake - he just didn't have what it took to compete in the ACC.
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no shame in that.

of course bzz did not have what it takes to compete in the big 12. he was able to compete with another coaches players in the mountain west... and leave them nothing but a dumpster fire after he left.
 
Azdeac said:
The one thing Staak did right was take a perennial loser like Xavier and turned them into a respectable program. He earned his shot at Wake - he just didn't have what it took to compete in the ACC.
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And that adds a completely different dynamic to the context as well. When Bzz was hired I was definitely wait and see but I was completely puzzled by his resume. It was one of those, "maybe Wellman and co know far more than us about this dude." It required a sort of blind faith which is never a good thing.
 
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