Yes. Not in the condescending way you put it, but yes, I think it does matter to Wellman. Student athlete to him has a very specific definition. Oddly, football is a little different in that there are 20 man classes which is like a frat pledge year. Those guys can hang out with each other and pick up a dozen or so campus non-football friends via osmosis. Hoops doesn't have that luxury. I think Wellman is really wanting Bzd and staff to find kids that are mostly comfortable on campus or have a drive/will to do so.
Mugsy Bogues did not fit at Wake his first two years and was practically invisible. He had to work like mad with the tutors. But he worked his ass off. Got into a little trouble sophmore year when I was a frosh, but I saw him on campus a lot last two years (and played a lot of pickup with him!).
Jamie Skeen is a great example of a kid that probably made Wellman reconsider. Great kid, worked hard, but never ever felt comfortable, struggled in class, went in front of the discipline board, all that. The kid was definitely not a bad apple, but was he a kid we should have recruited? Arguable both ways, but tack on idiots like Walker and Tabb and bingo bango boom.
CP3 and Tim Duncan were men about campus. Ish ditto. Big E was comfortable. All those guys. From what I heard, James Johnson was fine that way. He just wasn't a student. But Teague never really made an attempt, again, from what I hear. In my day, all athletes lived in their own dorms and Wellman changed that for incoming frosh athletes, so he's always had that in mind.
