Lengthy [Redacted] Interview with Gold Rush

[awakegirl]

I see a lot of hindsight suggestions of what many of us were saying with foresight. Dino should have been a interim coach and then we should have moved on. Things were in a bad enough spot under Skip that he could have sold it.

DC, I thought you were saying the "no floor" thing was a general belief that was held around college basketball, not just a Wellman thing. I think Wellman's lack of floor is a major problem.

Totally agree with the interim coach suggestion, which I thought back when you were in big trouble for even suggesting it on the old boards. Beyond the culture issue, it was obvious that we were not going to get over the hump with Skip IMO. I loved him, nice guy, good coach, but our post season struggles were real, our lack of defense was real, etc. That was the perfect opportunity- with the guys we had coming in and the credibility we had built up at that point to really bring in someone special. If this had been the situation when we got Buzz, I truly believe we could have snagged a Brad Stevens after a good first year with interim coach Dino. Dino probably could have snagged a great job for himself too.

 

[HCF3]

Totally agree with the interim coach suggestion, which I thought back when you were in big trouble for even suggesting it on the old boards. Beyond the culture issue, it was obvious that we were not going to get over the hump with Skip IMO. I loved him, nice guy, good coach, but our post season struggles were real, our lack of defense was real, etc. That was the perfect opportunity- with the guys we had coming in and the credibility we had built up at that point to really bring in someone special. If this had been the situation when we got Buzz, I truly believe we could have snagged a Brad Stevens after a good first year with interim coach Dino. Dino probably could have snagged a great job for himself too.

Anthony Grant was just waiting a few miles up the road. That is the moment this entire mess started.

 

[PhDeac]

Totally agree with the interim coach suggestion, which I thought back when you were in big trouble for even suggesting it on the old boards. Beyond the culture issue, it was obvious that we were not going to get over the hump with Skip IMO. I loved him, nice guy, good coach, but our post season struggles were real, our lack of defense was real, etc. That was the perfect opportunity- with the guys we had coming in and the credibility we had built up at that point to really bring in someone special. If this had been the situation when we got Buzz, I truly believe we could have snagged a Brad Stevens after a good first year with interim coach Dino. Dino probably could have snagged a great job for himself too.

Well said. There are a ton of things I got in trouble for saying on the old boards that ended up being true, both positive and negative.

 

[TBR]

Totally agree with the interim coach suggestion, which I thought back when you were in big trouble for even suggesting it on the old boards. Beyond the culture issue, it was obvious that we were not going to get over the hump with Skip IMO. I loved him, nice guy, good coach, but our post season struggles were real, our lack of defense was real, etc. That was the perfect opportunity- with the guys we had coming in and the credibility we had built up at that point to really bring in someone special. If this had been the situation when we got Buzz, I truly believe we could have snagged a Brad Stevens after a good first year with interim coach Dino. Dino probably could have snagged a great job for himself too.

Really a lost opportunity for everyone. If Ron Wellman wanted to be ballsy 2008 would have been a much better opportunity than 2010.

 

[DCDeac]

Are you kidding? In hindsight, Dino never should have been coach, because the prized class we tried so hard to keep by promoting him did exactly fuck-all for the program.

Oh wait, I forgot, we hit #1 for a week and won a couple big regular season games. Yeah that was worth it.

Ah, hindsight. Every fan's top source for wisdom.

 

[PhDeac]

Are you kidding? In hindsight, Dino never should have been coach, because the prized class we tried so hard to keep by promoting him did exactly fuck-all for the program.

Oh wait, I forgot, we hit #1 for a week and won a couple big regular season games. Yeah that was worth it.

Ah, hindsight. Every fan's top source for wisdom.

Huh? Who's using hindsight? I said when Skip passed that we need to go in a different direction. The critical assumption Ron and everybody on these boards makes is that Dino is the only person who could have gotten those players to come to Wake. I think that's ridiculous considering that new coaches usually hold classes together.

Do an interim year, upgrade the coaching, hold the classes together or not.

 

[Wakeforest22890]

Dino had to coach for the year because of the timing of Skip's death, the recruiting class, and the state of the program emotionally...we needed that continuity.

Dino should ALWAYS have been the coach for at least one year. He did a good job that first year and we heard no complaints and so he came back the next year. We reached #1 that year, so he came back for the third year. We struggled a bit but still made the tournament. The team had issues and there were areas we could have improved so we made a change.

None of this was a problem, the problem was we made an ABYSMAL hire.

 

[deacfreke2]

I was also in the camp that said Dino should be hired as an interim, and have the opportunity to prove himself. Never could understand the uproar that suggesting that caused among some posters.

As far as the "culture" issue goes, I think it means that Wake wants to have an "exceptional" atmosphere surrounding the program, not so much that anything was specifically wrong with the way things were. There may have been issues that occurred which stayed out of the public domain, but most believe that things weren't out of control. Might be true or might not, but the appearance to outsiders was no unusual problems existed.

I think by exceptional atmosphere, Wake expects that the more positive a player's life is in terms off-court aspects, it facilitates positive stuff on the court. Once a coach establishes a program's culture, then the players recruited understand the expectations before their arrival, and the experienced players lead the younger players to understand the culture.

My two cents anyway.

 

[deacfreke2]

Dino had to coach for the year because of the timing of Skip's death, the recruiting class, and the state of the program emotionally...we needed that continuity.

Dino should ALWAYS have been the coach for at least one year. He did a good job that first year and we heard no complaints and so he came back the next year. We reached #1 that year, so he came back for the third year. We struggled a bit but still made the tournament. The team had issues and there were areas we could have improved so we made a change.

None of this was a problem, the problem was we made an ABYSMAL hire.

Wrong, IIRC Dino was initially given a five year contract, which is the standard for a new hire.

 

[Wakeforest22890]

I didn't say anything about contracts I just said that he did a good job so he came back. If he had gone like 8-24 his first year we may very well have eaten the contract. That's just my opinion though.

 

[TheIshThatSaved WakeForest]

Dino had to coach for the year because of the timing of Skip's death, the recruiting class, and the state of the program emotionally...we needed that continuity.

Dino should ALWAYS have been the coach for at least one year. He did a good job that first year and we heard no complaints and so he came back the next year. We reached #1 that year, so he came back for the third year. We struggled a bit but still made the tournament. The team had issues and there were areas we could have improved so we made a change.

None of this was a problem, the problem was we made an ABYSMAL hire.

This a million times.

 

[rjequalsmj]

I heard of one major instance of questionable player actions concerning Dino's squad that lost to Cleveland State. This incident took place in Miami during the tourney. Not good stuff and it is why I can see what Bz is alluding to.

Also, people I trust close to basketball did not like Dino, never did, even when Skip was around. So not surprised that Dino is now gone and we have moved on.

I also found the team tremendously frustrating with the on/off effort and showing up for games.

if this is what I think it is, wasnt that involving g$, who was hardly a 5 star talent guy.

 

[ConnorEl]

My guess is that Wellman was never pleased to make Dino our hc. Maybe he would've preferred Battle (??) but he wasn't able/willing to step into the job at that time. Wellman probably figured it was better for the stability of the program to hire Dino as hc rather than an interim (??). And maybe he thought to give Dino a real shot (??).

Anyhow, I suspect he was just never pleased to have to put Dino in that position, but just felt it the best option under the circumstances. And maybe due partly to this, Dino had a pretty short leash and lost the job.

I think that's all understandable, though of course not above criticism. I think the real problem is that when he (cough) settled on a new coach he hired someone difficult for most people to be excited about. No, I don't think the hiring was totally inexplicable--but the fact that it has to be explained a lot doesn't help anyone. Then we suffered through a real stinker of a season. Discontent among fans at this point is highly understandable, IMO.

I'm not a "WellmanOUT" or even a "BuzzOuter". But it's hard not to think that if Bz can't get the program turned around in 1-2 more seasons that both Bz and Wellman may not survive in their positions. Bz for sure, but maybe even Wellman. I'm hoping for the sake of our program that they succeed and survive, so to speak. If not, que sera, sera. Most of us will still be around to cheer and moan as the case, and our dispositions, may allow.

 

[ManhassetDeac]

Dino had to coach for the year because of the timing of Skip's death, the recruiting class, and the state of the program emotionally...we needed that continuity.

Dino should ALWAYS have been the coach for at least one year. He did a good job that first year and we heard no complaints and so he came back the next year. We reached #1 that year, so he came back for the third year. We struggled a bit but still made the tournament. The team had issues and there were areas we could have improved so we made a change.

None of this was a problem, the problem was we made an ABYSMAL hire.

Exactly. Even if Dino was originally made an interim coach, he was getting a new contract after his first year because of the team's success. Wellman would have had no choice but to extend him

 

[deacvision7]

Wellman really fucked up this whole thing no matter how you look at it. As Buzz goes, so does Wellman.

 

[wfumike02]

Maybe I'm alone here but I don't automatically give credence to all of the culture comments to begin with.

Dino graduated every player who stayed 4 years. When he fired Dino, Wellman said it was about postseason success - not culture.

The word culture never came out until the whole abortion of a hire had played out. The whole thing seems like it came out to justify canning a guy with a 61-31 record for a guy with no track record of success. If you can't point to objective criteria why you made a good hire, all that's left is to talk about perceived intangibles. Segue to the disaster of the season that we just finished, and the banner gets carried on. After all, there's no objective way to paint the state of the program in a positive light, so again we just fall back to the perceived intangibles.

Put it another way... Assume for a second that Wellman intended to go after Brad Stevens when he fired Dino. Stevens was certainly the next hot commodity. He represented a young, dynamic coach with the potential to build a national program and stay for his career. But how would Stevens have been a culture change? He recruits mostly 2 and 3 star players at Butler, but who knows what players he would recruit at Wake? I have a hard time believing he'd be saying things like "5-star heart over 5-star talent." I think he'd go after the best players he could get.

The whole culture thing never became an issue until Ron fucked the whole thing up in the first place. Given the credibility gap that's developed since Bz has been hired, is this really that far fetched?

And FWIW, since the season's ended I've found myself migrating back to more of a BzWait perspective. First and foremost, not having to watch the team play on a regular basis has done wonders for my point of view. I do realize that Bz isn't going anywhere (I realized it during the season, too). With the positive press that our recruits are getting, at this point i do want to see what Bz can do with his guys. The question is, will the product on the court pull me back next fall.

 

[wfumike02]

Wrong, IIRC Dino was initially given a five year contract, which is the standard for a new hire.

The point is, even had Dino only been given the interim tag, the team did well enough and improved enough his first year for him to have been kept on. The results would have been the same.

 

[PhDeac]

Why is the 2007-08 considered a "success" or improvement? We lost 5 of our last 6 games.

 

[DCDeac]

Dino had to coach for the year because of the timing of Skip's death, the recruiting class, and the state of the program emotionally...we needed that continuity.

Dino should ALWAYS have been the coach for at least one year. He did a good job that first year and we heard no complaints and so he came back the next year. We reached #1 that year, so he came back for the third year. We struggled a bit but still made the tournament. The team had issues and there were areas we could have improved so we made a change.

None of this was a problem, the problem was we made an ABYSMAL hire.

Uh, becoming a national laughing stock as we posted one embarrassing post-season loss after another before before eeking out a single victory over a horrible Texas team (before getting blown out again) was kind of a problem... if you're into banners and building a program and recruiting and that sort of thing...

 

[wfumike02]

Why is the 2007-08 considered a "success" or improvement? We lost 5 of our last 6 games.

No doubt. Looking back, I remember thinking the players had just run out of emotional gas after everything they had been through, as did a lot of people. But given all of the circumstances that year, that team exceeded expectations.