Common Sense Reality vs. Waxing Philosophical
Common Sense: – Common sense isn’t this overarching concept that transcends the question of whether Ron Wellman and Jeff [Redacted] have any credibility. Whether you have common sense depends on whether you think Ron Wellman and Jeff [Redacted] are in fact credible.
Talent: – This team is actually not that talented by any contemporary measure, whether compared to the quality of players recruited during the Skip Prosser and Dino Gaudio period or compared to the other similarly situated upper tier programs in the “New ACC.” That historic success during the post-Y2K era came hand in hand with recruiting elite talent which was rated as elite by multiple recruiting agencies. And this is the only way to remain competitive in the ACC today. Coaching matters, but ACC offenses and defenses aren’t amidst a major playbook revolution. Coaches have to be smart, but you’re not going to outthink the new ACC with the worst recruiting since the 1990s. I don’t want to disappoint anyone expecting a miracle, but recruiting has changed drastically since Tim Duncan came up from the islands. With all the tourneys, AAU, recruiting services, web sites, etc. it is exceptionally rare for a kid to fly under the radar these days. If you are worth a crap, chances are someone has seen you. Instead of using an example of a kid recruited 20+ years ago, how about a more modern example… Anyone come to mind? Kids ranked that low/not at all are there for a reason. So turning to the issue of talent, I agree that we are too talented to suck this much, but that really speaks to [Redacted]’s stupidity and incompetence, and shouldn’t be misconstrued to mean that we’re recruiting adequately.
Feeling Bad for Jeff [Redacted]: – Feeling bad for Jeff [Redacted] is like feeling bad for a significantly less able, stunted version of Matt Doherty. Jeff [Redacted] had a pitiful career history pockmarked by shunting off his own responsibility for his teams’ abysmal performance on the previous coach, dragging former players through the mud, throwing his own players under the bus, and invoking bizarre strawmen reasons to justify his presence at Colorado, like “citizenship.” (http://www.bloggersodear.com/2013/4...ed]-making-the-same-excuses-at-colorado-as-he). Jeff [Redacted] is a grown, adult man who knew what he was getting into in terms of the ACC being even more competitive than the significantly less competitive Big 12 North where he had failed miserably, at recruiting (
http://colorado.scout.com/a.z?s=148&p=9&c=4&cfg=bb&yr=2010), player development, and winning, and Jeff [Redacted] took this job for between $1.5 million and $1.7 million.
Culture: – Prior to Jeff [Redacted] being hired, Ron Wellman said this of Dino Gaudio in 2007: “The principles upon which Skip Prosser built this program, with an emphasis on academics, basketball and character, are the same principles that Dino embraces.” (
http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/080807aab.html). Prior to Jeff [Redacted] being hired, Ron Wellman said this of Dino Gaudio in October 2009: “We are pleased with the progress of the student-athletes, both on and off the court, and Dino Gaudio is responsible for that progress.” (
http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/101409aaa.html) When Dino Gaudio was fired, Andy Katz reported that Ron Wellman said this of his reason for firing Coach Gaudio: "Wellman went on to say how much Dino Gaudio handled the academic side of Wake Forest and that he was a fine representative of the University. None of that was a reason for firing Gaudio. Wellman was direct in saying that it was the late-season on-court performance. If you’re going to fire someone, just do it and say why. Wellman did, saying “The decision was based on the overall performance the past 3 years, I looked at our February and March record and how the performances declined rather dramatically.” (
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...letic-director-ron-wellman-dino-gaudio-firing)
Culture (cont’d): – Past is prologue. What has happened at Wake Forest has tracked exactly what happened at Colorado. Jeff [Redacted] failed. Jeff [Redacted] blamed the previous coach, dragged former players through the mud, and threw his own players under the bus, and has invoked bizarre excuses like Tuesdays being exceptionally difficult days to play on and making up player injuries, such as saying that Travis McKie had an ankle sprain after another pathetic performance when Travis McKie himself was surprised and said he only had a stubbed toe, for his 4 years of historically bad recruiting, historically bad player development, and historically bad performance.
Culture (cont’d): – During all of this, Ron Wellman has (1) Also dragged former coaches and players through the mud to run interference from being accountable; (2) Being hypocritically exposed on the “culture” argument with the hire of someone determined by the SEC to have violated federal accounting laws to run Wake Forest Athletic Department finances; (3) Enabled Jeff [Redacted] to do the same; (4) Not only enabled Jeff [Redacted] to throw current players under the bus, but also protected him after [Redacted] was publicly embarrassed by fans sick of hearing him do it to run interference from being accountable; (5) Insulted the University’s own fans by calling them “preachers” for catching [Redacted] throwing current players under the bus in order to disown his own mountain of losses; (6) Grossly falsified attendance records.
Culture (cont’d): Do we have better culture? Bullshi*. All we have is something that was once beautiful that has been treated with historic incompetence (Ron Wellman’s decision to hire Jeff [Redacted]; Jeff [Redacted]’s performance as a basketball coach) and utter disrespect (Ron Wellman insulting by implication not only a former coach who’s alive like Dino Gaudio, but also showing no shame in doing the same to the deceased Skip Prosser, in addition to showing absolutely no shame brazenly making up a lie like “culture” despite its being rendered totally hypocritical by his own multiple public statements praising Gaudio for his ethics and with his decision to hire someone who, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission, violated federal accounting laws amidst a major corporate white-collar scandal; Jeff [Redacted] showing no shame in doing exactly what he did at Colorado – blaming everyone before him and everyone around him – for his own pathetic ability to coach college basketball).
Culture (cont’d): Our culture is this now: Our Athletic Director is an arrogant hypocrite who hasn’t shown any fear in destroying his own credibility and cares more about himself being right than Wake Forest basketball, and our basketball coach can’t recruit, can’t develop players, can’t win, and blames everyone before him and everyone around him for his own incompetence.
Conclusion – What Have We Got?: This is our present reality and the reality of the past 4 years. These things I’ve mentioned, are facts. They’re not reach theories, they’re not imaginative hypotheses. It’s what Ron Wellman and Jeff [Redacted] have chosen to say and do. So am I for common sense? Yes I am, but common sense isn’t an abstract concept that exists beyond the reality we’ve lived. Common sense is having the guts to confront reality instead of treating common sense like it exists in a universe apart from reality. We know what’s happened over the past 4 years. We are worse off than we were 4 years ago. We can be great again, but it’s going be despite/to take overcoming the present, not leveraging it.
PS: I think this author’s been uniquely criticized compared to other BSD staff because he’s been too slow to wake up to this reality that was obvious to so many, and still too passive once he acknowledged it. Just my 2-cents John P. Mundy.
https://twitter.com/WakeForestUF
by Grand Tanyon Sturtze on Feb 13, 2014
