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News and Observer's Luke DeCock talks about Bzzz

blackgold said:
Jeff will be given sufficient time to rebuild this program and he will prove the doubters wrong.
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Then he sure as hell better have us in the ACC championship and/or Sweet Sixteen by next year, because I'm well past done with having him here.
 
I've read this guy's name multiple times, and my mind keeps going back and forth between Luke DeCock and Duke LeCock.
 
Demon09 said:
I've read this guy's name multiple times, and my mind keeps going back and forth between Luke DeCock and Duke LeCock.
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Thanks to ELC's nasty admissions, I'm reading more into than that.
 
I think the whole Wellman/Buzz Northwestern situation may have aggravated a lot of these assumptions. Not sure if anyone has any great knowledge to the extent of their friendship there, but the perception of this resulting in a buddy hire remains.
 
blackgold said:
As someone with inside knowledge of how this situation developed, I can tell you that Jeff was Ron's first choice. He did not materialize as our coach because other, bigger names, lacked interest in the job.
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No matter how many times you post this it doesn't make it true.
 
deacvision7 said:
Wellman himself said the Ath Dept (not him, himself, I agree that would be ridiculous) vetted all the incoming recruits. I would guess most schools do the same.
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I'm not sure what "vetting" means at a place like Wake Forest but I suspect at most schools it really just means making sure potential recruits aren't going to run into any major NCAA speed bumps. I'm not sure what vetting a random AD admin can do re:recruits other than making sure their academic ducks are in order and they haven't had a criminal past. If we actually go to the level of giving psychological evaluations to determine a predisposition towards violent behavior aimed at women, cleptomania, and substance abuse than we are going above and beyond the type of vetting normally done. I think the main problem here is that some use Woods/Tabb/JTT as examples of "bad culture" when these are really not examples of "bad culture" at all but major character flaws intrinsic to a person. IF, and thats an IF, there were culture problems it likely had more to do with lack of proper discipline and the way Gaudio interacted with those around him rather than having an athlete fall asleep drunk at the wheel of a car. When some of the normal defenders of culture change pop up, they point to these actions as evidence a change was needed when I seriously doubt they would even be viewed as impetus had they occurred before the move. Wellman didn't like Dino as the coach and probably not as a colleague so he fired him when he felt the necessary justification had arisen. Smart move. Hiring Bz, just about as opposite of a smart move as you can make.
 
BigTreeDeac said:
Well this is all the evidence I need that Bz was not actually the first choice for the head coaching job
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Yeah, from what I know the only way you could spin that as true would be to say a handful of guys were all "first choices" and that after talking to them [Redacted] "became the real first choice" or something like that.
 
DCDeac said:
Yeah, from what I know the only way you could spin that as true would be to say a handful of guys were all "first choices" and that after talking to them [Redacted] "became the real first choice" or something like that.
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Someone who gets it...
 
DCDeac said:
Yes. He became the leading candidate. After other candidates became impossible to get or took themselves out of the running.

I'm sure it's common for Athletic Directors to include in a hiring press release something along the lines of, "I know we said we'd perform our search discreetly, but what really happened is we missed on our top 3 and ended up with Jeff [Redacted], who I'm sure will do a great job at Wake Forest probably."

Refer to this boards relentless mocking of Maryland's AD for feedback on how great of an idea it is to make coaching rejections public.

What's funny is I don't even like the hire, didn't like it then. But the leap to say Wellman, the AD who hired Prosser, tried to stick with Dino to keep Prosser's efforts intact, hired Grobe who turned around the football program, has made such dramatic improvements in our facilities... To just label him a liar and a fraud, disrespect what he's done for Wake and assume the absolute worst of his intentions and of the search - all because we've sucked for a couple seasons due mostly to 18 year old kids acting like complete idiots...

I just don't see how you get there. When we lost a football player nobody's posting about how Wellman didn't oversee that kid's recruiting. When Odom was winning ACC tournaments nobody gave a shit that his demeanor with the fans and media was drier than sawdust.
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Well, he fired Dino for "lack of post-season success" and hired a coach with "no success" to replace him. I don't know whether "liar" is too strong, but he was not very forthcoming with the truth. And yes, he did many great things, but he is also the one who hired Buzz. I think our program was in decent enough shape to hire someone much better than Buzz, and if it wasn't, all that happened under Wellman's watchful eye. I don't think you can give Wellman credit for the positives in other areas without also giving him credit for this debacle.
 
this is from an article were ronnie talks about vetting the kids. (don't have the link though)

WFU athletic director Ron Wellman said the university did its due diligence and checked out the players in advance.
They were cleared academically and admissible.

"The behavioral expectations at Wake Forest are high," Wellman said. "We're doing exactly what I think you have to do.
It's a process and when you lose a number of players like we have, you're starting over and now we're bringing
in young players. It's beyond basketball. I'm excited about where we're going. There's no reason we can't get to that
level again and be in the top four or five in the conference to where we were even before that. We were ranked No. 1 a
couple of times. And there's no reason Wake shouldn't be at that level. We have had a consistent, outstanding, championship
program and that's where Jeff is taking us."

Added [Redacted]: "I know what I'm doing is right. We're making young men mature. We're teaching them how to be men."

It is true that [Redacted] isn't taking any crap and isn't afraid to cut a player loose. But there clearly is a disturbing
trend that can't go on.

The feeling from Wellman and [Redacted] is that this should be the end in terms of off-court problems.
They'd like us to believe it was a "weeding out" sort of process.

"Jeff didn't recruit any of them," said Wellman, sticking true to his longtime friend and hand-picked successor to
Gaudio. "Jeff has certain expectations, the right expectations with conduct off the floor and academic responsibilities,
and all I'm saying is that Jeff is doing the right thing. It's not an indictment of anyone else. I'm just pleased with how
Jeff is handling the direction of the program."
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so ronnie vetted all the kids and says that the wake standards are very high for academics and behavior. he supports the direction bzz is taking with discipline etc. then he says bzz did not recruit the kids (basically blaming the previous regime... uh dino). so the way i read it wellman is admitting the need for a culture change is his fault?

i'm ron burgandy?
 
haha, my B. I just wanted to link the bit that deaconson posted.
 
blackgold said:
As someone with inside knowledge of how this situation developed, I can tell you that Jeff was Ron's first choice. He did not materialize as our coach because other, bigger names, lacked interest in the job.
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I have always suspected you were a parody. Now it's proven.
 
DCDeac said:
Yes. He became the leading candidate. After other candidates became impossible to get or took themselves out of the running.

I'm sure it's common for Athletic Directors to include in a hiring press release something along the lines of, "I know we said we'd perform our search discreetly, but what really happened is we missed on our top 3 and ended up with Jeff [Redacted], who I'm sure will do a great job at Wake Forest probably."

Refer to this boards relentless mocking of Maryland's AD for feedback on how great of an idea it is to make coaching rejections public.

What's funny is I don't even like the hire, didn't like it then. But the leap to say Wellman, the AD who hired Prosser, tried to stick with Dino to keep Prosser's efforts intact, hired Grobe who turned around the football program, has made such dramatic improvements in our facilities... To just label him a liar and a fraud, disrespect what he's done for Wake and assume the absolute worst of his intentions and of the search - all because we've sucked for a couple seasons due mostly to 18 year old kids acting like complete idiots...

I just don't see how you get there. When we lost a football player nobody's posting about how Wellman didn't oversee that kid's recruiting. When Odom was winning ACC tournaments nobody gave a shit that his demeanor with the fans and media was drier than sawdust.
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He's not a liar or fraud. He took a key position, head basketball coach, and made a terrible hire. If it wasn't for the great things he's done otherwise I would say he needs to be fired. That said, if he sticks with Bz after next year and there isn't HUGE improvement, there probably needs to be a change at the AD position.
 
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ProbationDeac said:
He's not a liar or fraud. He took a key position, head basketball coach, and made a terrible hire. If it wasn't for the great things he's done otherwise I would say he needs to be fired. That said, if he sticks with Bz after next year and there isn't HUGE improvement, there probably needs to be a change at the AD position.
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100% agree.
 
ProbationDeac said:
He's not a liar or fraud. He took a key position, head basketball coach, and made a terrible hire. If it wasn't for the great things he's done otherwise I would say he needs to be fired. That said, if he sticks with Bz after next year and there isn't HUGE improvement, there probably needs to be a change at the AD position.
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Well said.
 
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