Before I even type this, I know people are going to say 1) there's that LOWF attitude and 2) you never post, who are you to comment. But here goes anyway:
While I too would love Shaka or Marshall, there is nothing in Wake Forest's past that should get people TRULY optimistic over making such a hire.
For those of you too young to remember, me not included, there was a similar attitude at the time of Bob Staak's departure (I had the privilege of watching that shit show while at Wake) - minus the energy of the internet and fan boards. At that time, the Shaka/Marshall dream equivalent was Gary Williams - it didn't end well -
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...jYdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=uaUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6862,6050112 - this article makes it sound nice, the bottom line was he made it pretty clear Wake was beneath him and sure enough 8 months later he had no problem dealing with the "pressure" that came with getting the Ohio State job -
http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...gMiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yaYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5077,3515551. BTW, for $75K per year.
In contrast we ended up with Dave Odom, a guy who had most recently been an ass't at UVA for 7 years and before that head coach at ECU, of all places, for 3 years, the last 2 of which ended with losing records. Odom delivered some very good years - and I know, he had Duncan, Childress, and Rogers, but any coach we hire should recruit better than Bzz.
Eventually Odom left and we got Skip. Great in many ways, but his last 3 years at Xavier were an NCAA first round exit and two NIT appearances - not exactly an "on fire" candidate. That too worked out rather well.
Wake simply is not, as much as some want to think otherwise, Kentucky, Duke, Carolina, Kansas, UCLA, Syracuse, Louisville, or Michigan St. We're not the dream school of the hottest candidate out there.
So we can debate all night about Shaka/Marshall, but the more likely scenario is Mack or Manning or White - despite statements by our AD or whomever about "swinging for the fences". And, the odds are any of these three will work out just fine - like Skip and Odom did - our last hire was just incredibly poor in all respects, from Day 1 and we need to move on. Personally I'd like Mack - eight 4-star recruits in the last 4 years going up against some tough competition in the Midwest - Crean, Matta, Izzo etc etc. And, 4 NCAA appearances in 5 years, including two Sweet Sixteen's both times including upsets of higher ranked teams (something Wake has never been good at)
