I have been giving some thought as to how we got in this mess. While it is easy to say that Wellman is an idiot, a statement with which I agree, I believe there is more to the story. I assume that during the last year of Gaudio's tenure, the administration made a decision that it no longer wanted to try to compete for the "one and done's" against the likes of UK and Duke. The lack of success (academically and athletically) coming from the ATT class, and the debacle of the 3 amigos who went to OSU, likely paved the way for such a decision. It may have simply been the realization that attracting such athletes to Wake was hopeless since we were never going to lower our academic requirements and expectations. It might have also been influenced by Hatch and his entourage who seem to take seriously that Wake must be a truly collegiate school that educates the whole being, rather than a one-dimensional bball player.
In any case, I think Wellman made the decision that with no one and done's, the best way for Wake to compete was to focus on 3 and 4 stars and to bring in coaches with legitimate NBA credentials. The sales job to the recruits would be that "if you stay in the program we will have the coaching staff to develop you for the NBA". I think that is why Wellman chose Buzzballs and then Manning since they both have legitimate NBA cred. Unfortunately, Wellman completely overlooked whether or not either coach had the personality to motivate either the team or the fanbase, the intelligence required for the role, and whether their style of play would be successful. Hopefully, now Wellman realizes that he needs to find a great coach, whether or not they have NBA experience..
I also think that Wellman was caught with his pants down twice when he whiffed on his first and second candidates during both searches, and then got nervous and shot his wad. His impetuous tendencies have also shown themselves with his constant tendency to unnecessarily commit to multi-year contract extensions. While I can partly understand how we got into this mess, it is unclear how we will get out of it if we have to deal with Wellman's continued presence and prior decisions baggage.