Posted: Monday, December 17, 2012 6:00 am
Dan Collins
Today's Winston-Salem Journal ran most of an interview I had last Wednesday with Athletics Director Ron Wellman concerning the state of the Deacons' basketball program. The parts omitted were the casualties of space restraints.
What follows in the interview unabridged and verbatim.
This is Ron Wellman's take on Wake Forest basketball. For those who care, I'll give mine in the next day or two.
MTOW: Where is the basketball program and where is it headed?
RW: I’m certainly not discouraged by what I’m seeing. We’ve got a bunch of freshmen who are maturing and who are growing. The factor that I like most about this group is the fight in them. How many times this year have we battled back from double-digit deficits to either win the game or at least get back in the game and take the lead and sometimes didn’t win the game? But that fight and enthusiasm is very encouraging to me. I go to a lot of practices and I see differences in practices that are being carried over to the games. I see our players individually carrying out their assignments much better than what I’ve seen previously. We aren’t doing it collectively yet, with team defense and that type of thing, which takes time to learn. But I do see the players absorbing and using the coaching techniques. And the things that are being taught in practice, those techniques are being carried over into games, so I’m encouraged by that. The freshman group is a talented group. There’s good leadership in that group. There’s good enthusiasm in that group. There’s a good attitude within that group. I think C.J. (Harris) and Travis (McKie) are emerging. They’re finding their way as leaders of the team. They have been thrust into a completely different role this year than they’ve had in the past. It takes time to absorb that role as well. But I see them coming on and absorbing those responsibilities. Both of them had a good game against Seton Hall. Now we just need to continue that trend, and I think we’re going to continue to improve as a team as a result of that.
MTOW: How does what you’re seeing square with what you’re hearing from the fan base?
RW: I hear both sides from the fan base. I hear that `This is terrible, and nothing could be worse.’ And I hear fans saying `I see what Jeff [Redacted] is doing. We just need to be patient and understand the turmoil that he’s going through. Tell him to keep his chin up and everything’s going to be fine.’ So I hear both extremes. And what’s important is what I see, and I see a lot to be encouraged about.
MTOW: One thing nobody is seeing is a lot of fans in Joel Coliseum.
RW: If you go back in our history, we have never drawn well in December. I remember the great teams that we had, wondering why there weren’t more people in the stands. `This isn’t an ACC type of crowd.’ That’s throughout the ACC. When I look at the attendance figures around the ACC, and see it on TV, oftentimes the attendance isn’t what you might like it to be. That isn’t a reflection upon anything other than people love the ACC and they love the conference schedule probably much more than the nonconference schedule. I also believe that the fans that are coming, the Seton Hall environment was very, very good. I thought the fans were really into the game and every time anything positive happened they were right there with the team and supporting the team. I was very encouraged by the enthusiasm of the fans that did come.Our fans will come back when the team wins. The fans who are disgruntled right now, I understand their disgruntlement. We’re not winning as much as they want to win. And they want the same thing as I want. And they’ll come back when our team wins. So we just have to win, and we will do that eventually.
MTOW: I haven’t seen crowds this small.
RW: Oh I have.
MTOW: Really?
RW: Oh heavens yes. I remember when I came here, and sitting in the stands, the first December I was here I was thinking `My gosh where is everybody? We’ve got to be drawing better than this.’ And there were four or five thousand at some of those games. So that’s not all that unusual. And again, those fans will come back. When we win they’ll be back. Again, they want the same thing that we all want, and that is for our team to win.
MTOW: Jeff [Redacted] is 25-47 at Wake Forest, and has yet to give the fans a victory that they could revel in as a breakthrough accomplishment.
RW: I don’t know how you define great wins. And I will agree with you there hasn’t been a benchmark win. We haven’t beaten UNC or Duke or a team like that. But what I’m looking for is progress and improvement. I’ve seen that. I see what Jeff is doing in response to what he was asked to do. And he’s doing that. He was asked to build a culture that would be sustainable through a season and over many, many years. That means bringing the right people in, having the right approach with those individuals, improving throughout the year and year after year. This is Jeff’s first full recruiting class. If you look at the first class, Chase (Fischer) is the only one left right now. Daniel Green had made an awful lot of improvement, and had the tragic knee injury at the beginning of the season. We felt like Daniel was going to play a prominent role for us this year if it hadn’t been for the injury. And Jeff’s said he worked harder than maybe anybody he has seen and been associated with. So that was harmful to the team. So Chase is the only one left from that initial recruiting class that was done just in a couple of months. His first (full) recruiting class is highly respected. Most people rank it in the Top 20 in the country. It’s a reputable class. Even the players that most people didn’t rank highly are coming through. You look at Aaron Rountree and Madison (Jones), those were probably two of the lower ranked kids in the class. Jeff saw something in them. He saw something not many programs saw. And they are proving to be, maybe even earlier than we thought, pretty good players. And if you can project what they will become their sophomore, junior and senior years, well that’s pretty exciting. So we just need to continue to improve.
MTOW: Do you see players in that class with an ability to change the direction of a program in the manner of a Randolph Childress or Rodney Rogers or Chris Paul?
RW: I think any number of them could become that. I don’t know if any of them are Randolph or Tim or Rodney, some of those types of guys right now. But collectively I’m really excited about them, and as we go on one of them might emerge as that type of player. If you look at Andre Washington, you look at everything he does athletically, it’s pretty exciting. He just needs a lot of strength right now. He needs to be in the weight room working with Greg (Brittenham) a lot and getting stronger. And as Jeff told him the other day, `What you can be right now is strong from the neck up. Your physical strength is going to come. What you need to be right now is strong from the neck up.’ So those types of challenges are what the players need to stand up to right now and continue to improve throughout their careers. Whether one of them becomes a Tim or Randolph, Rodney or maybe even a number of other guys remains to be seen. But what they can become is a great team, collectively.
MTOW: The word culture has become a lightning rod. How do you define the term as it pertains to Wake?
RW: I can tell that we want a culture that reflects Wake Forest, that reflects the values and the ideas and the standards of this university, with players that are representing this university in that manner – that are good students, that take their academics seriously, that are good citizens, they work their tails off on the basketball floor, and when our fans come to see them, they can appreciate everything about them on the floor, that they work hard, they are tenacious, they are responsive to coaching, they hustle their tails off all the time, they are intense in everything that they do. That’s the type of culture that we’re looking for, and that type of culture goes back to what we talked about earlier, that we will continue to improve. If you have those trademarks and those qualities and characteristics, then you are going to continue to improve game after game after game with the season, and then season after season as well.
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MTOW: That would infer strongly that you did not see that in the previous (head coach).
RW: I’m not going to get into the previous. That was three years ago and that’s done. So we’re looking to the future, and looking forward to that.
MTOW: If you’re looking to make a change, why not change the whole staff?
RW: Jeff thought the staff members were good for Wake Forest and he wanted to keep them. That was his decision.
MTOW: Totally his decision?
RW: Totally his decision. The only thing I told those staff members was that they would have an opportunity to talk with Jeff. And they did, and their reputation was very good with Jeff. And when he met them, he felt they could be a positive influence on the program going forward.
MTOW: A lot of people say they still don’t understand the reason the change was made.
RW: We’re looking forward, and that change was made three years ago. And that is history. I’ve spoken to that issue a number of times, and at this point, that’s really old news as far as I’m concerned.
MTOW: Do you think that made Jeff [Redacted]’s job more difficult, winning over a fan base who didn’t understand the change in the first place.
RW: I don’t know. Whenever a change is made that is controversial, it certainly has an impact on the next person coming in. But Jeff has stood up to that and he’s absorbed it and he’s OK with it.
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MTOW: Some who have been around Wake Forest for years tell me Jeff [Redacted] doesn’t know them. What are you hearing about [Redacted]?
RW: I’ll tell you that everyone who knows Jeff [Redacted] says the same thing, that they respect the guy, they like the guy, they appreciate his values and his standards and the way he represents the university. They say he is the perfect match for Wake Forest. Jeff [Redacted] is a basketball coach, and he doesn’t spend a lot of time going out and meeting people and asking what they think. His time is spent going out recruiting. I don’t know any other head coach who spends as much time on the road recruiting as Jeff does. He’s been gone for four days. So he’s just a recruiting nut. He is on the move all the time. He has great ability to evaluate kids. What Jeff does is, he has the ability to project. He doesn’t just see a kid for who he is right now. He has the ability to project that individual two, three, four years down the road. He did that at Colorado and I think he’s doing it here as well. Our future is bright because of Jeff’s approach with this program.
MTOW:What about a lack of connection with the fan base?
RW: The problem is that we’re not winning. Jeff can’t connect with 15,000 fans. There’s just no way you can do that and do the job that he really has to do, and that’s recruiting and coaching and developing these players. He does everything we ask him to do in terms of going out and speaking and that type of thing. Again, winning will solve all of this. I’m telling you, if he were the most gracious, and if all 15,000 people knew him and he wasn’t winning, the response would be the same. They want to win. That’s the bottom line, that we’ve got to win. And when we win, everybody will appreciate Jeff. And until then, we’re going to be criticized, and I understand that.I can tell you many, many athletic directors who say `My coach isn’t connecting with the fans.’ And they have great programs and they could care less. The fans could care less because they’re winning. It all boils down to winning.
MTOW: When you see him being interviewed or taking questions in a post-game setting, what are you seeing?
RW: He’s honest. He will tell you exactly what he thinks, which a lot of people will criticize. Jeff takes things very seriously. When we lose, that hurts him, and it’s very evident that he’s hurt by it. He’s looking for `What could I have done differently, what do I need to do in the future to resolve this matter?’ And that’s his mindset immediately after a game. He’s just a very serious coach who is very honest and an open book. Winning is everything. Jeff is not Jack Benny. He’s never going to be. But he will be very honest with you and candid. What people need to do is listen to his words. He’s getting better in delivering the message. People who listen to the content, they can see there’s a lot of depth to what he is saying. Maybe sometimes he goes too far in analyzing certain situations. I will tell you Jeff and I talk about everything. He’s never complained about the media. He’s never said a word about the media. That’s just part of the territory. He recognizes that the media is going to ask tough questions. He’s never said a thing about that. So that’s not even on his radar screen of concerns. The only thing on his radar screen are the players. That is his total focus. And that’s the type of basketball coach that I want.
MTOW: When [Redacted] was hired in April of 2010, the roster was pretty depleted of proven ACC players. Did you not see a need for a more media-savvy, charismatic coach to get you through what may be a rough time?
RW: I wanted a great basketball coach.
MTOW: So you didn't take the PR component into account?
RW: I wanted a great basketball coach.
MTOW: So you’re convinced the fans will be back if you ever start winning?
RW: I am. Again the fans want one thing. They want winning basketball. And when that happens, do you think that a coach’s perceived public relations is going to get in the way of them coming back and cheering for a great basketball program? Go across the country. There’s some great programs right now led by guys who aren’t nearly as good behind a microphone as Jeff, but their fans are still packing the arena because the product is good. And that’s where we’ve got to get to as well.
http://m.journalnow.com/sports/wfu/my_take_on_wake/article_c60e0006-47f9-11e2-a7a9-0019bb30f31a.html
