KVegasDeac
Well-known member
My 2 cents - I was coaching AAU basketball with JT Terrell's uncle, when Dino got fired. I showed up at practice one night and he was the one who told me Dino had been fired. According to him, Wellman and Dino were meeting to review the status of the program. In that meeting, Wellman told Dino the players in the program were getting out of control and that we would no longer be recruiting one-and-done type kids. He wanted to recruit talented players, but ones that would stay 4 years (get their degree) and be good representatives of Wake Forest. Dino protested, saying 'the teams that win the ACC are the teams with the most NBA talent'. Wellman demanded the change and when Dino stood his ground (he had a nice buyout), Wellman fired him.
To me, that fits well with what heard and saw in the proceeding years.
- We did have a few players that were 'majoring in pre-NBA'
- There were some disciplinary issues (debatable whether is was more than we have seen since the change)
- No way Wellman was going to announce the change in recruiting philosophy, so he blamed the March collapses
- I heard Skip say several time, the teams that consistently win the ACC are the ones with the most NBA players
- Wellman was targeting Brad Stevens, so he could implement the 4 year "butler" plan
- We know what happened when that fell through, but how many times did Wellman and Redacted mention gym rats and five-star hearts?
- The word 'Culture' became a drinking game during Wake basketball broadcasts
It seems like a foregone conclusion now, but at the time many top-tier programs (like Duke for example) where deciding whether they wanted to follow a Kentucky like 'one-and-done' model or whether bringing in more top four-year type players made the most sense. Wellman choose five-star hearts and hired an incompetent buffoon to implement his plan.
Wake basketball used to matter to me - now I barely even watch any of the games.
All true.
What isn’t true: Dino hooking up with female students/cheerleaders. Absolutely not true.