Gaudio Out As Wake Forest Basketball Coach

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From the Barn said:
Doogie's obsession with finding out people's names puts him more in the stalker category than FOT.
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Says the guy that promotes his own Gopher Blog, I'm guessing your name is somewhere on your website, right? Are you surprised Doogie took the time to read your blog?
 

He is fighting a one sided debate (most of the time) because others know exactly who he is, what he does, where he works, and will slam him with personal insults, yet Doogie doesn't know who these people are. It takes zero courage to sling insults behind an internet moniker.
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OTOH, like most of the media, it's easy to use second hand information, which honestly, they're not able to directly confirm, and take cheap shots at people they know won't respond.
 

streetfighter said:
I disagree. He is fighting a one sided debate (most of the time) because others know exactly who he is, what he does, where he works, and will slam him with personal insults, yet Doogie doesn't know who these people are. It takes zero courage to sling insults behind an internet moniker.
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It is too bad that Doochy was contractually obligated to register with his totally rockin' nickname when he joined this message board. If only he could have joined as another anonymous person like the other 100 million message board members in the U.S.

Wait, what?

He DECIDED TO REGISTER WITH HIS OWN NAME? It was of his own volition? He thought people here would read his posts on say, "Oooooh, that Doofie sure has some connections" and it would somehow benefit his pathetic career? He did it because he had an overinflated sense of self and didn't realize that people saw him as the complete joke that his is?

Oops. My bad. Disregard that previous paragraph.
 

chi-town gopher said:
Says the guy that promotes his own Gopher Blog, I'm guessing your name is somewhere on your website, right? Are you surprised Doogie took the time to read your blog?
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I've told From the Barn before that he does enjoyable work ... the invite still stands if he wants to come in next week to do a podcast then I can post online.
 

The invite that was never made? I have no interest in being associated with you.
 


Invite = in my post above. Trying to give you some pub, and an opportunity to debate me. Would make for a good podcast, but if you don't want to, no problem.
 

WF fan here, guys. I have no idea if we'll make a run at Tubby (I hope we do), but came over here to see if there were any threads about it and saw the Gaudio thread.

You have to realize that Dino's tenure is viewed kind of as an extension of Skip's. Skip, god rest his soul, did not have a good last few years at Wake, but there was optimism on the horizon with a top recruiting class coming in at the time of his death. Dino was the logical and players' choice to keep the ship afloat, even though his own head coaching resume at that point was lackluster to say the least.

Dino has continued to recruit well, but he is not much of a gameday coach at all. You can look at the records all you want, but can't ignore other things, such as the late-season flameouts (losing to bad teams badly in the reg season this year, being completely uncompetitive in the ACC tourney the last three years, and getting destroyed early and often in the NCAAs to Cleveland St. and Kentucky. The win over Texas counts for very little, since Texas was the one team in the tourney playing as poorly as Wake going into the Big Dance), and general poor coaching. There are also consistent issues with a lack of fundamental hoops IQ on the court and how they remained uncorrected over both Dino's and Skip's tenure. One thing I'll say for Dino is he made his teams defensive-minded, and that was to his benefit initially-- particularly during his first season. But his teams had no offense unless they were running in transition. The half-court sets consisted of dribbling around a lot and finding somebody to toss the ball in the general vicinity of the basket.

In the end, most fans felt Dino was a good guy and needed to be the guy after Skip left us, but that his 3 year trial had not met expectations and we needed a change. If they are surprised, it's that it took this long after the UK loss to fire him.

I don't know where Pewterschmidt got the negative recruiting thing, but I'm not going to rail on another poster with my first post, particularly one with over 3000 posts on his team's message board. All I know is that is the first time I've ever heard that accusation levied against Gaudio. As for the Herb Brooks comparison, I don't know if that's good or bad. At least Herb's teams did something when it counted.

Back to Tubby... With Stevens now out of the question (I never held out a reasonable hope for him anyway), most Wake fans seem warm to the idea of Tubby. It is the southeast (a better place to retire than the upper midwest), and he has ties to the area. From our perspective, he would lend instant credibility to the program. Wake fans don't expect to beat Duke and UNC on a regular basis, but we would like to beat them about half the time and have some postseason success, which is something we have not experienced in a while. #1 rankings don't mean much if you can't hold them for more than a week and die early and often in the tourney every year. If that's pressure, I think that is the kind of pressure a lot of people can stand, to include an aging Tubby Smith. Do I think we'll get him? Well, I don't even know who we're making a run at. Our AD, Ron Wellman, seems to be keeping things well under wraps. I suspect, however, that if he was making a run at Tubby that somebody in Minnesota's vast network of boosters would know about it and leak it. It is hard to keep a secret these days, especially with a high profile name like Tubby's.
 

EatLeadCommie said:
WF fan here, guys. I have no idea if we'll make a run at Tubby (I hope we do), but came over here to see if there were any threads about it and saw the Gaudio thread.

You have to realize that Dino's tenure is viewed kind of as an extension of Skip's. Skip, god rest his soul, did not have a good last few years at Wake, but there was optimism on the horizon with a top recruiting class coming in at the time of his death. Dino was the logical and players' choice to keep the ship afloat, even though his own head coaching resume at that point was lackluster to say the least.

Dino has continued to recruit well, but he is not much of a gameday coach at all. You can look at the records all you want, but can't ignore other things, such as the late-season flameouts (losing to bad teams badly in the reg season this year, being completely uncompetitive in the ACC tourney the last three years, and getting destroyed early and often in the NCAAs to Cleveland St. and Kentucky. The win over Texas counts for very little, since Texas was the one team in the tourney playing as poorly as Wake going into the Big Dance), and general poor coaching. There are also consistent issues with a lack of fundamental hoops IQ on the court and how they remained uncorrected over both Dino's and Skip's tenure. One thing I'll say for Dino is he made his teams defensive-minded, and that was to his benefit initially-- particularly during his first season. But his teams had no offense unless they were running in transition. The half-court sets consisted of dribbling around a lot and finding somebody to toss the ball in the general vicinity of the basket.

In the end, most fans felt Dino was a good guy and needed to be the guy after Skip left us, but that his 3 year trial had not met expectations and we needed a change. If they are surprised, it's that it took this long after the UK loss to fire him.

I don't know where Pewterschmidt got the negative recruiting thing, but I'm not going to rail on another poster with my first post, particularly one with over 3000 posts on his team's message board. All I know is that is the first time I've ever heard that accusation levied against Gaudio. As for the Herb Brooks comparison, I don't know if that's good or bad. At least Herb's teams did something when it counted.

Back to Tubby... With Stevens now out of the question (I never held out a reasonable hope for him anyway), most Wake fans seem warm to the idea of Tubby. It is the southeast (a better place to retire than the upper midwest), and he has ties to the area. From our perspective, he would lend instant credibility to the program. Wake fans don't expect to beat Duke and UNC on a regular basis, but we would like to beat them about half the time and have some postseason success, which is something we have not experienced in a while. #1 rankings don't mean much if you can't hold them for more than a week and die early and often in the tourney every year. If that's pressure, I think that is the kind of pressure a lot of people can stand, to include an aging Tubby Smith. Do I think we'll get him? Well, I don't even know who we're making a run at. Our AD, Ron Wellman, seems to be keeping things well under wraps. I suspect, however, that if he was making a run at Tubby that somebody in Minnesota's vast network of boosters would know about it and leak it. It is hard to keep a secret these days, especially with a high profile name like Tubby's.
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Appreciate the honesty from you and welcome to the board.

I honestly am not worried about Wake Forest in the least. Why? Because we heard all the same reasons for him moving to Virginia last year and that never happened. Then we heard it was Auburn, then it was Oregon, then it was Georgia Tech, and now it's Clemson and Wake Forest. And the reasoning is always the same: "we're a better job than Minnesota (better weather, it's a better place to retire to, he'll be closer to family, and so on and so forth) so he'll come for sure." Yet, he's still the coach here and at last report (a couple of weeks ago) is working on an extension. If something officially changes, then it will be worth mentioning. Until then, not much to see here.

Having said that, good luck with your search. I'm sure you will end up with a good coach regardless.
 

EatLeadCommie said:
WF fan here, guys. I have no idea if we'll make a run at Tubby (I hope we do), but came over here to see if there were any threads about it and saw the Gaudio thread.

You have to realize that Dino's tenure is viewed kind of as an extension of Skip's. Skip, god rest his soul, did not have a good last few years at Wake, but there was optimism on the horizon with a top recruiting class coming in at the time of his death. Dino was the logical and players' choice to keep the ship afloat, even though his own head coaching resume at that point was lackluster to say the least.

Dino has continued to recruit well, but he is not much of a gameday coach at all. You can look at the records all you want, but can't ignore other things, such as the late-season flameouts (losing to bad teams badly in the reg season this year, being completely uncompetitive in the ACC tourney the last three years, and getting destroyed early and often in the NCAAs to Cleveland St. and Kentucky. The win over Texas counts for very little, since Texas was the one team in the tourney playing as poorly as Wake going into the Big Dance), and general poor coaching. There are also consistent issues with a lack of fundamental hoops IQ on the court and how they remained uncorrected over both Dino's and Skip's tenure. One thing I'll say for Dino is he made his teams defensive-minded, and that was to his benefit initially-- particularly during his first season. But his teams had no offense unless they were running in transition. The half-court sets consisted of dribbling around a lot and finding somebody to toss the ball in the general vicinity of the basket.

In the end, most fans felt Dino was a good guy and needed to be the guy after Skip left us, but that his 3 year trial had not met expectations and we needed a change. If they are surprised, it's that it took this long after the UK loss to fire him.

I don't know where Pewterschmidt got the negative recruiting thing, but I'm not going to rail on another poster with my first post, particularly one with over 3000 posts on his team's message board. All I know is that is the first time I've ever heard that accusation levied against Gaudio. As for the Herb Brooks comparison, I don't know if that's good or bad. At least Herb's teams did something when it counted.

Back to Tubby... With Stevens now out of the question (I never held out a reasonable hope for him anyway), most Wake fans seem warm to the idea of Tubby. It is the southeast (a better place to retire than the upper midwest), and he has ties to the area. From our perspective, he would lend instant credibility to the program. Wake fans don't expect to beat Duke and UNC on a regular basis, but we would like to beat them about half the time and have some postseason success, which is something we have not experienced in a while. #1 rankings don't mean much if you can't hold them for more than a week and die early and often in the tourney every year. If that's pressure, I think that is the kind of pressure a lot of people can stand, to include an aging Tubby Smith. Do I think we'll get him? Well, I don't even know who we're making a run at. Our AD, Ron Wellman, seems to be keeping things well under wraps. I suspect, however, that if he was making a run at Tubby that somebody in Minnesota's vast network of boosters would know about it and leak it. It is hard to keep a secret these days, especially with a high profile name like Tubby's.
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Thanks for the post. Not knowing too much about your program, it is hard to see the logic of firing a coach right after extending his contract(which would imply he was meeting expectations), right after he beat an underacheiving but very talented Texas team in the tourney(and no shame losing to the most talented team in the tourney-Kentucky), and he's bringing in a top-ten recruiting class(which may break up now with his firing).

The criticism of Dino seems hauntingly similar to what we hear about Tubby, great defense, no identifiable half-court offense.

I truly hope you guys end up with a great coach that satisifies the players and the boosters. Just not Tubby.
 



Why so worked up?

I don't know why Doogie is making so many of you guys upset.

Granted, I'm not local anymore so I have no idea what his role is in the MSP media, but isn't this all about perspective? I don't know who he is and from what I've read of his posts he's not any more or less connected than half of the people on this message board. As a result, I don't put any more stock into what he writes on here than any other poster. Makes it hard to get upset over what he has to say. My only concern would be a grown man in a somewhat professional field referring to himself as "Doogie", but that's nit-picking.

Some folks just need to lighten up and back off the guy. On this forum, he's no different than you or I.

On a side note, Doogie, I think I heard somewhere that you were working with John Hansen; tell him a lot of people in Vegas miss him on radio. His replacement, Cofield, is a jackass and a complete idiot.
 

I hear you, MRJ. I have always hated it when a coaching vacancy opens up and my coach's name is floated, usually simply as mindless speculation by some reporter who pulled the names off equally mindless speculators on a message board. I didn't know that Virginia made a run at him, but I will say that Wake is in a much better predicament both currently and for the future than UVA is with its hoops program. It should also not be underestimated that Wake has a very formidable and respected AD, something that coaches always take into account when making a decision about a new job.

However, the big negative for Wake is its focus on academics and, to a lesser extent, its small size. Tubby dealt with the small size issue at Tulsa, and that element is probably better countered at Wake with better facilities, a better athletic conference, and better athletic department support from boosters, but the academic restrictions are something he has not had to deal with at UGA, UK, or Minnesota (no offense to UM, which is in a fine academic conference, a good school, and certainly a bit more academics-minded than either UGA or UK). In the end, I am not optimistic about getting Tubby Smith, but I hope Wellman tries for him at least. None of the other names out there really float my boat.
 

EatLeadCommie said:
I hear you, MRJ. I have always hated it when a coaching vacancy opens up and my coach's name is floated, usually simply as mindless speculation by some reporter who pulled the names off equally mindless speculators on a message board. I didn't know that Virginia made a run at him, but I will say that Wake is in a much better predicament both currently and for the future than UVA is with its hoops program. It should also not be underestimated that Wake has a very formidable and respected AD, something that coaches always take into account when making a decision about a new job.

However, the big negative for Wake is its focus on academics and, to a lesser extent, its small size. Tubby dealt with the small size issue at Tulsa, and that element is probably better countered at Wake with better facilities, a better athletic conference, and better athletic department support from boosters, but the academic restrictions are something he has not had to deal with at UGA, UK, or Minnesota (no offense to UM, which is in a fine academic conference, a good school, and certainly a bit more academics-minded than either UGA or UK). In the end, I am not optimistic about getting Tubby Smith, but I hope Wellman tries for him at least. None of the other names out there really float my boat.
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Yeah, my response was not meant to belittle Wake's situation or what they can offer. I've always rather liked Wake Forest, much more than some of the others that have been rumored to have been destinations for coach Smith. After awhile, it simply starts to become a broken record as to why so-and-so job is a better opportunity than Minnesota.

But getting back to the Wake situation, what is the feeling about Gaudio being fired? On the surface (and that's about all I can go off of since I don't know your program all that well), it seems like a curious move. It's hard for me to understand the mindset of "well, we didn't do well in the postseason and the NCAAs, therefore, we needed to make a change." To me, that sounds like something I might hear from a Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Duke or a UCLA when it comes to firing a coach. I must admit, I don't equate that type of explanation for a termination with a school like Wake Forest. Is there something we don't know about behind the scenes? Or is really just what the AD said?
 

EatLeadCommie said:
I hear you, MRJ. I have always hated it when a coaching vacancy opens up and my coach's name is floated, usually simply as mindless speculation by some reporter who pulled the names off equally mindless speculators on a message board. I didn't know that Virginia made a run at him, but I will say that Wake is in a much better predicament both currently and for the future than UVA is with its hoops program. It should also not be underestimated that Wake has a very formidable and respected AD, something that coaches always take into account when making a decision about a new job.

However, the big negative for Wake is its focus on academics and, to a lesser extent, its small size. Tubby dealt with the small size issue at Tulsa, and that element is probably better countered at Wake with better facilities, a better athletic conference, and better athletic department support from boosters, but the academic restrictions are something he has not had to deal with at UGA, UK, or Minnesota (no offense to UM, which is in a fine academic conference, a good school, and certainly a bit more academics-minded than either UGA or UK). In the end, I am not optimistic about getting Tubby Smith, but I hope Wellman tries for him at least. None of the other names out there really float my boat.
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I had a friend back east email me the name of Wright State's Brad Brownell as a prime candidate for Wake's coach. What are you hearing about him?
 



MRJ- Apart from what I said in my first post, I think the general feeling was that Dino was not the guy to take us up a notch. You have to keep in mind that Wake hasn't seen a Final Four since 1961 and has a recent history (since the mid 90s) of underachieving in the postseason. Minus the two ACC tourney titles in 95-96 with Childress and Duncan, we consistently lose to lower seeded teams, and often in embarrassing fashion. Before this season's run, Butler's big tourney claim to fame was handing us our butts back in 2001 (a game that led to Dave Odom "seeking a job elsewhere" with South Carolina and Skip being hired). Dino was not changing that, nor was he about to anytime soon. There has also been some behind the scenes theorizing going on about one of his assistants leaving for what was a lateral move...but to Boise St. of all places (therefore, it was really a step down and not a lateral move). It seemed a bit strange, as if all was not well on the Good Ship Gaudio.

beowulf-- Brownell's name has come up in the names. Right now, I think it's a lot like Tubby's name-- just speculation. I think he would be about as good a hire as could be expected from among the existing mid-majors, but Jerry Wainwright also did great things at UNC-W, then well at another mid-major before failing miserably at DePaul. Perhaps that's not a fair comparison, but it's worth noting. Groce at Ohio is also a popular name floating around now. A lot of folks think Wellman will look for somebody younger than Tubby who will be in it for the long haul.
 

EatLeadCommie said:
MRJ- Apart from what I said in my first post, I think the general feeling was that Dino was not the guy to take us up a notch. You have to keep in mind that Wake hasn't seen a Final Four since 1961 and has a recent history (since the mid 90s) of underachieving in the postseason. Minus the two ACC tourney titles in 95-96 with Childress and Duncan, we consistently lose to lower seeded teams, and often in embarrassing fashion. Before this season's run, Butler's big tourney claim to fame was handing us our butts back in 2001 (a game that led to Dave Odom "seeking a job elsewhere" with South Carolina and Skip being hired). Dino was not changing that, nor was he about to anytime soon. There has also been some behind the scenes theorizing going on about one of his assistants leaving for what was a lateral move...but to Boise St. of all places (therefore, it was really a step down and not a lateral move). It seemed a bit strange, as if all was not well on the Good Ship Gaudio.

beowulf-- Brownell's name has come up in the names. Right now, I think it's a lot like Tubby's name-- just speculation. I think he would be about as good a hire as could be expected from among the existing mid-majors, but Jerry Wainwright also did great things at UNC-W, then well at another mid-major before failing miserably at DePaul. Perhaps that's not a fair comparison, but it's worth noting. Groce at Ohio is also a popular name floating around now. A lot of folks think Wellman will look for somebody younger than Tubby who will be in it for the long haul.
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Thanks for the scoop. Wasn't aware of the assistant coach leaving for Boise State. Interesting move to go from an assistant at an ACC school like Wake Forest to being an assistant at a WAC school like Boise State. Wonder if there is more to the story on that one because like you said, that would definitely be considered a step down despite maybe being a lateral move in terms of job title. I can also understand the motivation to avoid stagnation with the program. Certainly if it appears that a program has "maxed out" under the direction of a particular coach, it's time to move on. At any rate, I can see some of the dots being connected. Just seemed that this particular firing kind came a bit out of the blue.
 

Thanks EatLeadCommie, (great moniker BTW)

Best of luck in your team's search.
 

GoGoGophers said:
It is too bad that Doochy was contractually obligated to register with his totally rockin' nickname when he joined this message board. If only he could have joined as another anonymous person like the other 100 million message board members in the U.S.

Wait, what?

He DECIDED TO REGISTER WITH HIS OWN NAME? It was of his own volition? He thought people here would read his posts on say, "Oooooh, that Doofie sure has some connections" and it would somehow benefit his pathetic career? He did it because he had an overinflated sense of self and didn't realize that people saw him as the complete joke that his is?

Oops. My bad. Disregard that previous paragraph.
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This is beyond childish. Doochy? Doofie? A+ work....
 

I'm taking a shot in the dark on this one, but if EatLeadCommie is still out there, I have a new question for him/her:

How do you feel about all this blabbering about Bzdelik going to Wake Forest? Not sure I'd be on board with that one if I was a Demon Deacon fan.
 

MRJ said:
I'm taking a shot in the dark on this one, but if EatLeadCommie is still out there, I have a new question for him/her:

How do you feel about all this blabbering about Bzdelik going to Wake Forest? Not sure I'd be on board with that one if I was a Demon Deacon fan.
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Judging from the message board traffic, I can count on one hand the number of fans of this hire. There is a sense that he is a good guy with X's and O's, but he doesn't have the coaching pedigree that oozes confidence. I called it a polished turd of a hire, and that pretty much sums it up for me. All this talk about Brad Stevens and Tubby Smith, and we went after somebody whose name nobody knows how to pronounce. Frankly, the hire reeks of cronyism (he and Wellman are buds) and whatever good mojo Wellman built up with the Grobe hiring he has effectively destroyed with this one. The fans wanted somebody younger who knows the game and has a good track record. If we were gonna go old, we wanted somebody like Tubby who has legit credentials.

There is a saying on the boards about LOWF-- Little Ol' Wake Forest. This is the mentality that has permeated our athletics program for years and that we had finally managed to step away from with the ACC football title, NCs in field hockey and men's soccer, and generally solid athletic teams across the board (baseball team is sucking pretty hard but they won 3 ACC titles just a few years ago). Well, this hire would be a return to the LOWF. It's not like we aimed high and shot low. We aimed low and shot lower.
 

EatLeadCommie said:
Judging from the message board traffic, I can count on one hand the number of fans of this hire. There is a sense that he is a good guy with X's and O's, but he doesn't have the coaching pedigree that oozes confidence. I called it a polished turd of a hire, and that pretty much sums it up for me. All this talk about Brad Stevens and Tubby Smith, and we went after somebody whose name nobody knows how to pronounce. Frankly, the hire reeks of cronyism (he and Wellman are buds) and whatever good mojo Wellman built up with the Grobe hiring he has effectively destroyed with this one. The fans wanted somebody younger who knows the game and has a good track record. If we were gonna go old, we wanted somebody like Tubby who has legit credentials.

There is a saying on the boards about LOWF-- Little Ol' Wake Forest. This is the mentality that has permeated our athletics program for years and that we had finally managed to step away from with the ACC football title, NCs in field hockey and men's soccer, and generally solid athletic teams across the board (baseball team is sucking pretty hard but they won 3 ACC titles just a few years ago). Well, this hire would be a return to the LOWF. It's not like we aimed high and shot low. We aimed low and shot lower.
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Certainly a good coach, but his lack of success at Colorado combined with him not being considered a recruiting powerhouse makes one wonder about this hire. It will interesting to see if he's capable of keeping Gaudio's 2010 class from jumping ship, and how he does in ACC play next year. I would assume WF fans are not doing cart-wheels right now, but if he and the program take the talent Dino got them and win a few in the ACC tournament, the AD will look like a genius.
 

EatLeadCommie said:
Judging from the message board traffic, I can count on one hand the number of fans of this hire. There is a sense that he is a good guy with X's and O's, but he doesn't have the coaching pedigree that oozes confidence. I called it a polished turd of a hire, and that pretty much sums it up for me. All this talk about Brad Stevens and Tubby Smith, and we went after somebody whose name nobody knows how to pronounce. Frankly, the hire reeks of cronyism (he and Wellman are buds) and whatever good mojo Wellman built up with the Grobe hiring he has effectively destroyed with this one. The fans wanted somebody younger who knows the game and has a good track record. If we were gonna go old, we wanted somebody like Tubby who has legit credentials.

There is a saying on the boards about LOWF-- Little Ol' Wake Forest. This is the mentality that has permeated our athletics program for years and that we had finally managed to step away from with the ACC football title, NCs in field hockey and men's soccer, and generally solid athletic teams across the board (baseball team is sucking pretty hard but they won 3 ACC titles just a few years ago). Well, this hire would be a return to the LOWF. It's not like we aimed high and shot low. We aimed low and shot lower.
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There certainly are aspects to this situation that appear to border on cronyism if nothing else. I read somewhere on the Wake Forest board that Wellman and Bzdelik were old buddies and that seems to be a big reason why he is being considered. I'm just really surprised that Wake would go to the trouble of firing a pretty successful coach in Dino Gaudio for a guy whose last two stops have been at Air Force and Colorado, two perennial bottom feeders in the MWC and the Big 12 respectively. I know he had a couple of decent years coaching the Denver Nuggets, so there is probably some potential to be successful given the right circumstances.

But from what I can gather, the latest assistant Bzdelik hired at Colorado isn't exactly a beacon of integrity, something that would certainly give me more than a moment of pause if I was a Demon Deacon supporter. Add that to the rather putrid showings he put together at Air Force and Colorado and it doesn't look all that promising (understanding of course that such an assessment is coming from a Gopher fan ;)).

Anyway, I wish the folks out in Winston-Salem good luck whether your coach turns out to be Bzdelik or not.
 

Yeah that assistant is fortunately not coming back to with Bz to Wake. Folks on the boards were REALLY POed about that possibility. One thing Wake takes pride in is doing things the right way.

And actually Bz did well at AFA. The problem is he did it with leftover recruits and they fell apart after he left because he didn't recruit well there.

As for the hire itself, the dust has kind of settled. There are many things about it, particularly the coaching search process itself (in which Bz seemed to be the only guy targeted), that have people still fuming, but he's the coach now and people will support him. Honestly, I think that apart from landing a guy like Tubby or Stevens, both of whom were probably pipe dreams from the start, there were not a lot of good names to pick from this year. There were no Grade A hires. A Grade B is about as good as you could hope for. I think we got a C or C+. Bz can unquestionably do the teaching part of coaching very well. Whether he can motivate and recruit is another matter entirely. He retained 2 members of Dino's staff who know how to recruit well. I only hope that he has a good working relationship with those guys because I have a feeling that retaining them was a part of the deal, and you never know how mixing staffs is going to work. Usually, it doesn't work out too well.
 

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