Jeff Bzdelik is Out at Wake Forest

[ge1974]

Some of the Wake fans want Archie Miller...the hot coach for today.

[CaribouJim]

Wow - he was a quasi "it" guy when he was hired. Wasn't he even mentioned before Buzz got the nod?

[Goose85]

Is Wake becoming a real tough job. ACC has just added Louisville and Syracuse to the top end of the conference along with Pitt.

Wake is a small school (less than 5,000 undergrad) with pretty good academics (not sure if that matters to basketball players).

I know there are some North Carolina residents on this board who could answer this, but of the ACC basketball teams in North Carolina, would Wake be #4 on the list (UNC, Duke, NC State)?

[The Reptile]

Is Wake becoming a real tough job. ACC has just added Louisville and Syracuse to the top end of the conference along with Pitt.

Wake is a small school (less than 5,000 undergrad) with pretty good academics (not sure if that matters to basketball players).

I know there are some North Carolina residents on this board who could answer this, but of the ACC basketball teams in North Carolina, would Wake be #4 on the list (UNC, Duke, NC State)?


Wake is a distant 4th. Probably, due to size of the school and lack of recent success since Prosser passed away. Having Jim Grobe resign as football coach didn't help perceptions any either. Wake is also facing a challenge for students. Elon University is about 20 miles from them and is hyper-aggressive in both academics and athletics. While they're not likely to be asked to join the ACC anytime soon they are drawing students and are gaining a good reputation locally, are becoming a choice for those not interested in UNC or State and can't afford Duke. If you think that Marquette and Milwaukee are a difficult sale to prospective student-athletes try being Wake these days.

[warriorfan4life]

As long as they stay away from Chris Mack I am happy. I think Mack would turn them down, and he is an X alum, but I worry that the X-Wake connection with Skip Prosser may come into play (Mack was an assistant at Wake under Prosser). Xavier is now in a big boy league, so they should no longer be a stepping stone to higher profile job, but I have a hunch that Wake attempts to lure Mack away.

[Litehouse]

While not in the ACC, East Carolina is probably ahead of Wake in terms of local fan support in NC.

[Markedman]

Seth Davis ‏@SethDavisHoops 23s
Wake Forest announces firing of Jeff Bzdelik. I expect Ben Howland to be in the mix of possible replacements.

[WindyCityGoldenEagle]

If I'm looking for a new coach there are two available names that are head and shoulders above everyone imo: Pearl (realize he's been taken) and Howland.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Wake has clearly fell off a peg, and that's going to be a very hard school to recruit to now. I can't see any local blue chips not going to Duke or UNC, and the ones that slip by them will end up at NC State. It's an ACC job, but what else does it have going for it?

[IWB]

Beautiful campus, but very small. When people refer to Marquette as a "small school", keep in mind that Wake Forest is 1/2 the size of MU.

Take a recruit to your campus and it is beautiful, but for some of these kids, their high school may have been bigger than Wake. Tough sell. Back in the 80's & '90s when Wake was very good, weren't they one of the programs that "cornered the European market"? I seem to remember at least 1 solid foreigner on each of their good teams.

[CaribouJim]

Beautiful campus, but very small. When people refer to Marquette as a "small school", keep in mind that Wake Forest is 1/2 the size of MU.

Take a recruit to your campus and it is beautiful, but for some of these kids, their high school may have been bigger than Wake. Tough sell. Back in the 80's & '90s when Wake was very good, weren't they one of the programs that "cornered the European market"? I seem to remember at least 1 solid foreigner on each of their good teams.

Wake was one of the many league champs that MU disposed of in 2003. IIRC, that Wake game was the last high profile OOC game MU played in the middle of their conference schedule.

[unclejohn]

Wake was one of the many league champs that MU disposed of in 2003. IIRC, that Wake game was the last high profile OOC game MU played in the middle of their conference schedule.

You recall correctly. That was a great run, and we knocked off quite a few conference champions that year. That program used to be strong. Losing Skip Prosser really hurt. I am not sure they can compete in the ACC today.