Wake hires Bzdelic

[KJ22]

Wake Forest is going to hire Jeff Bzdelic from Colorado as their new coach. Interesting hire as he had a losing record at Colorado and Wake has a very good tradition. They have good talent on the team and what is regarded as a great recruiting class coming in. It'll be interesting to see what happens with all of their players.

BTW, I think that's how you spell it, just saw it go across the bottom of ESPN.

 

[JonDMiller]

Wake fires their coach who had been somewhat successful (they are at least fourth fiddle in that state, hoops wise) to hire Colorado's coach?

 

[Hawk4Life76]

There has to be more to the story than we know about with that Dino G getting let go.

 

[storminspank]

I wonder if McClain gets the head coaching gig at CU now...

 

[hamiltoncounty]

Wake fires their coach who had been somewhat successful (they are at least fourth fiddle in that state, hoops wise) to hire Colorado's coach?

My jaw just hit the floor, what in the he11?

 

[HerkyMcHerky]

Coach Bzdelik and the Wake AD have been BFFs since their days together at Northwestern in the early 80s. Don't be fooled by his record at CU. He is an excellent coach and will do well at WF. He was something like 51-16 at the Air Force Academy in his short stint there. He also took the Nuggets from the #3 pick in the draft (Carmelo Anthony) to the playoffs the next year.

CU was in the similar spot when he got there that Iowa finds themselves in now. They just broke ground on a practice facility that was promised in Bzdelik's original contract.

CU will most likely be naming Coach McClain the new Head Coach before the end of the week. I also think this is a good hire. Bzdelik has had a few good recruiting classes and I think they're getting closer to being a mid-level Big 12 team.

 

[CAARHawk]

Coach Bzdelik and the Wake AD have been BFFs since their days together at Northwestern in the early 80s. Don't be fooled by his record at CU. He is an excellent coach and will do well at WF. He was something like 51-16 at the Air Force Academy in his short stint there. He also took the Nuggets from the #3 pick in the draft (Carmelo Anthony) to the playoffs the next year.

CU was in the similar spot when he got there that Iowa finds themselves in now. They just broke ground on a practice facility that was promised in Bzdelik's original contract.

CU will most likely be naming Coach McClain the new Head Coach before the end of the week. I also think this is a good hire. Bzdelik has had a few good recruiting classes and I think they're getting closer to being a mid-level Big 12 team.

Here is a comparison of Bzdelic and Lick's recruiting classes. Eeerily similar.
So, I would question the statement about Bzdelic having a few good recruiting classes.

Colorado Bzdelic 2007 2 -2s, 1 - 3 2008 1 - 4, 3 - 3s, 1 - 2, 2009 1 - 3, 3 -2s


Iowa Lick 2007 2 - 3s, 1 - 2, 2008 1 - 4, 4 - 3s, 1 - 2, 2009 3 - 2, 1 - 3,

 

[HerkyMcHerky]

Yep, because it starts and finishes with the # of stars in a recruiting class...

They had the Big 12 Freshman of the year this year - Burks - and only graduated 1 senior this year. It is a young team that is on the way up.

 

[CAARHawk]

Yep, because it starts and finishes with the # of stars in a recruiting class...

They had the Big 12 Freshman of the year this year - Burks - and only graduated 1 senior this year. It is a young team that is on the way up.

In Basketball in a sense it does kind of start and end with stars. There just aren't enough developmental opportunities, like football.

For instance everyone likes to hold up Butler as this little success story, but they had more Top 100 players on their roster than Top seed Syracuse.

Also, remember Gatens was on the all freshman team and close to being frosh of the year and how many seniors has Iowa graduated recently?

 

[HawkeyeMike23]

In Basketball in a sense it does kind of start and end with stars. There just aren't enough developmental opportunities, like football.

For instance everyone likes to hold up Butler as this little success story, but they had more Top 100 players on their roster than Top seed Syracuse.

Also, remember Gatens was on the all freshman team and close to being frosh of the year and how many seniors has Iowa graduated recently?

Yeah thats not true at all. Butler doesn't have any Top 100 recruits on their team, Howard is probably the closest but he was a 3 star. There are plenty of developmental opporutnities in basketball, and the kid can be simply overlooked coming out of high school, guys like Wes Johnson for example.

 

[CAARHawk]

Yeah thats not true at all. Butler doesn't have any Top 100 recruits on their team, Howard is probably the closest but he was a 3 star. There are plenty of developmental opporutnities in basketball, and the kid can be simply overlooked coming out of high school, guys like Wes Johnson for example.

You know, you are absolutely right. I unfortunately was foolish enough to quote ESPN without checking. Last time I will make that mistake.

 

[HawkeyeRyno]

I wonder if McClain gets the head coaching gig at CU now...

He is getting the job. Good for him. Iowa grown, energetic and experience. He has head coaching experience so good fit for him. I dated his niece the time he got the Wyoming job after leaving TCU and really got to know him for 4 years...great guy! Almost went to Wyoming to walk-on because of him. He did good things at Wyoming and lead recruiter for Colorado. He will do well. I thought Iowa should have gone after him instead of Lickliter.