I was going to spend a bunch of time leading my coaching carousel entry writing about Butler’s Brad Stevens until I ran across Rush The Court’s entry on Stevens that served to save me a lot of time. You can view it by clicking here.
Stevens’ profile on Tobacco Road has been elevated since the Wilmington Star publicly endorsed that NC State should immediately him as opposed to following the generally projected path of waiting to see how next year worked out for Sidney Lowe.
I learned yesterday that Phil Knight and Oregon may be throwing as much as $3 million a year to lure Stevens to the Ducks. So, I couldn’t help but have my radar blink wildly when Wake Forest surprisingly fired Dino Gaudio today supposedly out of the blue. For some solid commentary on the Gaudio situation you should click here to Jim Young’s new piece at ACCSJ.
Young’s comments near the end of the article on Ron Wellman are worth sharing below. And, if you don’t click through to but one of our hotlinks in this entry then it should be to this classic of the man who doesn’t make excuses.
Speaking of capital, sources indicate that Wellman has raised approximately $2 million from private donations in order to be able to buyout the final four years of Gaudio’s contract.
That Wellman already had that sort of funding in place is hardly surprising. He has a reputation as an AD who does not make a move unless the next move has already been planned out as well. Before Wellman broke the news to Gaudio the AD had likely already gotten a sense of which coaches would be interested in taking the Wake job.
Expect Wake Forest to at least make an overture to Butler coach Brad Stevens, if it hasn’t already done so. Former UNC-Wilmington coach Brad Brownell, who has since gone on to lead Wright State to four straight 20-win seasons, is another person who fits the Wake profile nicely.
Don’t expect to hear much news leaking out of the search. Wellman also has a well-deserved reputation for playing things close to the vest when it comes to personnel matters.
One name you see in RTC’s commentary is Clemson. I’ve got my eye specifically on Scott Drew related to Clemson and won’t shy from admitting that he would scare me to death down there. I don’t care if his recruiting practices skate some lines as many people in college basketball like to suggest. If the guy could recruit to a private Baptist school in friggin Waco, TX…he can recruit to Clemson, SC…or another private Baptist school in Winston-Salem, NC. (And…we don’t mind taking another bow from putting Drew on your personal radar LAST YEAR.
Speaking of Clemson, I heard from a buddy that Oliver Purnell called Terry Don Phillips at 1:30am to resign and to avoid receiving a counter offer. Ouch! Purnell must have really hated Terry Don. This is a really good entry on Why Purnell left Clemson?
Oh yea…Boston College hired a boring white guy from the Ivy League. If you find anyone that cares let us know. Maybe someone in their next conference will pay more attention to him.
So…who is next? The answer may not be as Red & White and you may think…especially with the lazy uncompetitive Athletics Administration at NC State. This entry is fantastic on many levels and will provide any Wolfpacker who compares the success level and resulting tenure of both Herb Sendek and Sidney Lowe to the discussion in that entry.
In closing, I wanted to encourage you to please remember to check our message boards a couple of times a day in addition to the blog. We will do our best to cover major developments of interest in real time on the blog; but, those message boards really provide real-time news and conversation in these crazy times because of the large number of people participating in the community. Similarly, please don’t hesitate to share links and post your thoughts on the boards. We need as much support from the community as possible.
