Wake Forest fires Dino Gaudio

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After three seasons and two appearances in the NCAA Tournament, it looks like Dino Gaudio has been fired by Wake Forest. A press conference is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Check back later today for more and check out the forums for more discussion.

WXII: Gaudio out at Wake Forest

Wake Forest University head basketball coach Dino Gaudio was fired Wednesday after mounting a 61-31 record during his three seasons as head coach, sources at the university confirmed.

An announcement was planned for 4:30 p.m.

Gaudio coached the team to two NCAA basketball tournament appearances and one NCAA tournament win.

He was hired in 2007 after coach Skip Prosser died suddenly from a heart attack

Gaudio, 53, joined Prosser in 1981 at a Central Catholic High School in West Virginia, and the native of Yorkville, Ohio, took over the program at tiny Wheeling Central in 1985 when Prosser left to join Xavier’s staff.

Here’s the release from WFU, which was up immediately following Wellman’s press conference, which lasted about 25 minutes.

Wake Forest’s Dino Gaudio Released From Contract

Wake Forest University Director of Athletics Ron Wellman announced today that head men’s basketball coach Dino Gaudio would not be retained. A national search for a new basketball coach will begin immediately.

“I met with Dino this afternoon and informed him that he would no longer be our basketball coach,” said Wellman.

“Dino has made contributions to this program over the last 10 seasons. He stepped into a difficult situation at a very trying time when Skip Prosser passed away and he steadied the program.

“But from a competitive standpoint, it has been disappointing that we have developed a pattern of not playing well late in the season and in the postseason. Wake Forest has a proud history of basketball success but we have not been as competitive in the postseason as we would like.”

Wellman said there was no timeline for the hiring of a new coach.

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166 Responses to Wake Forest fires Dino Gaudio

  1. wolfmanmat 04/08/2010 at 6:05 PM #

    Wolf, Stevens is a great coach. I wasn’t arguing Stevens. He isn’t leaving Butler either…and I HATE Rick Barnes. He has done nothing at Texas, which IMO is one of the easiest jobs in the country(ie. no pressure/no competition for talent). This is about Dino. he didn’t recruit well enough to win. He didn’t recruit Johnson or Al…that was Prosser. They hired Dino because when Prosser tragically died, they had little other option. You can’t start a big coaching search and fire the assistants after a beloved coaches death. That looks bad. … Look at their potential starting 5 next year: THAT is why Dino is gone.

  2. bradleyb123 04/08/2010 at 6:33 PM #

    Stevens may be a great coach. Maybe he would be a huge success in the ACC. The point is, Sid may be, too. We’ve yet to see Sid coach a team that has all the pieces he needs, and we get to see that this year. I’m not saying Sid is great. I’m saying we don’t know that yet. And just because he hasn’t been able to win a lot of games thus far, is not necessarily proof of anything. But we can’t just pull the plug on someone that is in the middle of building something, when we’re so close to being done rebuilding.

    There will always be another Brad Stevens. I’m of the belief that we will see the fruits of Sid’s rebuilding this year. If we don’t, then bye-bye Sid. I just don’t see the sense in pulling the plug NOW. I’ve already said we have to produce THIS year. It’s not a perpetual “maybe next year” thing. We’re only losing two players, and they’re not exactly our top two players, either. And we’re bringing in some great ones (in theory anyway). And our freshmen will all be a year older now.

  3. Rick 04/08/2010 at 6:44 PM #

    “I’m saying we don’t know that yet. And just because he hasn’t been able to win a lot of games thus far, is not necessarily proof of anything”

    Then how would you propose we decide who is good and who is not?
    If wins or lack thereof do not determine how good a coach is then what does?
    I guess Bob Stack was a coaching genius in your mind.

    I have been hearing about how next year is the year for Sid. He will have the talent. No more excuses.
    Top 4 in the ACC is what my expectation is.

  4. ADVENTUROO 04/08/2010 at 6:54 PM #

    OK…Stevens is staying at Butler….Looks like all the chatter about Wellman having him the bag was, well er, just that….SO….where is the plane and what is it’s number so we can track it….the one that will bring Rick Barnes to Winston Salem so that Wellman can introduce him tomorrow….since the chatter was for an early morning presser, maybe Rick is in the air as we speak…..

    BUT….in the HIGHLY UNLIKELY (Please so NOT…I bet a significant amount of my vast fortune on Stevens based on the info last night…had to borrow Money to cover them…now doubling down on Barnes) scenario, WHO is REALLY on the list?

    Me thinks that Mr. Wellman hath been given too much credit…he did not appreciate Dino’s mouth….some influential donors didn’t either….and the team’s opinion of their coach came tumbling down….like our record under Fowler…

    GO FIGURE…

  5. quacko 04/08/2010 at 10:29 PM #

    “We had a bad run of seven games that cost us our NCAA invitation. Those were seven ACC games that Butler didn’t have to play.”

    i’d say butler played 6 games, 5 of which we’ll most likely never play again.

    “Sid hasn’t proven anything, either.”

    I’d say he’s proven he’s not a very successful coach.

    “But he got off to a rough start due to his late hiring. He was saddled with several leftover players that I believe 100% were poisonous to the team chemistry. I consider this Sid’s first real year, and all things considered, with such a young team, it WASN’T that bad. This team could have easily won just 10 games, yet we won 20 and made a splash in the conference tournament, falling just short of the championship game. We have a top-level point guard coming in, and another 5-star recruit, too. THIS is the piece we’ve been missing.”

    How many “missing pieces” can one school have? I’d say we’re leading in that category. maybe we can get a banner for it, to hang up next to the glen wilkes classic banner.

    “Yes, it took a long time, but people want to pull the rug out from under Sid just when he FINALLY has a real shot to prove himself.”

    Which of his actions lead you to believe he will take advantage of it?

    “I really think there are people that don’t WANT Sid to prove himself. I’m not sure why, maybe because they are unable to forgive his first 3-4 years of bad basketball. But it makes no sense to talk about bringing in ANOTHER mid-major coach that just had one (maybe two?) decent years. But we have no idea what kind of credibility he’d bring with him to NC State as far as recruiting goes. He would be ANOTHER roll of the dice for us. Why is it so horrible to give Sid this year (and I mean JUST THIS YEAR, not one more, not two more…) to prove himself with his players, now that the pieces are all there to do something?”

    would you rather eat food from a chef that tastes great no matter the ingredients, or from some dude that just buys name brand ingredients

  6. LRM 04/08/2010 at 11:14 PM #

    quacko, quick question (how about that for alliteration?): are the ingredients writing letters to the diners supporting the chef?

  7. quacko 04/08/2010 at 11:16 PM #

    i think the busboy put the ingredients up to the letter

  8. ADVENTUROO 04/09/2010 at 1:07 AM #

    WOE IS ME….I followed the advice of fools….I bet the farm on Steven and Barnes….

    NOW…I read the following…..

    http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2010/apr/09/coaching-search-may-take-time/

    Nary a whipser about Barnes….all the usual suspects are there….and Wellman will probably hire someone NOT on the list.

    Looks like all the Hoopla (pun intended) was just that….and Wellman fired the boy and did not have a coach standing by…

    This will be interesting. Wellman will probably make a good hire….he has good instincts….but he is NOT the GOD Given AD that all the posters alluded to a few days ago…

  9. pack44fan 04/09/2010 at 8:10 AM #

    I don’t think anybody claims Wellman to be the “GOD Given AD”. You have to give the guy credit for making a change when he felt it was necessary. I like anybody who at least states that their athletic department is a “performance enterprise” and is not afraid to back up the claim. No one knows who Wellman has talked to or targeted to replace Dino. Our AD makes excuse after excuse for underperforming teams and coaches. He has proven time and again he won’t make a change until his feet are held to the fire. Again, he is reactive rather than proactive.

  10. LRM 04/09/2010 at 8:20 AM #

    Obviously if he hires Rusty LaRue (a name Lennox Rawlings mentioned), then some of us will change our opinion…but Wellman has a history of managing that program with a winning attitude in mind, so for now he gets the benefit of the doubt.

  11. choppack1 04/09/2010 at 8:45 AM #

    Wellman is a fantastic AD. If you look at Wake has accomplished – not just football and basketball – it’s pretty impressive. And I’m not talking about just Sears Cups – but winning championships.

    He wants to do that. He figured he had a guy in the best case might win the regular season, but couldn’t “close” well enough to win titles. He realized that only into year 3 of his tenure – Gaudio was fracturing the fan base. He pulled the string and took responsibility before it got ugly.

  12. Wulfpack 04/09/2010 at 9:24 AM #

    wellman had the courage to make a very tough decision. He also dotteed his I’s and crossed his T’s to ensure Wake had the buyout funds in place. I’m certain he has had countless conversations with basketball people in the days leading up to this decision.

    Bottom line: Wake will have a better coach than Dino next year. You can take that to the bank.

    He kept Dino on staff to mitigate an impossible situation after Prosser’s sudden passing. It was the right thing to do for a lot of reasons. Dino got his shot, and wellman decided his program was not progressing using objective measures.

    Wellman is the chief steward of the WFU athletics program. Say what you want about the guy, but he’s doing one hell of a job.

  13. BloggerEsquire 04/09/2010 at 9:50 PM #

    Wake looking at Jeff Bzdelik?
    http://www.accsports.com/blogs/jim-young/201004097619/jeff-bzdelik-a-candidate-for-wake-job.php

    Bzedlik does not seem to be the slam dunk that Stevens would have been.
    For as much as some folks at SFN want to lionize Wellman, the Wake folks are not exactly thrilled with this potential choice. True, he may work out, but more successful than Gaudio’s 61-31 and .500 split again Duke, Carolina (and State)?

    That being said Wellman seems to have presided over strong success across the board in Wake athletics, not just one sport. On top of that, I can appreciate risk taking, and setting standards, particularly for a high-visibility sport. I would trade Mr. Fowler for Wellman any day.

  14. BamaPack 04/09/2010 at 10:38 PM #

    Are they really going to hire the second coming of Sendek?

  15. PackHooligan 04/10/2010 at 10:23 AM #

    Bzdelik would be a head scratcher. Wellman and Bzdelik do have some history together though. I just can’t see the players or fans welcoming a guy who coaches a princeton style offense and a matchup zone defense. Adding him to the conference with Bennett and ACC offenses are moving in the wrong direction. Also, Bzdelik has been in Colorado for years now (Air Force, Denver Nuggets, CU)which could put him a little behind with recruiting in this area.

    I got my graduate degree from colorado and they have absolutely zero basketball support, it might be the worst job in the big 12 so his struggles there are somewhat understandable, but the coach who was there when I was had better results than Bzdelik has had. I can not see the wake fanbase being happy about this move at all.

  16. rky 04/10/2010 at 10:52 AM #

    I currently live about 1 hour from Boulder and get more exposure to CU basketball than I’d prefer. Luckily, as PackHooligan mentioned, there really is absoultely zero support for basketball at CU and all across Colorado. As someone who sees CU play a few times a year and is one of those Wolfpack fans that also pulls for Wake, I cannot be overly thrilled at this potential hire. They were dicussing the possibility of Bzdelik moving to Wake on the morning talk show. It was the first I heard of it and my initial thought was, “yeah, they would probably love to see hime move along.” Then I remembered I live in Colorado where I may be the only person who gives a crap about college basketball.

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