Taken by surprise: Deacons' Harris didn't see firing of Gaudio coming

C.J. Harris said that yesterday unfolded in a way he never would have imagined.

He was on the way to a 3 p.m. weight-lifting session when he was told by an athletics staff member that Dino Gaudio would be fired as Wake Forest's basketball coach and wouldn't return next season.

Harris, one of the top freshmen in the ACC last season, said he didn't believe it at first.

"I was shocked," Harris said. "I didn't see it coming. I thought we had a pretty decent year."

Four hours later, after Ron Wellman, Wake Forest's athletics director, met with the team to discuss reasons for the decision and about the process of hiring a new coach, Harris still didn't know exactly what to make of it.

"It's my first time going through something like this," Harris said. "I don't really know what to think, what actions to take. I'm just sitting back and letting things unfold before I make any decisions or think about anything else."

He did know that he was sad about the fact that his coach wouldn't be back.

"Coach Gaudio had a great relationship with the players," Harris said. "He's a real cool guy. He's a coach that really wants you to get better, will push you to get better. He always has your back. I love Coach Gaudio, and I wish the best for him."

Harris had talked to Gaudio yesterday morning during individual workouts at Miller Center.

"Everything was fine, just happy go lucky," Harris said. "He was joking around, just laughing and having fun. I'm sure he didn't know it was coming either."

Harris, a former Mount Tabor player who started 21 games last season and averaged 9.9 points a game, is one of just two players among Wake Forest's top six scorers from last season scheduled to return. The Deacons have five players eligible to return along with another who sat out last season.

And the Deacons have in place a recruiting class of five incoming freshman that were no doubt stunned by the decision. Wellman said that he expects that the news of Gaudio's firing will be a shock to the recruits, but that he and remaining staff will do their best to keep the class intact.

Wellman's message to the recruits: "Be patient," he said. "Don't do something in a peak emotional moment that you would regret later on. Let us hire the new coach, then meet with the new coach and see where this might go."

Wellman, who said that players had no involvement or input into the decision to release Gaudio, said that he has offered three basketball staff members -- Jeff Battle, the associate head coach; Rusty LaRue, an assistant coach; and Walt Corbean, the director of basketball operations -- the option to continue until a new head coach is hired, and then it would be up to the new coach whether to retain them.

He said that a search for a new coach will begin immediately but that he had no idea how long it would take. "But we will move quickly," Wellman said.

And, he said: "We're not going to rush into hiring a new coach to try to salvage a recruit or two or whatever it might be. We will be in continual contact with the recruits, as we will be in continual contact with the players, to let them know the direction that we are going and our aspirations for the program.

"Those individuals, those recruits who have signed with us, have made a commitment to Wake Forest and we have made a commitment to them. We will contact them immediately through the assistant coaches and administrators to be encouraging to them and to verbalize our goals for the program."

Wellman said that the reason for his decision to fire Gaudio, who just completed his third season as head coach after replacing the late Skip Prosser, had to do with poor late-season and postseason performances.

Harris pondered the question of whether the Deacons could have done more.

"I guess you can think that, everybody in the athletics department and the basketball side has a sense of responsibility," Harris said. "But we as players can't really control (the decision of who coaches the team). All we can do is focus on what we have to handle, and that's school and basketball."

Harris said that he doesn't necessarily see Gaudio's dismissal as the end of Prosser's era.

"His legacy will always remain at Wake Forest," Harris said. "We are a big family at Wake Forest and, as much as he meant to Wake Forest, he will always remain here."

tbowman@wsjournal.com.

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