Simple Vision: Win - Bzdelik got Wellman's attention 30 years ago

Almost 30 years ago, during his time as baseball coach at Northwestern, Ron Wellman would occasionally swing by the gym to watch Coach Rick Falk put the Wildcats' basketball team through its paces.

Wellman, who is today the director of athletics at Wake Forest, kept noticing a Northwestern assistant coach still on the tender side of 30, or roughly Wellman's age.

"He did some things that were really neat," Wellman said. "And I saw a veteran coach in the Big Ten at that time really rely on this young guy. I thought, ‘My goodness, that says something about that young guy.'

"And that young guy was Jeff Bzdelik."

When Wellman introduced the new basketball coach at Wake Forest to succeed Dino Gaudio yesterday, that coach was Jeff Bzdelik.

Now 57, Bzdelik (pronounced buzz-DEL-ik) is a veteran of 30 years in the college and professional ranks, the last three of them spent as head coach at Colorado. He became Wellman's target early in the weeklong search and was the only coach brought to campus for interviews.

Bzdelik said he accepted the offer to become the Wake Forest basketball coach on Monday.

"The vision that I have for this program is simple, clear," Bzdelik said. "We want to win, go to post­season play, advance in postseason play and do so without compromising the moral and academic integrity of this great university.

"It's plain, it's simple, it's clear."

Wellman said that no cronyism was involved, adding that he didn't know Bzdelik socially at Northwestern and hadn't seen him since Bzdelik attended a game at Wake Forest as an NBA scout in 2001. But he had paid attention to Bzdelik's record as a head coach at Maryland-Baltimore County (1986-88), an assistant coach with the Washington Bullets (1988-94), a scout for the New York Knicks (1994-95), assistant coach and scouting director of the Miami Heat (1995-2001), a scout for the Denver Nuggets (2001-02), head coach of the Nuggets (2002-04), head coach at Air Force (2005-07) and head coach at Colorado (2007-10).

To judge Bzdelik's performance at Colorado, where the Buffaloes were 36-58 during Bzdelik's three seasons as head coach, Wellman said, he had to look past the raw numbers. In contrast, Dino Gaudio was 61-31 in three seasons as head coach at Wake Forest.

"Their situation was very, very challenging," Wellman said of Colorado. "So you can't take a three-year snippet and compare it to other programs, whether it be in his conference, other conferences, or us. That would be totally unfair and obviously we dug a lot deeper than that to look at the program and the progress of that program.

"They're in great shape right now. I watched Colorado a few times this year as a member of the (NCAA) basketball committee, not that I was scouting Jeff at that time. But I watched a lot of teams this year. And they're very competitive."

Both of Wake Forest's assistant coaches, Jeff Battle and Rusty LaRue, will be retained by Bzdelik. Walt Corbean, the director of basketball operations, will also remain on staff, but Bzdelik declined yesterday to say if Corbean will be promoted to assistant coach.

"We have created stability here," Bzdelik said. "We want to move forward in the vision that I said that we would set here, and I am really looking forward to this challenge."

The Deacons have five scholarship players returning for next season with a sixth, transfer Nikita Mescheriakov, becoming eligible at the end of the fall semester. That means that any success for next year will depend heavily on the immediate contributions from an acclaimed five-player recruiting class of Travis McKie, Tony Chennault, Carson Desrosiers, J.T. Terrell and Melvin Tabb.

Battle, LaRue and Corbean have been in regular contact with the recruits since Gaudio was released from his contract, and Battle said that all five have taken a wait-and-see position. Bzdelik was asked yesterday how confident he is that there will be no attrition from the class.

The five recruits have signed national letters of intent that bind them to Wake Forest, but they could request releases.

"I'm very confident," Bzdelik said. "I'm anxious to get on the phone.

"These kind of situations are not comfortable. They're uncomfortable for everybody, including my family.

"I just need to get in front of them and calm everybody down and let them know who I am, and I think everybody will be fine."

Wellman declined to reveal any information on the length or terms of the contract. The Denver Post has reported that there is a buyout clause in Bzdelik's contract under which the University of Colorado is owed $500,000 for Bzdelik's leaving before the end of his contract, which ran through the 2011-12 season.

"We do not pay buyouts," Wellman said. "That would be his responsibility."

dcollins@wsjournal.com.


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The Bzdelik file

• Name: Jeff Bzdelik.

• Born (age): Dec. 1, 1952 (57).

• Hometown: Mount Prospect, Ill.

• Family: Wife, Nina; son, Brett (21); daughter, Courtney (19).

• Education: Illinois-Chicago (1976, B.A. in physical education).

• Playing highlights: Four varsity seasons at UIC, team MVP 1975-76, still holds school record for best single-season free-throw percentage (88.1 percent) and ranks among UIC leaders in career scoring.

• College experience: Head coach, Colorado (2008-10, 36-58); head coach, Air Force (2005-07, 50-16); head coach, Maryland-Baltimore County (1986-88, 25-31); assistant, Northwestern (1980-86); assistant, Davidson (1978-80).

• Head-coaching record: 111-105 (seven seasons).

• College postseason: 2006 NCAA Tournament (Air Force); 2007 NIT Final Four (Air Force).

• NBA experience: Head coach, Denver Nuggets (2002-05, 73-119); scout, Denver Nuggets (2001-02); assistant/director of scouting, Miami Heat (1995-2001); lead scout, New York Knicks (1994-95); assistant, Washington Bullets (1988-94).