Getting Settled in

As the blur of April slowed to an almost manageable madness of May, Jeff Bzdelik finally had a second or two to contemplate the sudden course change of his life.

"I was just minding my own business, and Ron gave me a call," Bzdelik said.

"I had other people call me from other schools in the last couple of years and in the NBA, but I was busy doing the right thing there at Colorado.

"But when he said ‘Wake Forest,' that's a no-brainer."

In the 3½ weeks since Athletics Director Ron Wellman of Wake Forest called Bzdelik to gauge his interest in leaving Colorado to become the Deacons' new basketball coach, Bzdelik has had so much to do and so little time to do it.

As recently as Wednesday, in the comparative calm and quiet of his new office with the empty book shelves, the events still tumbled into one another.

• The decision of whether to fly East and be interviewed.

• The meeting with his Colorado team, an emotional affair that almost persuaded him to stay.

• The interviews.

• The decision to accept the offer.

• The staffing of his program.

• The introduction to his new players.

• The news conference.

• The critical re-recruitment of five players who had signed under the previous coach, Dino Gaudio.

• The two sessions on the court to assess the talent level of his remaining players.

• The outreach to seniors Ish Smith, L.D. Williams and Chas McFarland and sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu, who played their final game for the Deacons in New Orleans in the NCAA Tournament.

Whew.

"I haven't gone back yet," Bzdelik said. "I came here not knowing, and I haven't left.

"I think my wife's going to go home this weekend just for a couple of days. We found a house (Tuesday), and it's only five minutes from here. I'll probably go back at the end of May just for a few days, just to gather some stuff."

By then he'll know even more about what he has gotten himself into, but the early assessment has left him encouraged about the program and where it's headed.

Thrown into the fire

Bzdelik likes what he has seen from the veterans, junior Gary Clark, sophomores Tony Woods and Ty Walker, freshmen C.J. Harris and Ari Stewart and transfer Nikita Mescheriakov, who will become eligible at the end of the fall semester.

"I'm really impressed by the mindset of these six returning players and the five players coming in," Bzdelik said. "They realize that we probably aren't going to be picked very high, and that we lose a lot in terms of experience, point production and rebounding, etc.

"But I sense a collective chip on their shoulder to carve their own niche in this long line of great tradition that exists here."

The three who played the most last season were Woods, Harris and Stewart. Woods, a 6-10 center, started nine games and averaged 4.6 points and 3.2 rebounds. Harris, a 6-2 guard, started 21 games and averaged 9.9 points. Stewart, a 6-7 wing, averaged 17.1 minutes and 7.3 points.

"So that's a good start from the standpoint you've got a big, a wing and a guard who have some idea of what it takes to win at the ACC level," Bzdelik said. "And then you spice that up with a very talented recruiting class coming in and the future is very bright for Wake Forest.

"Now they're going to have to grow, and gaining wisdom and experience comes at high cost sometimes."

He recognizes the need for immediate contributions from the recruiting class of guards Tony Chennault and J.T. Terrell, wing Travis McKie, forward Melvin Tabb and center-forward Carson Desrosiers.

"As a competitor you want to get thrown into the fire," Bzdelik said. "And they will."

He also recognizes the critical importance of the point-guard position. With Smith gone, the only two viable candidates appear to be Harris and the 6-1 Chennault, who was the Gatorade player of the year in Pennsylvania after leading Neumann-Goretti High School in Philadelphia to a 30-1 record and a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class AAA championship.

"Obviously Tony Chennault comes in with a very impressive resume, but he's also a freshman," Bzdelik said. "We'll see.

"That's why I said that gaining wisdom and experience could come at a high cost."

Bzdelik was asked if Harris, a natural wing guard, has the skills needed to flourish at point guard.

"That's something that I need more time to (determine)," he said.

Faith in Pope

Bzdelik is already convinced, however, of his quality of his coaching staff. He smoothed the transition by retaining assistants Jeff Battle and Rusty LaRue, as well as Director of Basketball Operations Walt Corbean. He filled the remaining spot with Mark Pope, a former center with Kentucky who played in the NBA from 1997 through 2005 with Indiana, Milwaukee and Denver.

He said that Pope, at 6-10, will work closely with post players Woods, Ty Walker, Desrosiers and Tabb. LaRue will continue to coach the wings, and Battle the point guards.

"That was one of the big reasons for bringing Mark Pope in here, because how many staffs have an academic All-American who won a national championship, who played six, seven years in the NBA and really overachieved to do that?" Bzdelik said. "As much as big young guys in college will respect 5-10 coaches, you can't overlook the fact that they can relate better to a guy who has been there and done that -- a coach who can look them eyeball to eyeball and really relate to them.

"And I think that's a neat thing for Ty and Tony and Carson to have a coach that they can really relate to."

Pope, 37, was in his third year of medical school at Columbia when he decided he wanted to coach. Bzdelik said he's not concerned that Pope's only experience came from one season as the director of basketball operations at Georgia.

"Mark has been around some of the greatest minds in this game with all his experience in the NBA," Bzdelik said. "He's been around outstanding coaches and outstanding players, and he's gone through all the drills himself, and he had great success.

"So no, I have no reservations whatsoever. He'll do a great job recruiting because he has a work ethic, he has the knowledge and he has a personality that people are attracted to in a positive way."

Style will change

The Deacons made great strides after Gaudio installed a Pack-Line defense that emphasized building a wall around the basket over extending hands into the passing lanes to force turnovers. The Deacons finished third in the ACC with a field-goal percentage defense of 39 percent; The Buffaloes were last in the Big 12 at 46.2 percent.

"The reason I thought we were very poor defensively last year was we were just an awful defensive rebounding team," Bzdelik said. "And we could never finish defensive possessions. We would get teams to miss shots. Now we were third in steals (with 8.3 per game)."

The Pack-Line defense left with Gaudio.

"What I want to do here is create offense off our defense," Bzdelik said. "We do have length and quickness to get into passing lanes and get some deflections with ball pressure. I'm a big deflections guy. I think, in Ty and Tony -- and even Carson is an excellent shot-blocker -- we have people who can protect the rim a little bit.

"So we can get out there a little bit and see if we can get some open-court baskets. Because we are going to push the ball hard.

"And every once in a while, we're going to give some teams some different looks with some switching because I believe we have enough athleticism to be able to switch aggressively -- which I think bothers teams."

Bzdelik pushed back hard during the news conference at the notion that he will install a prototypical Princeton offense that calls for teams to play deliberately, spread the floor and look for backdoor cuts or open shots from the perimeter.

"That will be put to rest in Game 1," Bzdelik said.

He said he deployed the Princeton offense in his two seasons at Air Force because it suited his personnel.

"To me what does a coach do but take what's best for the talent you have and implement your style?" Bzdelik said. "I go to Air Force, and I've got a bunch of cadets, nobody wanted them for Division I. Their best thing was ‘Let's cut hard, let's pass the ball, let's make it difficult for people to chase us around because we know we're not as talented as them.'

"Now I go to Colorado and they've got more talent -- hey I opened that sucker up. People saw it this year and they're ready to rock and roll. I had two wings, Alec Burks and Cory Higgins, and they're both averaging 16 to 17 points a game (Burks averaged 17.1, and Higgins 18.9).

"Now I come here. I'm looking at stuff Larry Brown ran -- a lot of quick-hitting stuff to utilize Tony Woods and Ty. And I think Carson can be a really good (power forward) because he comes down and sets wide-angle, quick-hitting screens and let (Terrell) come flying off -- that kind of stuff."

Putting down roots

Also like Brown, Bzdelik has the reputation of a basketball nomad quick to leave one job for the next.

Since his five-year stint as an assistant coach of the Miami Heat from 1995 to 2001, Bzdelik has been a scout for the Nuggets for one year, head coach of the Nuggets for two-plus seasons before being fired during the 2004-05 season, head coach at Air Force for two seasons and head coach at Colorado for three.

Bzdelik, who said he has no interest in returning to the NBA, said that he's at Wake Forest to stay.

"I think if you examine it, I was at Air Force two years and we were 50-16," Bzdelik said. "And when I went to Colorado, I didn't even have to change houses. My son (Brett) was going to be a freshman at the University of Colorado. It was very difficult to leave the Academy.

"And again at Colorado, I was minding my own business. But how do you pass up a great academic institution in the ACC with great leadership, great tradition? And my daughter (Courtney) is here. How do you pass that up? So yeah, on the surface it might look like a gypsy (move), but when you really look at it, it's very sound.

"Since I left the Denver Nuggets, I have had multiple opportunities to go back to the NBA. But I haven't. I haven't. What else can I say?"

dcollins@wsjournal.com


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