Sportsbook fans are not impressed with the new head coach at Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons hired former Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik. The record that Bzdelik had at Colorado does not inspire much confidence and the Demon Deacons may actually have less success next season vs. the odds at the Internet sportsbook.
Sportsbook odds on Wake Forest in recent seasons indicate that the Demon Deacons have done pretty well. That didn’t matter to the school though as they fired head coach Dino Guadio. They replaced him with Bzdelik who was 36-58 in three seasons at Colorado. “I embrace the challenges,” Bzdelik said, “I have both eyes open.”
Wake Forest was 61-31 in three seasons under Gaudio as Internet sportsbook statistics indicated but they couldn’t win a tournament game. They may struggle just to contend in the ACC with Bzdelik at the helm. Athletic director Ron Wellman is trying to put a positive spin on things though. “You have to dig deeper than the numbers,” Wellman said. “You look at where Colorado was three years ago … He really had to start over. Their situation was very challenging, so you can’t take a three-year snippet and compare it to other programs, whether it be in his conference or another conference 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 the program.”
The career college coaching record of Bzdelik is 111-105. He is coming off his third straight losing season at Colorado. He replaces Gaudio who led the Demon Deacons to the NCAA Tournament. The problem for Gaudio is that he was 1-5 in the postseason. “Here’s the bottom line: I don’t read papers, I don’t even read [the] Internet, I don’t look at any — I have no idea,” Bzdelik said. “All I care about is moving forward. I’ll be honest with you guys. I could care less, because that doesn’t define me as a person, period. And I know Dino did a heck of a job. … And believe me, I have the utmost respect for him.”
The Wake Forest hiring is definitely strange and it may not help them vs. the odds at the sportsbook. And it may not be all about coaching. Bzdelik’s daughter is enrolled at Wake Forest and Bzdelik and Wellman have known each other for almost 30 years.