Mike Petersen leaves Wake Forest

[jimsumner]

For North Texas?

Had to have a gentle nudge out the door, one would think.

Anyway, Wake press release

"Mike Petersen has resigned as Wake Forest head women’s basketball coach and will become the seventh head coach at The University of North Texas.


“Mike Petersen recently was approached by the University of North Texas and given the opportunity to become its women’s basketball head coach. Mike has been with Wake Forest for eight years and has been a trusted and valued colleague and friend. He has added much to our department in so many ways and we will miss his ideas, humor and friendship”

Petersen spent eight seasons at Wake Forest and is the school’s all-time winningest women’s basketball head coach. He had a record of 125-123 (.504) and took the program to the postseason four times. This past season was one of the best in Wake Forest history. The team won 20 games for only the second time in school-history and it advanced to the semifinals of the ACC Tournament for the first time since 1988. Wake Forest finished 20-14 in 2011-12 and won seven ACC games for just the third time."

[sduke1986]

Speaking of Wake Forest, I wish they would fire Bzdelik. I'm all for giving a guy a chance, but come on firing Gaudio and replacing him with Bzdelik was probably the most ridiculous coaching move I can ever remember. I mean just look, he leaves Colorado and now they have success winning the Pac-12 tourny in their first attempt. I understand he had success at Air Force and UMBC in prior head coaching positions but I have just never uderstood it. I know it has nothing to do with this post and I'm rambling, but I enjoy when Wake is good because it makes the ACC look good. I am just not sure He is the one for the job. What was so wrong with Gaudio? You take a team to the 2nd round of the NCAA tourny and you get fired? I Know Coach K stuggled his first few years but that was a different time and he landed a top recruiting class. I dont see Bzdelik doing anything of the sort.

[CameronBornAndBred]

For North Texas?

Had to have a gentle nudge out the door, one would think.

Curious as to why you would think this. He's done a decent job at Wake, in fact leading the ladies to only their 2cnd 20 win season. I was pretty happy to follow their success (and improvement) the last few years...the more ACC teams we have breaking through into the upper tier of women's basketball the better. UVA, Miami, Duke, UNC, FSU and recently GT have been making the ACC one of the best conferences in the country, and it looked to me that Wake is making strides to join them. I hope they are able to find a coach to help them continue on the path that Peterson had them on. He has a decent class coming in, so it's possible with the right person.
By the way, that class is 3/4 verbals...so it will be interesting to see if any change their mind now.
http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls...chool/_/id/154

[jimsumner]

Curious as to why you would think this. He's done a decent job at Wake, in fact leading the ladies to only their 2cnd 20 win season. I was pretty happy to follow their success (and improvement) the last few years...the more ACC teams we have breaking through into the upper tier of women's basketball the better. UVA, Miami, Duke, UNC, FSU and recently GT have been making the ACC one of the best conferences in the country, and it looked to me that Wake is making strides to join them. I hope they are able to find a coach to help them continue on the path that Peterson had them on. He has a decent class coming in, so it's possible with the right person.
By the way, that class is 3/4 verbals...so it will be interesting to see if any change their mind now.
http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls...chool/_/id/154

It seems curious to me. Wake certainly hasn't given Mike a lot of resources to work with. But leaving any ACC school for North Texas is going way down in class. Maybe Mike felt unappreciated. Maybe Wellman has an underachieving Big 12 coach in mind. I know Mike has been frustrated by his inability to get Wake into the NCAAs but he never seemed like the kind of guy to give up and walk away to a lower-tier school and conference.

[Verga3]

Sorry to see Mike go. Puzzled. Great person. Has a special rapport with his players. They love him. Very positive and nurturing guy with a slightly tough edge...that everyone sees through. Class act. Funny guy. Wake was on the way back after a solid ACC Tourney run. I feel Wake made a mistake in not keeping him. All the best, Coach.

[burnspbesq]

Wellman needs to hit a home run on this hire. If he doesn't get someone of the quality of, say, Doug Bruno (DePaul), Kelly Graves (Gonzaga) or Brian Giorgis (Marist), he's got a lot of 'splainin' to do.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Wellman needs to hit a home run on this hire. If he doesn't get someone of the quality of, say...Kelly Graves (Gonzaga).

That would be interesting since Peterson coached at Gonzaga for four years. In between there and Wake he was at New Mexico State.
Kelly just signed an extension at Gonzaga lasting until 2021, plus they host opening rounds of the NCAA's this year. For Wellman to pull him away would take more than money I think. Giorgis would be great, what he's done with Marist is amazing, being that they are a small school. They almost beat Duke in the second round of the NCAA's in Cameron last year. But according to wiki, he says he's there until he retires.
I don't know what she's doing now, but if I were Wellman I'd take a look at Gale Valley. She coached under G for ton of years, both at Duke and at Texas. She proved to be a great recruiter while at Duke and would still have plenty of ACC contacts to make use of.
http://www.texassports.com/sports/w-...ey_gale00.html