May 24, 2012
This article was originally published in the May 2012 issue of Gold Rush.
The men's basketball team took a step forward in 2011-12, improving from eight wins to 13 in Jeff Bzdelik's second year at the helm and grabbing four conference wins. Despite the loss of two seniors and three transfers from the team's rotation, Bzdelik hopes to continue the team's progress behind leading scorers C.J. Harris and Travis McKie, along with a highly touted group of freshmen. Gold Rush's Jay Reddick talked to Bzdelik during postseason workouts in April.
Gold Rush: As you finish your second year at Wake Forest, what's the general state of the program?
Bzdelik: Oh, we're moving forward. Our foundation has been established. We have a sustainable winning program. We've got a team that is committed, a team of players who have grown, and we're not going to compromise our values. We're very excited about what we have and where we're going.
Gold Rush: With so many freshmen coming in, will you be leaning a lot more on your upperclassmen for leadership?
Bzdelik: In Travis McKie and C.J. Harris, we have two of the most experienced players in the ACC returning. Not only are they experienced, they're talented -- C.J. as All-ACC, Travis as honorable mention All-ACC -- and they're both working hard to elevate their games. Daniel Green has already gained 10 pounds. He's working very hard, adding mass and strength and skill. Then you have Chase Fischer, who logged a lot of excellent minutes. Right there you have a core of four players who have grown through this experience.
Gold Rush: Besides Daniel and his strength work, are there particular skills that you're asking each player to work on individually?
Bzdelik: C.J. has to get his shot off quicker. He has to be even better than he already is at creating offense off the bounce, and he needs to get out of his comfort zone in terms of his leadership, get more aggressive with his leadership, because people already listen so well when he talks.
Travis McKie has been selected to go to Kevin Durant's skills camp in June, which is exciting. It recognizes him as one of the top forwards in the country. He needs to continue to develop his skill, improve off the bounce in creating more offense.
Daniel, I'm working with him personally in the post. We need him to have some post moves that he can count on, with counters, so we can get some more consistency out of him.
Chase is similar to C.J. in that he has to get his shot off quicker and also have the ability to have a mid-range game, because defenses will key on the 3-pointer.
Gold Rush: How do you address the three players who are transferring?
Bzdelik: Very simply: We wish them well. And as Gene Hackman said in the movie "Hoosiers," this is our team. We now have players who truly want to be here, who bleed black and gold, and that is a great thing.
Gold Rush: Any plans for extra team-building exercises during the offseason, as you had last year?
Bzdelik: We're planning a foreign trip to Canada, which will give us extra practices and games we can play, which will give our youth extra work and get the chemistry of our team to jell even quicker. That will happen this fall before the official start of practice.
Gold Rush: What do you take away from this year? You had more wins and more games in which you were competitive -- what are the building blocks for the future?
Bzdelik: I said a year ago that we would make great strides toward our future success and we did. So I say it again: We are making great strides toward our future success. I really, really like our team, we have depth at each position, and we're going to have an exciting team to watch.
