Jeff Bzdelik keep Wake Forest's recruiting class intact

When Jeff Bzdelik was hired at Wake Forest last week, there was a some backlash over the fact that he would not be bringing his coaching staff from Colorado with him, instead choosing to keep Rusty LaRue and Jeff Battle on as assistants.

Maybe now we know why.

With Ishmael Smith and Chas McFarland graduating and Al-Farouq Aminu off to the NBA Draft, the key to immediate success for Bzdelik was going to be retaining as much of the Demon Deacon's talented 2010 freshman class as possible. Wake Forest returns just five scholarship players -- as well as adding Georgetown transfer Nikita Meshcharakou (whose last named was spelled Mescheriakov at Georgetown).

A week into his tenure, Jeff Bzdelik has gotten an A+ for his job at Wake.
(photo credit: Blog.Taragana)

Over the weekend, Bzdelik and his staff met with all five of the Wake Forest recruits in the span of 36 hours, and all five decided to honor their commitments to the Winston-Salem school. It was an impressive bit of recruiting by Bzdelik, and no doubt was aided by LaRue and Bennett remaining on the staff.

Wake Forest may end up being a sleeper team in the ACC next season despite losing three first round draft picks the last two seasons.

Ari Stewart and CJ Harris were both pleasant surprises as freshman, and will now become the focal point of the Demon Deacon offense. Big men Tony Woods, who showed flashes of promise while playing behind a talented front line the last two years, and Ty Walker, a top 20 recruit with loads of potential, both return for their junior years as well. Senior Gary Clark, who averaged 7.6 ppg as a sophomore before seeing his minutes dwindle last year, also returns.

Now add to the mix a top ten recruiting class -- SF Travis McKie, C Carson Desrosiers, PF Melvin Tabb, and SG JT Terrell are all four-star, top 100 recruits, while PG Tony Chenault is a three-star recruit -- and what you are left with is a team with a lot of pieces looking to be put together.

Now, Wake won't have a lot of experience on this roster. But with a new head coach that runs a much different system than Dino Gaudio -- Bzdelik runs a Princeton-style offense -- maybe its better to have a fresh canvas, so to speak.

And seeing as no one on this roster is a potential early entrant, the future is looking bright for Wake Forest.