Didn't know B.J. McKie was coaching at Wake Forest

[ScWildthing61]

When Wake Forest hired their new basketball coach, I checked to see who it was, and he had put his coaching staff together, and McKie was one of the assistants on the staff along with Randolph Childress.

B.J vs Childress, that's a 1 on 1 matchup I would've paid good money to see back in the day.

 

[Gamecockben1979]

Yes BJ was on staff at East Tennessee and Charleston Southern before that. When Forbes was announced coach at Wake, BJ made the move with him.

As good as he was and as good of a guy as he seems to be I would think he would get a shot sooner rather than later. Not sure why (and not taking a pot shot just comparing) a guy like Mike Boynton is already a head coach at a major program and a guy like BJ McKie is still working his way up the ranks.

 

[redrogers]

I would love it if he takes over for Tim Whipple at Irmo when he retires.
Very selfish, I know, but that would be one hell of a transition!

 

[Gamecockben1979]

I would love it if he takes over for Tim Whipple at Irmo when he retires.
Very selfish, I know, but that would be one hell of a transition!

As a high school basketball coach myself I can tell you that Irmo is in good hands. Whipple has a staff of guys that have head coaching experience and could all take the reigns if he quit tomorrow. Having said that I’m not sure who wants to follow the legend. Whipple has done a phenomenal job, coaches the game the right way and doesn’t recruit kids from out of zone like a lot of coaches that are winning right now in basketball are.

 

[atl-cock]

Maybe he has influence to schedule a home-and-home with the Deacs, We've played them but once since leaving the ACC, a 1983 3rd round NIT game in Winston Salem.

 

[Gamecockben1979]

Maybe he has influence to schedule a home-and-home with the Deacs, We've played them but once since leaving the ACC, a 1983 3rd round NIT game in Winston Salem.

I would like to see us play a game with the Deacs. Don’t think there was any bad blood there since we played them a decent amount in football

 

[Silver_Coconut]

Yes BJ was on staff at East Tennessee and Charleston Southern before that. When Forbes was announced coach at Wake, BJ made the move with him.

As good as he was and as good of a guy as he seems to be I would think he would get a shot sooner rather than later. Not sure why (and not taking a pot shot just comparing) a guy like Mike Boynton is already a head coach at a major program and a guy like BJ McKie is still working his way up the ranks.

Maybe Boynton is a better coach.

 

[Gamecockben1979]

Maybe Boynton is a better coach.

Maybe but Boynton hasn’t exactly set the world on fire at Oklahoma State despite being tied to Lamont Evans.

Has BJ McKie really been given the opportunity? He might be a better coach. If he hovers around .500 he’s at least equal to Boynton.

 

[Gamecockben1979]

Looked it up. Boynton is 51-49 at OSU. A school that has tremendous resources. Think BJ could’ve pulled that off.

 

[Silver_Coconut]

Looked it up. Boynton is 51-49 at OSU. A school that has tremendous resources. Think BJ could’ve pulled that off.

Haha. Maybe! It’s not like Boynton stole BJs opportunity.

 

[Gamecockben1979]

Haha. Maybe! It’s not like Boynton stole BJs opportunity.

Certainly agree there. Coaching is a weird profession. It’s really more about being in the right place at the right time. I just would’ve thought a guy as talented as McKie would have had more opportunities at this point. I’m not saying being a good player makes you a great coach, but the better players do usually seem to get a fast track into coaching (Anfernee Hardaway at Memphis comes to mind) but not for BJ McKie. He’s learning under a good one in Forbes too. If Wake gets back to the NCAA tournament from the dumpster fire they are now, I suspect he would get a shot.

 

[Crutcher1]

Maybe but Boynton hasn’t exactly set the world on fire at Oklahoma State despite being tied to Lamont Evans.

Has BJ McKie really been given the opportunity? He might be a better coach. If he hovers around .500 he’s at least equal to Boynton.

BJ played in a high level league about a dozen years overseas, so Boynton had a head start in the coaching ranks. I think BJ's time will come. He always spoke like a coach in interviews.

 

[ScWildthing61]

Certainly agree there. Coaching is a weird profession. It’s really more about being in the right place at the right time. I just would’ve thought a guy as talented as McKie would have had more opportunities at this point. I’m not saying being a good player makes you a great coach, but the better players do usually seem to get a fast track into coaching (Anfernee Hardaway at Memphis comes to mind) but not for BJ McKie. He’s learning under a good one in Forbes too. If Wake gets back to the NCAA tournament from the dumpster fire they are now, I suspect he would get a shot.

They certainly have,an uphill climb the last decade was a brutal one for them, possibly the worst decade in the history of the program. In 2010 Dino Gaudio was fired after going 61-31 with 2 NCAA trips in 3 years. Their A.D Ron Wellman hired one of his buddies Jeff Bzdelik who ended up being their version of Darrin Horn, and Wellman giving a Ray Tanner like performance, decided to stick with "buzzard" for 5 years despite it being clear after 2-3 years he wasn't cutting it. Then they went with Danny Manning who really wasn't the greatest fit for the job but was also left with a program that was too much of a rebuilding job, he did make a tournament appearance in 2017(first four) but that was followed with their best player heading off early to the NBA and also multiple transfers. By last year it was clear the fans wanted a change, and one of Wellman's last acts before he retired was to extend Manning one more year, and this past season Wake had another losing season and had been eliminated from the ACC tournament and had concluded the season by the time COVID shut down the tournaments. It's amazing how familiar all this sounds.