Wake Forest fires Gaudio for poor postseason showings

Dino Gaudio was fired Wednesday as the men's basketball coach at Wake Forest.

Gaudio, who took over after Skip Prosser died, was 61-31 in three seasons and went to a pair of NCAA tournaments -- but was 1-6 in postseason play.

Athletic director Ron Wellman said at a hastily drawn news conference Wednesday that "the basis for the decision was our late-season and postseason performances."

"This was not a snap decision. It was not a snap judgment," said Wellman, who served on the NCAA Division I men's basketball committee this season and was in Indianapolis earlier this week for the Final Four.

"Six months ago, I was convinved that we were going to perform better at the end of the season," Wellman said. "That did not happen."

The Demon Deacons lost in the first round of the tournament in his first season and got pounded by Kentucky in the second round this past season after beating Texas in the first round.

Gaudio was also 0-3 in the ACC tournament.

Wake Forest opened the 2008-09 season 16-0 and was briefly ranked No. 1, before finishing 24-7 and going one-and-done in both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. The Demon Deacons were the highest seed to lose in the first round when they lost to No. 13 seed Cleveland State.

"We started off 16-0, No. 1 in the country, then lay an egg in the NCAA tournament -- it tore us to pieces when we knew we weren't going to finish our dream," guard L.D. Williams said before the season. "All season long, coach Gaudio talked about 'Final Four, Final Four, Final Four,' and we don't even make the final 32. It kills us every day."

Gaudio coached at Army from 1994-97 and was also the head coach at Loyola (Md.) from 1998-2000.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.