plus 3, Wake's new coach has had tough jobs before - CharlotteObserver.com

Wake's new coach has had tough jobs before - CharlotteObserver.com
'Toy Story' turns into a career for Ratzenberger - Erie Times-News
New claims for jobless benefits rise sharply - Delaware County Daily Times
Phils' Moyer, 47, oldest pitcher to beat Yanks - ESPN.com

Wake's new coach has had tough jobs before - CharlotteObserver.com

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 07:50 PM PDT

WINSTON-SALEM A pattern quickly emerges when you analyze Jeff Bzdelik's career.

In his previous job at Colorado, the Wake Forest basketball coach inherited a 7-20 team. Before that, in his first college head coaching job, he ushered Maryland-Baltimore County from Division II into Division I in 1986.

And as a scout and assistant coach for Pat Riley with the New York Knicks and Miami Heat, Bzdelik labored for one of the hardest workers and intense competitors in basketball.

"It almost seems like I've taken tough jobs," Bzdelik said this week, two months after being hired to coach the Deacons.

Even by Bzdelik's standards, though, the Wake Forest job is challenging. His predecessor, Dino Gaudio, went 61-31 over the past three seasons, with two NCAA tournament appearances, but that wasn't enough to keep him from getting fired.

And Wake Forest lost likely top-10 NBA draft pick Al-Farouq Aminu and No.2 school career assist man Ish Smith off the team that lost to Kentucky in the second round of the 2010 NCAA tournament.

The Deacons return just one starter, sophomore C.J. Harris, and they might have to start freshman Tony Chennault at point guard.

Bzdelik, 57, is renting a house about five minutes from campus until he gets settled and sells his house in Colorado. He joked that the Wake Forest fans might not keep him around long enough for him to buy a house.

But there's a quiet confidence about Bzdelik as he talks about winning championships - even in the ACC, even with college basketball superpowers in his neighborhood - without compromising the integrity of Wake Forest.

The Deacons have a couple of big men with potential in rising juniors Tony Woods and Ty Walker; promising sophomore wings in Harris and Ari Stewart, and a highly regarded freshman recruiting class entering this fall.

And in Bzdelik, they have a coach who has succeeded in difficult situations before.

Work ethic

In 1998, Sports Illustrated named Bzdelik the best advance scout in the NBA after a survey of league general managers. He said no secret or divine basketball truth made him successful.

He would just study countless hours of film, and then when he didn't think he could stand watching any more, he said, he'd watch one more game.

That's what it took to work for Riley, who valued Bzdelik's work so much that he once declined to let him out of his contract to take an assistant coaching job with the Charlotte Hornets under Paul Silas.

One of his first assistant coaching jobs was at Northwestern in the early 1980s, a traditional Big Ten doormat. During his tenure there, the team reached its first National Invitation Tournament in 1983, and Bzdelik caught the eye of current Wake Forest athletics director Ron Wellman, who was coaching baseball at Northwestern at the time.

Davidson also was struggling when Bzdelik was hired as an assistant there in 1978, his first college job. He joined Bob McKillop and Rick Barnes on Eddie Biedenbach's staff.

McKillop was impressed with how Bzdelik delivered a pointed, consistent message to players while rarely raising his voice.

"Jeff was like a sponge for things," said McKillop, Davidson's head coach since 1989. "You just knew he was going to get better and better. There was a quiet poise to what he did."

Bzdelik's career highlight thus far probably is coaching the Denver Nuggets to a 43-39 record in 2003-04, one season after they won just 17 games. It appears that team will provide the hopeful framework for Bzdelik's first team at Wake Forest.

Guarded optimism

Because he hasn't seen his players on the floor as a group yet, Bzdelik is reserving the right to change his mind. But he has approached his staff with the idea of modeling his 2010-11 Wake Forest team after the 2003-04 Nuggets.

The Nuggets turned turnovers into fast break points.

They also had something the 2010-11 Wake Forest team probably won't - a scorer in Carmelo Anthony who could take over games as a rookie. But Bzdelik is optimistic the Deacons can surprise people if the players band together and a team leader emerges.

He still has a difficult job because he needs to win over fans with a team that's rebuilding even though it has totaled 44 wins over the past two seasons.

But he has not shied away from difficult jobs in his career.

"I really think if it's done right, they'll be supportive," Bzdelik said. "That's what I think. Don't you?"

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'Toy Story' turns into a career for Ratzenberger - Erie Times-News

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 08:54 PM PDT

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New claims for jobless benefits rise sharply - Delaware County Daily Times

Posted: 18 Jun 2010 02:16 AM PDT

Click to enlarge

Victoria Fischer, right, and Neil Perez, center, with Filene's Basement Syms Clothing, speak to a job applicant during the New York Career Fair, Wednesday, June 16, 2010, in New York. The number of people filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week after three straight declines, another sign that hiring remains weak.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people filing new claims for jobless benefits jumped last week after three straight declines, another sign that the pace of layoffs has not slowed.

Initial claims for jobless benefits rose by 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 472,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the highest level in a month.

First-time jobless claims have hovered near 450,000 since the beginning of the year after falling steadily in the second half of 2009. That has raised concerns that hiring is lackluster and could slow the recovery.

Still, the four-week average for unemployment claims, which smooths volatility, dipped slightly to 463,500. That's down by 3,750 from the start of January.

In a separate Labor report, consumer prices fell for the second straight month. The 0.2 decline in the Consumer Price Index was pulled down falling energy prices — most notably a 5.2 percent drop in gasoline prices. Declining energy bills were the main factor pulling down prices.

But core consumer prices, which strip out volatile energy and food, edged up 0.1 percent in May, after being flat in April. Core prices are up only 0.9 percent over the past year — below the Fed's inflation target.

Additionally, the Commerce Department said Thursday that the broadest measure of U.S. trade rose to the highest point in more than a year. The widening deficit is a sign that the U.S. economy is rebounding and importing more from around the world.

Economists say they will feel more optimistic that the economy is creating jobs once initial jobless claims fall below 425,000 per week.

Just this week, casino owner Wynn Resorts laid off more than 260 workers in its two Las Vegas casino hotels in a move expected to save nearly $8 million.

The number of people continuing to claim benefits rose by 88,000 to 4.57 million. That doesn't include about 5.2 million people who receive extended benefits paid for by the federal government.

Congress has added 73 weeks of extra benefits on top of the 26 weeks typically provided by states. All told, about 9.7 million people received unemployment insurance in the week ending May 29, the most recent data available.

The extended benefit program expired this month. Congress is debating whether to continue it through the end of November.

Adding to worries about the job market, the Labor Department said earlier this month that the economy generated only 41,000 private-sector jobs in May. That was down from 218,000 in April.

Temporary hiring by the Census Bureau added another 411,000 jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent from 9.9 percent.