• Art Jahnke

    Senior Contributing Editor

    Art Janke

    Art Jahnke began his career at the Real Paper, a Boston area alternative weekly. He has worked as a writer and editor at Boston Magazine, web editorial director at CXO Media, and executive editor in Marketing & Communications at Boston University, where his work was honored with many awards. Profile

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There are 11 comments on Men’s Basketball Head Coach to Leave BU

  1. Dennis Wolff is no doubt a legend in AE Basketball. Unfortunately, AE basketball is nothing special, and neither are the Terriers at this point. There is no reason why a school like BU, with it’s location and facilities should not be able to attract quality talent. Some may say that it is not a welcoming community for african american students, however, look at schools like Gonzaga, Butler, and BYU; all predominantly white universities who consistantly make the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully this firing will bring someone new in that knows how to get on the road and sell BU as a top choice for gifted recruits. Let’s be the Duke of the NE!

  2. Three words: Kareem Abdul Jabbar

    He’s coached successfully at several levels, he’d be a draw for talent (“gifted recruits”), and he’d make an instant name for our program.

    Not to mention the fact that he’d teach our students the value of completing their education and being compassionate humans.

  3. I agree that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would be amazing. It’s possible that he would be interested. He tried to become the head coach at Columbia but didn’t make the cut. I think he would great at recruiting and who better to teach basketball skills?

  4. It seems that BU is moving away from an artsy, anti-traditional school like NYU and moving towards becoming a traditional preppy school like BC. With that in mind, I think it’s really important to have a great basketball team. A great basketball team is also important for alumni. I know I didn’t care about college basketball until I graduated. If we had a great basketball team that I could consistently on TV, I would be WAY more likely to donate money. BU needs to do things right and just hire an over-paid, great coach like at UCONN. It’ll will pay dividends.

  5. Sorry, Wolff. It just didn’t work out. We need to hire a better coaching staff. We can become a Duke, a USC, a Georgetown, or a BC. If we really become a powerhouse, the fans will come, and the alumni donations will come.

  6. Didn’t he run Tony Gaffney off his team a couple of years ago? And Etienne Brower the year before?

    Didn’t they both become excellent basketball players at a much higher level after they left BU?

    Weren’t they both model citizens and team captains at UMass?

    Wasn’t Dennis Wolf a moron?

  7. Boston University plays in all but a few of their games in a high school quality gym. They play in one of the worst leagues in college basketball. They are centered in a state and region with low quality high school basketball talent.

    There are limitations for a school like this.

    Dennis Wolf was a coach coaching below his level. He should have gone to Fordham when he could.

    Folks, this is about B.U. expecting the A-10 to admit it once Agannis Arena was built. They didn’t want a school where basketball would always be a distant second to hockey. That will never change.

    Wolf graduated his players, competed for championships when not beset with injuries, recruited above the school’s weight…that is the limit for B.U. basketball.

    Unlike Pitino and Jarvis he showed loyalty to B.U. when other schools called. He was a fool for doing so.

  8. To Ridiculous:

    BU dominates this conference in every other sport. Wolff wasn’t doing that in basketball. He couldn’t make it past the first round in the last 5 plus years. He should have…we have numerous advantages over the other schools.

    It’s really as simple as that and not about being a powerhouse, new conferences, arenas. We’d like to improve our program and take the next step(s), but our short-term goal was to make the NCAAs and succeed in a conference which we dominate in every other sport. He could not do that. He is gone because of it.

    Really you made my point for me. We play in one of the worst leagues in college ball as you said. EXACTLY and he couldn’t win there in recent history. As far as the gym, if we succeed, Dennis Lynch is ready to transition this team to Agganis Arena…we play more and more games there every year.

  9. Dennis Wolff did a great job coaching basketball for BU given the school’s limitations.

    People who think that BU can compete on a major level in college basketball are living in a fantasy world.

    Basketball has never been big at BU – hockey is king.
    It has no national reputation and is in a weak league so it cannot attract the national recruits. Any coach with national career desires will just use BU as a stepping stone – see Pitino and Jarvis – and risk miring the program in dirt.

    Coach Wolff got BU to the NCAA and NIT several times with the handicaps and he stayed loyal to the school. He got more out of the team than could be expected.

    Good luck finding a coach who will do as well for as long without scandalizing the program or bailing out for greener pastures elsewhere.

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