Wake Forest has targeted Colorado coach Jeff Bzdelik to replace Dino Gaudio.

Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman is en route to Colorado to meet with Bzdelik, according to the Winston-Salem Journal. Fox Sports is reporting that a deal is done, but that has been denied by both Wellman and Bzdelik.

Dino Gaudio's unceremonious exit from Wake Forest on Wednesday left him in a unique group of former ACC coaches.

Since 1986, 16 coaches have either been fired or forced out. Gaudio
tops the dubious group in ACC winning percentage (.562) and ranks
second in overall winning percentage (.663).

WINSTON-SALEM — Ron Wellman didn't flinch when he explained his
surprising decision to fire Wake Forest basketball coach Dino Gaudio on
Wednesday.

Citing a pattern of poor late-season finishes and a 1-5 record in the
postseason, the Demon Deacons' athletic director said the personable
Gaudio, who won two-thirds of his games in three seasons, didn't win
enough when it counted it most.

In a surprise to no one, sophomore Al-Farouq Aminu is leaving Wake Forest for the NBA.

The 6-9 forward led the Demon Deacons with 15.8 points per game and an
ACC-best 10.7 rebounds per game and is considered a high first-round pick.

If these players leave early for the NBA — Wake's Al-Farouq Aminu, Florida State's Solomon Alabi, Georgia Tech's Derrick Favors and Gani Lawal, UNC's Ed Davis and Virginia's Sylven Landesberg — the ACC will break into three categories in 2010-2011:

Good: Duke, FSU, Virginia Tech and UNC
Maybe: Clemson, N.C. State, Maryland and Miami
Bad: Virginia, Wake Forest, Boston College and Georgia Tech

NEW ORLEANS -- Wake Forest struggled Saturday night when the Demon Deacons lost leading scorer Al-Farouq Aminu for all but six minutes of the first half because of foul trouble. That opened the door for Kentucky to blow the game open on the way to a 90-60 win.

Now, the Deacons will wait to find out whether they’ll be without the sophomore for all of next season. Aminu decided to pass on the NBA and return to Wake Forest this season, but with the Deacons headed for a rebuilding year, he may heed the call of the pros this summer.

NEW ORLEANS -- Ish Smith, streaking down the lane alone, went up for an authoritative dunk. The ball slammed off the heel of the rim and bounced into the other half of the court.

Two nights after Smith hit the overtime game-winner for Wake Forest, he couldn’t get a dunk to fall. Their emotional and physical reservoirs emptied, the Demon Deacons saw their season end in the second with a 90-60 loss to Kentucky on Saturday.

NEW ORLEANS -- When Wake Forest’s players entered the interview room at the New Orleans Arena on Wednesday, there was little interest and a lot of gloom. As the last of eight teams to proceed to the podium, pushing East Coast deadlines at 7 p.m. Central Time, Wake was questioned only by three North Carolina reporters and one local reporter -- and given the Demon Deacons’ run of five losses in six games, it was a grim line of inquiry.

Forty-eight hours later, the Deacons were back, and they couldn’t stop smiling. Thursday’s overtime win over Texas took an unimaginable amount of pressure off Wake Forest, from last season’s upset by Cleveland State to this season’s slide to the finish. As the Deacons prepared to play Kentucky tomorrow, there’s suddenly reason for optimism.

Join us at 11 a.m. for an NCAA tournament live chat with staff writer Ken Tysiac, who will be joining us from Jacksonville, Fla. this morning as he prepares for Duke's opening-round matchup with Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

Questions about your bracket? Wondering how Wake Forest escaped Thursday night (or Friday morning, really) with an overtime win over Texas after blowing double-digit leads in the first and second halves?

Join the discussion by clicking here.

NEW ORLEANS -- There isn’t much more a team can do to lose a game than Wake Forest did Thursday night.

The Deacons blew an 11-point first half lead. They blew a 12-point second half lead. They traveled on an inbounds play with a one-point lead and 13.6 seconds to go in regulation. They gave up the first eight points of overtime.

All that, for a team that hadn’t won an NCAA tournament game since 2005?

And yet the Deacons are moving on after Ish Smith’s jumper with 1.3 seconds to play gave ninth-seeded Wake Forest an 81-80 win over eight-seeded Texas, coach Dino Gaudio’s first in five tries in the postseason.