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Colorado's Jeff Bzdelik spent a second day on the Wake Forest campus Tuesday, continuing a series of interviews and negotiations expected to make him the Demon Deacons' next basketball coach today.

Wake seems set to introduce Bzdelik, 57, as its new coach this morning. And when Bzdelik takes over for Dino Gaudio — who was fired abruptly last week after going 61-31 in three seasons — he has a clear first task.

The new coach must keep the old coach's highly touted recruiting class together.

The five-man class Gaudio assembled is ranked among the top nine in the nation by Scout.com, Rivals.com and ESPN.

The recruits themselves aren't saying much. Repeated efforts Monday and Tuesday to reach high school seniors Tony Chennault, Carson Desrosiers, Travis McKie, Melvin Tabb and J.T. Terrell were unsuccessful.

But even though they're from five different cities in four states, they've talked to each other.

So says Rick Nault, an assistant principal and the basketball coach at Central Catholic High in Lawrence, Mass.

Nault's star player this season was Desrosiers, a 6-foot-11, 210-pound center. Coach and player see each other every day at school.

"They're a close group," Nault said of Wake's recruits. "They keep in touch with each other through e-mail and text messages and phone calls. I know Carson communicates with the other guys about every two weeks, sometimes more often."

Nault said Desrosiers has talked to all the recruits since Gaudio's firing, as well as Wake assistant coaches Jeff Battle and Rusty LaRue.

"When Carson first heard the news, he was shocked. I think everybody was," Nault said. "Dino Gaudio was the biggest reason he chose Wake Forest, and then — just like that — he was gone. Carson's world was upside down.

"But he's a very bright kid with a good head on his shoulders. We talked about it, and he said, 'Let's not jump to any conclusions. Let's see what happens and see who they hire.' He's talked to all the other recruits, and they're all basically taking the same approach. I think they're all going to be patient."

Carl Arrigale, the boys basketball coach at Saints Neumann and Goretti High in Philadelphia, said much the same about his star senior, 6-1 point guard Chennault.

"Tony's a pretty level-headed kid," Arrigale said. "Obviously, he got caught off-guard by what happened with Dino, but I've talked to him about it and he's just waiting for everything to play out. He'll give whoever they hire a chance. Deep down, he really likes Wake Forest."

All five of the Deacs recruits signed binding letters of intent in November, but they could ask to be released from those commitments.

Wake's current roster is led by its top two 3-point shooters from last season, rising sophomores C.J. Harris and Ari Stewart. Rising junior Tony Woods, a 6-11 power forward, was the first big man off the bench. Two other returning players — shooter Gary Clark and 7-footer Ty Walker — played sparingly last season.

Bzdelik, who has 16 years of NBA scouting and coaching experience, won 50 games in two seasons at Air Force before taking on a rebuilding project with Colorado's moribund program. He was 36-58 the last three years with the Buffaloes, including 15-16 this past season.

Jeff and Nina Bzdelik have two children. Their son, Brett, 20, attends Colorado, and their daughter, Courtney, 18, is a freshman at Wake Forest.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com