NC State 74 Michigan 67 – Media/Blog Comments (10am)

The N&O calls it a “big win” in their ACC Now Blog. But, more impressively the N&O rose to the opportunity to defend truth and some common-sense in their comments. We were at the game and didn’t have the “joy” of hearing ESPN’s commentors, but evidently they were quite an act. Their comments got their own thread on Pack Pride that we just read in disgust.

From the N&O:

Instead, for some reason, ESPN’s Jimmy Dykes wanted to turn Lowe’s big moment into a referendum on Herb Sendek.

As the clock wound down and State was about to win, Dykes, ESPN’s color commentator, said:

“They’ve got one of their own on the sidelines and that’s what these fans have wanted for years. Herb sendek did nothing but win ball games here but this fan base was never happy with him.”

Nothing but win? That’s exquisite revisionist history by Dykes. Perhaps he missed February 2006 or Sendek’s first five seasons.

But, and a big fat but at that, this State team, five games into the season, is already in full-fledged Leitao Factor mode. They’re trying harder for their new coach. They’re enjoying the offensive freedom provided by the new coach and his new system.

Lowe, working with the available tools, is applying pragmatic strategy instead of sheer stubborn determination. Michigan can’t shoot from the outside, so he played a zone. Voila! Instant coaching. Sendek would have played a man defense … and lost.

And notice how Lowe handles Grant. The junior point forward is making plays he never would have last season, strictly out of fear of permanent residency in Sendek’s chateau bow-wow — where he often resided.

Also note, for the third time this season, State shot fewer 3-pointers than its opponent (18 to 29).

Nothing but win? How does a coach that ends a decade-long tenure at a school more than 10 games under .500 in conference play do “nothing but win”? For Jimmy, and anyone else who cares, here are stats from the “nothing but win” years. Wait. Those are only the stats from just the last five years since evidently that really wasn’t Herb Sendek coaching NC State from 1996-2000.

This whole topic brings us to more comments on the media. It is so damn weird to read all of hypocritical sites who trashed NC State when Sendek left now heaping praise on Coach Sidney Lowe. I can’t tell you how many times we chose NOT to link articles before this season began that made comments like, “NC State fans will get what they deserve this year!”. Etc, etc.

If you really want to get sick (or maybe get a good laugh) then click on this entry from May that doesn’t even include articles that previewed the 2006-2007 season.

The following are some comments from the DBR today:

State’s victory over Michigan was nothing short of remarkable. With Engin Atsur only getting six minutes due to injury, and forced to play Brian Nieman (who?) for 31 minutes, State nonetheless controlled the game from start to finish, holding off the Wolverines’ final rally to preserve victory.

More importantly than the upset, two major things happened in the game.

First, Sidney Lowe established himself. Make no mistake, this was highly unusual. You don’t win with six men, none of them a big man or a point guard. You don’t win with your best guard injured and out most of the game.

But secondly, this was a transitional week for State. After the fall of Chuck Amato, the idea held by some that State was no longer a basketball school and had become a football school is over. Amato took care of the first part of that. But Lowe took care of the second part.

Lowe has reconnected State basketball with the past. For all his intellect, Herb Sendek was, in the end, a grind, and never fully understood N.C. State.

How about focusing on basketball, DBR? Instead of saying “Herb Sendek never fully understood NC State”…why can’t we focus on the OBVIOUS that “Herb Sendek never fully understood how to win basketball games at NC State?”

The N&O already noted some of the points that we were talking about in the stands.

Herb Sendek would have never tailored the gameplan around the strengths/weaknesses of our opponent. He would never have switched to a zone from man-to-man beacause “it is not what we do”. Herb Sendek’s offense would have chunked up three dozen or so three pointers. Herb Sendek’s team would have never believed that they could come back from losing Atsur when they were down 12 points.

We can say these things for a fact because we experienced these things for a decade. We can say these things because we watched much more talented State teams LOSE games in the Big 10 Challenge at Iowa last year and at Michigan three years ago that were more akin to pulling teeth than watching basketball. Need we remind you that last year’s great and talented Sendek-led State team scored only 42 points in the Big 10 Challenge and “Took Grinding to a Whole New Level?”

Where was Jimmy Dykes and DBR sitting for the 300+ games we watched the last decade?

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

06-07 Basketball General Media

67 Responses to NC State 74 Michigan 67 – Media/Blog Comments (10am)

  1. Tired in Florida 11/28/2006 at 7:37 AM #

    I would rather think of us as being both a BB and FB school. The amount of $$ about to be spent on a FB coach should cement that idea.

  2. buttPACKer 11/28/2006 at 7:39 AM #

    OMG, an epiphany. . .

  3. Rochester 11/28/2006 at 7:43 AM #

    It’s going to take time and victories to wipe the smugness off the faces of all of the people who gave us the “Hope you’re happy, you got what you wanted” when Herb left. But when Sid leads this team to heights we haven’t seen in 16 years and they can see for themselves that, yes, everyone in Wolfpack Nation is quite pleased, maybe, just maybe, they’ll stop talking about Herb.

    Not sure about Jimmy Dykes, though. He seemed to have some serious wood for Sendek that could take multiple national championships to soften.

  4. 82grad 11/28/2006 at 7:45 AM #

    michigan is not very good. how does amaker keep his job?

  5. tractor57 11/28/2006 at 7:46 AM #

    Win or lose I really like what Lowe and company are doing with the team. They seem to be able to get more from each player than we saw before and I really like the fire and the hustle shown of the court. Nice to see fun basketball again.
    I think Lowe did very well in his “coming out” party.

  6. Red_Terrors 11/28/2006 at 7:52 AM #

    People who aren’t fans of NC State, or familiar with our recent past don’t understand the whole Herb thing. I recently had a converstaion with a man from Georgia (GT fan) who couldn’t figure out why we “ran Herb out of town.” His best argument was that we “went to the NCAA tournament 5 years in a row.” This is what people don’t understand, especially Dykes…its not about going to the tournament. We have 2 national championships, and we as fans are not satisified with just 2 and nor should we be. We as diehard fans know our program’s potential, and now we have a coach and, just as importantly, a system that will see that potential realized. I am so stoked for this upcoming season, and for the future. I was on the edge of my seat all night long. Its great, its exciting, and we play with a lot of heart. Thanks to Sid, thanks to the player, and thanks to the fans. We know what we want, and now we’ve got it!!!!

  7. PittsburghPackFan 11/28/2006 at 7:52 AM #

    That was the Gutsy-est performance I’ve seen since the ’97 ACC tournament. I like this team, I love this coach!

  8. Tired in Florida 11/28/2006 at 7:53 AM #

    I think that game was extremely positive from a recruiting standpoint. Good job all.

  9. nav 11/28/2006 at 7:54 AM #

    Very exciting game to watch. I can’t remember seeing that much hustle from State players in a long time. It’s also beautiful to see players under the basket waiting for a rebound.

  10. for2n8son 11/28/2006 at 7:59 AM #

    Sidney has already provem he can recruit. If he can remove any doubt of his ability to coach, we are on our way! That was am epic job of coaching last night. If we can finish in the upper half of the standings and win a couple of upset games, Sidney Lowe should be the ACC coach of the year.

  11. Rick 11/28/2006 at 7:59 AM #

    The announcerrs did the “all Herb did was win but the fans still rna him off” crap last night. I for one am sick of that.

  12. GAWolf 11/28/2006 at 8:02 AM #

    EMAIL ESPN TODAY, PLEASE. The link is on the game blog. As fans we’re obligated to at least try to let the media know we won’t stand for the continued bashing of our fanbase for allegedly “running Sendek out of town.” It takes a minute to do it. Go do it.

  13. MadWolf92 11/28/2006 at 8:11 AM #

    Heh, they chastised us for “running him off” with one breath, and with the next breath said “these kids are really well coached”. I swear I could write a bot to call basketball games.

  14. PAPacker 11/28/2006 at 8:21 AM #

    Jimmy Dykes has to be one of the most poorly prepared color men I have seen. He begins by mispronouncing Atsur’s name and then goes on to completely misrepresent State’s two coaching situations. Dykes said things of Sendek like “all he does is win,” when Dick Vitale trashed Sendek year in year out for scheduling a noncompetitive OOC schedule to get to twenty wins then losing in the first or second round year in year out. Dykes big rationale for keeping Sendek was that Dykes had talked to other coaches in the ACC and they hated having to match up with him. Huh? They beat him most of the time, if not almost all the time, in the case of Duke and UNC. Dykes also said people at State (it was unclear to me exactly who he meant) are “hard on their personnel.” Alabama fired Mike Shula after going 6-6. How many other schools would give one coach 10 years and another 7 to build a program given positively mediocre or worse performance? Why is this guy a color man on a national sports network? Criticism is fine and helpful, but not pontificating rooted in utter ignorance.

  15. justaguy 11/28/2006 at 8:26 AM #

    red_terror:”This is what people don’t understand, especially Dykes…its not about going to the tournament.”

    Exactly. I notice this year that there are 32 bowl games. That’s 64 football teams going to a bowl, the same number invited to march madness. Yet there are bowl teams firing their coaches for the same reason you cite: they expect more. Was Alabama cruel to throw out Shula? Surely not. They expect more, and rightfully so. Yet some media types, such as Dykes have this underlying assumption that State really can’t ever hope for more than Sendak delivered. That’s BS, and that’s what ticks me off about his comments.

    The ACC’s #12 pre-season pick beat a Big10 team, embarrassed really, that Digger Phelps thought had Final 4 potential. I have dubbed the 06-07 basketball season as “The Year of the Perpetual Upset”. Butler & Gonzaga in the pre-season NIT final? Yup. Monday night the upset was in Raleigh. It’s a good year to be an underdog. Go Pack!

  16. legacyman 11/28/2006 at 8:37 AM #

    When we get a few more horses these wins won’t be upsets. That’s my goal…to shut up the less-than-intelligent folks who think we should accept the bones rather than the meat. We have tasted prime rib and we will no longer settle for dog food.

  17. Woof Wolf 11/28/2006 at 8:50 AM #
  18. choppack1 11/28/2006 at 8:53 AM #

    You also have to remember the way Dykes is looking at this. He’s not an NC State fan. He could care less if we win championships or if we beat UNC. In his mind, simply going to the tournament = solid coach. And he may be right – Sendek was a good coach. However, he was never able to give the fanbase anything to hang their hats on other than one Sweet 16 appearance. I’m sorry, but NC State hasn’t had a coach who stayed as long as him and didn’t win anything of note in the last 50 years. That’s a fact jack.

  19. test4eko 11/28/2006 at 8:53 AM #

    ^^^

    I totally concur. Lambasting a fanbase for expecting more than just a cup of coffee at 5 straight NCAA’s is ludicrous since half the ACC usually gets in anyway. If you’re not aspiring to win the ACC, then you can forget about doing well in the NCAA’s. History has shown that Duke, Maryland, and UNC have won the ACC regular season or tournament on their respective ways to national titles within the last 5-6 years.

    Why should we have accepted a coach who has shown no promise of ever doing that with a system that was laughable at best.

  20. highonlowe 11/28/2006 at 8:58 AM #

    The best way to shut up these awful announcers is to win, which we are doing convincingly.

    Did anyone notice Lowe switched to a zone defense in the middle of the 1st half? We promptly went on a 30some-to-12 run. In-game adjustments fellas! I love it

  21. wufpaxno1 11/28/2006 at 8:58 AM #

    A Message To ESPN:

    As I watched the NCSU-Michigan game last night I had to suffer through the completely uninformed and poorly timed remarks of Jimmy Dykes concerning NC States former coach, Herb Sendeck. I am an NC State fan and I do like Herb Sendeck. I watched the ASU-Iowa game last Saturday and pulled for Herb’s new charges. I wish Herb the best, but watching him coach at NC State for the past ten years was like watching a beautiful teacher stand at the blackboard and scratch her nails across it unceasingly. It is great at first but then becomes annoying and then painful to watch.

    It was never about wins and losses with Herb, who incidentally had a horrendous record against States cross-town rivals at Duke and UNC. And please do not bring up that they are Duke and UNC, State went toe to toe with them for years until the mid 90’s and got the best of them both in the seventies and early 80s, winning two national titles in the process. Sendeck had the unenviable task of following personalities like Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano and he never endured himself to the Wolfpack faithful. Herb is a good coach, but his style of play was, nor ever would have been accepted by State fans. Last night proved that Herbs style was not even the best fit for the talent that he had as a team made up predominantly of reserves from last years team, did what last years starters could not do… win in the ACC-Big Ten challenge.

    This is a new era, the Sidney Lowe era and this is his team. What Jimmy Dykes said throughout the game was disrespectful to the fans, the University, and mostly to that group of undermanned young men who played their guts out last night, leaving nothing on the floor, and in the end, winning a game that no one gave them a chance to win. At the very least, Jimmy Dykes owes them an apology.

  22. buttPACKer 11/28/2006 at 9:04 AM #

    amen.

  23. buttPACKer 11/28/2006 at 9:05 AM #

    i have set up a small shrine for sidney and the guys… i have just lit the morning candle

  24. buttPACKer 11/28/2006 at 9:11 AM #

    i sent an email, as you asked.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. The ACC Basketblog - 11/28/2006

    comment2, without prescription ticlid, rqpgw, online buy pentasa, ruzb, get lotrel, 173, buy online ortho tri cyclen, =DDD, mail order anafranil, =DD, mail order furadantin, 1063, online buy kamagra effervescent, txtoun, online buy vpxl, fducn, mail order minocin, :-(((, buying celexa, 372043, mail order revatio, 095226, cheapest lincocin, 897970,

Leave a Reply