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?

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06-07 Basketball General Media

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

  1. class of 74 11/28/2006 at 9:11 AM #

    The media has a pre-prepared template of us and it is just plain lazy on their part not to investigate before spouting off as they seem to do too often. We did not run Herb off. He got ten years at a qualitiy school where most would have “run him off” after year five, given the same record of wins and losses.
    And Costner is no more a “system” guy, if that were true, then why did he have offers from so many other schools that don’t run that “system”? They, primarily the national media, aren’t stupid just lazy and template fillers.

  2. test4eko 11/28/2006 at 9:16 AM #

    Here is what I sent to ESPN:

    Last night’s broadcast of the Michigan-NCSU basketball game wasn’t so much a broadcast as it was a personal affront on the NC State fanbase.

    Sure we were vocal about our displeasure about the direction of our basketball program under Herb Sendek, but most teams that possess two national championships have a proud tradition and typically expect more than just settling on the label of ‘also-ran’ in the ACC, let alone going to the NCAA’s only to lose within the first two rounds on a consistent basis.

    What’s done is done and its unfortunate that Dyke’s vitriol got in the way of calling a pretty exciting game that, had Sendek remained, most likely would have been another disappointing loss.

    In the future, would it be possible to exclude Dyke’s from broadcasts of Wolfpack games? Or, at the very least, get him to acknowledge that our coach is now Sidney Lowe and that’s its time to move on?

    Thank you.

  3. Red_Terrors 11/28/2006 at 9:41 AM #

    One important thing that both I and the guy I carpool with (also a State Grad) noticed last night is that Lowe knows when to call timeouts. It always bothered me that Sendek would let a lead grow out of control by the other team, or let the other team back into a game before calling timeout. I was relieved to see Sid on top of things like that. We’ve got a good thing in Lowe.

  4. Lock 11/28/2006 at 9:42 AM #

    It really is a shame that Dyke decided to turn the game into his own personal soap box. Otherwise, that game last night went a long, long ways to firmly establishing the present and removing us from the past, whatever our opinion of it.

  5. BJD95 11/28/2006 at 9:48 AM #

    I actually found an independent blog that PREDICTED an NC State victory. Check out the bold and accurate prediction from the top-notch blog Dave Sez:

    http://www.davesez.com/archives/001198.php#more

  6. steelfreak95 11/28/2006 at 9:58 AM #

    Also noticed the timely timeout calls, the defense adjustments, the calmness Sid dispayed throughout, the passion on the court….then looked over at the gentlemen in suits we have on that bench, I felt…..well, you guys know

  7. Girlfriend in a Coma 11/28/2006 at 10:21 AM #

    Is Dykes doing an ASU game this year? If so I will tune in to see how Dykes can call the game with his mouth full.

  8. RickJ 11/28/2006 at 10:23 AM #

    Stunned – this is the only word I can think of to describe my reaction to last night’s game. I have witnessed all of our games this year including the exhibitions and I was totally convinced we would be lucky to beat anybody without Astur in the game. It was an amazing performance on so many levels.

    I have one comment about Lowe’s coaching that hasn’t been mentioned – At halftime, we stay in the locker room for a shorter period of time than any team I can remember. We have been coming out with over 6 minutes to go before the start of the second half. Towe comes out with the team and seems to enjoy firing them up during warm ups. Lowe and the other assistance remain in the locker room longer presumably talking strategy but maybe they are deciding where to go to dinner.

  9. partialqualifier 11/28/2006 at 10:27 AM #

    Does it bother any of you when people….. who know absolutely nothing about a school or its fans….. decide to take cheap shots about firing coaches? I could care less who gets fired or hired at other schools. I figure if the folks at Arizona St are tired of their footabll coach they have every right to run him out of town! These guys are making a million or so dollars a year. That’s a lot of money. And when you are paying people that kind of money it is completely your perrogative to put whatever demands you want on that person. Even they are completely unreasonable….who cares?

    When we are donating the time and money and passion to our school…we have every right to demand that we are treated with a little respect. Instead….Herb and Chuck treated us like we were the world’s biggest idiots for expecting to compete in the ACC! Please! I, for one, think Mike Shula is a pretty good football coach. But you know what? I’m not the one ponying up thousands of dollars a year to the Crimson Tide Athletic Fund. If the good folks at Alabama feel that they are not getting everything they want out of Shula, they have every right to replace him. It is sickening.

  10. burnbarn 11/28/2006 at 10:43 AM #

    Rick J.. I have never seen a team come out of the locker room at half as early as this. i was commenting on it at the last game.. about 6 mins left to go in the half. V would keep them in the room until the ball was about to go up at times.
    It is interesting.

  11. Cardiac95 11/28/2006 at 10:49 AM #

    Two quick points on the Sendek/ESPN lovefest….

    1) JP Giglio said it best on the N&O ACC Blog: “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.”

    2) Injuries Happen……Atsur goes down & we still win going away. That would have been an easy excuse to lose the game in any of the previous 10 seasons.

  12. Gene 11/28/2006 at 10:53 AM #

    I’m not going to fault the media for obsessing about the Herb-NCSU relationship, since many fans are still obsessed about it. For better or worse Herb was our coach for 10 years and moved on to Tempe. Forget Herb ands focus on the present.

    We have our first road game and conference game on Sunday against Virginia. This will be a very tough game.

    I’d rather spend my verbage discussing our chances on that game, rather than comparing and contrasting Lowe to Sendek.

    Sendek’s gone. The upcoming game matters more than imagining what Sendek would’ve done against Michigan, last night.

    The UVa game is what matters now.

  13. Packfan97 11/28/2006 at 10:54 AM #

    partialqualifier great point. In other words mind your own business.

  14. Buddygreen 11/28/2006 at 10:54 AM #

    Here is what Lowe is doing at State. In the company I own I go out and get our new customers. So I am around Charlotte area quite a bit. Today eating breakfast at a local country breakfast joint I heard something I have not heard in this area in years. People talking about NCSU basketball. People love Sidney Lowe and the effort these guys are putting out. People walk in and said, Hey you see State beat Michigan last nigth. Started talking about 83, the shot, Valvano, etc. People are excited!! We are water cooler talk again! Sendek never brought that out of people. I grew up riding a bus to school and everybody talked State and Carolina. We lost that after Valvano! Lowe has brought it back! Thank Sidney Lowe! I’ve waited years for this day. We may have some bumps in the road, but we back on track!!! Lets hear for Lowe our team! Now officially known as the “Iron Men!” Next headline should read, “Iron Men Win Again!”

  15. Gene 11/28/2006 at 11:04 AM #

    When Lowe proved to the ESPN guys he could coach at this level, they started panning to his jersey in the rafters, as well as Towe’s and brought up how Lowe was competing against the high standards he and Towe had set, in the past and not UNC and Duke. They also gave recognition to Del Negro and Corchiani, who were in attendance as being great college players.

    They gave some big props to Lowe in the second half by saying he was a “our PG on the floor”, with all the instructions he was giving the team in the second-half, when we had the ball on offense bench’s side of the floor.

    As long as we keep bringing up Herb, why should we expect others to let him go?

    The Herb talk will die down from the media, but I really wonder if some segments of the fan base will be able to let go bringing Herbie up.

  16. ldr of pk 75 11/28/2006 at 11:05 AM #

    The media types just don’t get it. We, in effect, are a business. The fanbase are stockholders and expect a return. With the heritage of our “Brand”, our facilities, and our conference, we expect a tad better than average return, year to year. We are not in the business of propping up marginal personnel and even those in media with jobs and no accountability. Go to the Government if lack of production and unending outlays of money are the norm you’re looking for. For sure, Herb had many more years than anyone in business would have had to adapt and overcome the environment he was in. He was argueably average. The verdict will remain out on Sidney for sometime, but how refreshing is it to see a different pace and attitude. How good is it to see a coach who can adjust at game speed. To be sure we’ll lose our share this year, but doesn’t the future already look so much brighter. I look for our Football situation to turn as well. ESPN can take their tired, whiney act on down the road. Go Sidney, GO PACK!!

  17. Cardiff Giant 11/28/2006 at 11:08 AM #

    wolfpaxNo1, not to nitpick, but your email would have been much more effective if you’d spelled Sendek’s name correctly.

  18. ncdan 11/28/2006 at 11:09 AM #

    Both the media, AND the fans would do well to read Gene’s post over-and-over again.

    Very well said.

  19. NCSUSix 11/28/2006 at 11:09 AM #

    It was great to see Sid put the zone in. It wasnt just the normal 2-3 zone. It was a 1-2-2 Zone. The pack is Back!

  20. brown pelican 11/28/2006 at 1:24 PM #

    outstanding performance—a great game to watch as a fan—and—great testimony to their belief in each other and their new leadership—if sid can continue to get them to match that level of effort night in and night out they will achieve beyond the limited expectations that have been set for them—fun to be a pack fan when they play that hard and that well together—nice job fellas

  21. justaguy 11/28/2006 at 1:47 PM #

    I’m beginning to think Coach Lowe is better suited to the college game than he was the NBA game, kind of like Pete Carroll is better suited for college coaching than the NFL.

  22. Rick 11/28/2006 at 1:55 PM #

    Can someone tell me what good it does to email ESPN?
    Are you going to stop watching State games to make a “statement”?
    They do not care what we think.

  23. Rick 11/28/2006 at 1:56 PM #

    I loved Sidney’s adjustments.
    I also liked the way he would walk up to Grant and have a short conversation with him during a timeout. He was obviously coaching him and it showed. GG did very well for someone who is not a point guard.

  24. skywalkerdt 11/28/2006 at 1:56 PM #

    The roughest part of the announcing was the mention that – norm chow would soon get his chance to turn nc state down. that just spoke volumes about lee fowler. but let’s move on.

    sendek is a good guy so all the best to him in the desert where expectations are not as high, i constantly waited for the stress induced heart attack seeing him try to deal with tobacco road pressure.

    focus on the guys on the floor. that was all out balls to the walls hustle last night. guys like big ben and horner gave it everything and it showed. michigan only came close when we lost our legs and had some central fatigue set in.

    any word on atsur? even if its not a lead guy like that we need the body come time to play uva. thank goodness the guys get nearly a week to recover from last night.

  25. wufpaxno1 11/28/2006 at 1:57 PM #

    Thanks Cardiff, I guess thinking of Sendek just reminded me of constantly hitting the “deck”. No problem though, with Sid I feel suddenly uplifted. Or maybe forgetting how to spell his name is just the beginning of putting that entire era behind me.

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