ORLY? (Updated @ 1:20pm)

08-09 Basketball Sidney Lowe36

This sort of thing drives me crazy: unsubstantiated speculation that is 100% paradoxical to reality. From a (supposed) ‘professional journalist’:

orly.jpgFox/Goodman: 65 Things to Watch For This College Season

Three ACC coaches — Maryland’s Gary Williams, N.C. State’s Sidney Lowe and Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton — are feeling a little heat to win. My guess is at least one of them is history after the season. But which one?

You have to wonder where this is coming from…other than the mouth-breathing fulminations of fringe message board posters, that is.  I’ve not heard a single credible source say anything that might even lead me to believe that NC State head coach Sidney Lowe is feeling any heat this season.  Not a single one.

On top of that, Goodman, ostensibly a knowledgeable college sports scribe seems to ignore exactly who NC State’s AD is, and what his philosophy about coaching changes is.  As it is said about incumbents in Congress, the only way to lose your job if you work for Lee Fowler is to be caught with a dead body or a young boy.

In short, I feel pretty safe in saying Lowe’s job is as safe as Tom O’Brien’s, which is to say that it is a 99.9999999999% lock that both will helm their teams in 2009 and beyond.

SFN Note:
Allow me to remind you where Jeff Goodman stands on his opinions of NC State:

“Whether it’s Sidney Lowe, Rick Barnes or John Calipari, it doesn’t really matter. There’s no way N.C. State will be able to topple the powers-that-be on Tobacco Road.” — Jeff Goodman, MSNBC

I don’t know how it escapes so many people’s radar and conversations…but, Jeff Goodman was listed as an author a PackPride.com in the early years of the site. Sometimes he will blog some insightful information that you don’t get from some other national coverage – like last year’s preseason blog entry about Farnold Degand.

But, far too often Goodman goes the confrontational direction with WolfpackNation. It perplexes me how often he seeks to criticize NC State’s fans and try to drum up controversy in columns that he authors even in non-controversial times – like these absurd comments about Coach Lowe approaching a ‘hot seat’ in just his third season and with fantastic recruiting momentum building for the foreseable future.

I know that part of the source of this is his huge love and respect for Herb Sendek, but it doesn’t make the unprofessional behavior justifiable. How was this guy ever an author for an NC State website when he continuously proves that so many of his views about NC State are so grossly disconnected from reality?

08-09 Basketball Sidney Lowe

36 Responses to ORLY? (Updated @ 1:20pm)

  1. tvp1 11/14/2008 at 1:08 PM #

    Jeff Goodman is a massive, massive tool.

  2. StateFans 11/14/2008 at 1:52 PM #

    I am expecting GreyWolf – or MebaneWolf – or Lee Fowler – to check in and tell us that Jeff Goodman is a great writer.

  3. PackMan97 11/14/2008 at 2:08 PM #

    I don’t think there is any intense pressure to win, but I also think there is pressure not to lose in the same manner as they did last season. I would think the last thing most NC State fans will tolerate is a basketball coach who doesn’t learn from his (or the teams) mistakes.

  4. Sweet jumper 11/14/2008 at 2:08 PM #

    I am ready for some hoops.
    Jeff Goodman is irrelevant.
    Come on Pack–Play together, win some games and convince Wall and Favors to come be student/athletes for one or more years.

  5. bradleyb123 11/14/2008 at 2:09 PM #

    It could be argued that people in the media like Goodman are doing their part to hurt recruiting at NC State. Other coaches could easily point to unsubstantiated columns like his to make a prospective recruit think the coaching position at State is unstable (when it really isn’t), and possibly influence their decision.

  6. txpack 11/14/2008 at 2:11 PM #

    He is indeed a great writer:) When he previewed Arizona State, he had nothing good to say about Herb, so he mentioned about NC State few times. Not sure why Fox still allows such a writer to contribute. We have lots of people looking for jobs these days.

  7. YANCSSB 11/14/2008 at 2:11 PM #

    “It could be argued that people in the media like Goodman are doing their part to hurt recruiting at NC State.”

    That’s going a little far.

  8. sautz 11/14/2008 at 2:16 PM #

    I agree with PackMan97. Lowe gets another pass this year, but if he has another year like last year he will feel some heat during the 2009/10 season.
    There is losing due to lack of talent, injuries, fatigue, etc, but what we saw last year had to do a lot with the coach and not handling the team.

  9. backinpack 11/14/2008 at 2:19 PM #

    “It could be argued that people in the media like Goodman are doing their part to hurt recruiting at NC State.”

    That’s going a little far.

    I disagree. Negative recruiting is a huge tool used by coaches — it’s just always used at schools other than your own.

  10. Sweet jumper 11/14/2008 at 2:23 PM #

    Dean and Norm did their fair share of negative recruiting. It has been around for years in the coaching profession. The media decided to participate in this practice over the last several years and many writers IMHO have since lost their objectivity (if they had any to begin with).

  11. bradleyb123 11/14/2008 at 2:25 PM #

    “That’s going a little far.”

    It’s either that, or a case of severe incompetence. SidLowe is not on the hotseat yet, not with the university anyway. To say that he is is wrong at best, and harmful at worst (as in, to recruiting).

  12. Alpha Wolf 11/14/2008 at 2:35 PM #

    ““That’s going a little far.”

    It’s either that, or a case of severe incompetence.”

    I’d have to go with one or the other. Before you fire up a column saying Coach So-and-so might be on the hot seat, how hard would it be to pick up a phone and call the local beat writer and ask?

    Oh. Nevermind!

  13. packplantpath 11/14/2008 at 2:49 PM #

    The way I see it, the only way Sid is on the hot seat is if he peed his pants.

    Sure, it’s been a rough start, but it’s still just the start. While I’m sure there are cries to fire him from somewhere in crazy land, it is a very non-vocal minority from what I’ve seen (or not seen).

    I’m not 100% convinced he can take the team where we want, but he is recruiting well and we have to let things go where they may. Unless we lose all the ACC games this year by large margins(20 pts/game, every game), he will be fine.

  14. Moose Hunter 11/14/2008 at 2:52 PM #

    After the collapse last season are you honestly telling me if things don’t improve by Jan, that Lowe would’t be on a hot seat? There were times last season I honestly wondered about Lowes ability to coach. I sure as hell hope he succeeds and will be there supporting him all out, though.

  15. Girlfriend in a Coma 11/14/2008 at 2:53 PM #

    The saying goes, ” . . . dead girl or live boy.”

    Although I appreciate “. . . dead body or a young boy” for its double redundancy. Does that make it squared?

  16. MrPlywood 11/14/2008 at 2:55 PM #

    Great. Now the “blind item” technique, oh so popular on the interweb pop-culture gossip blogs, is being co-opted by supposed serious journalists. It’s an exceedingly lame and unverifiable way to promote an agenda.

    And yeah, I think it has an effect on recruiting.

  17. newt 11/14/2008 at 3:01 PM #

    Journalists love to push our buttons, because we’re one of the largest, most active fan bases, easy to rile. Just look at the poll skewing going on in the AJC regading Derek Favors for evidence of our largess when it comes to online interaction with journals.

  18. bradleyb123 11/14/2008 at 3:04 PM #

    “After the collapse last season are you honestly telling me if things don’t improve by Jan, that Lowe would’t be on a hot seat?”

    That depends on what you mean by hot seat. He might be on the hot seat with a lot of the fans, but will his job be in danger? Not likely. It took three years of mediocrity, and ending the final season with 7 consecutive losses to get rid of Amato. In other words, it takes a lot to lose your job at NC State!

    Considering the recruits Sid is getting, I think the powers that be will give him a chance to do something with them. You don’t go from 15-16 one year to national contender the next, with mostly the same players MINUS one NBA first round draft pick.

  19. JimValvano 11/14/2008 at 4:41 PM #

    I don’t think it would make very much sense to fire Lowe at the end of this season, unless he puts up a 8-20 gem. He’ll need to win around 12 or 13 games or sign one or both of Favors and Wall to be a lock to be around next year. However, I think double digit wins is pretty much a lock this year…we should be able to get 10 wins just in non-conference play with wins over:
    1. New Orleans
    2. High Point
    3. Winthrop
    4. UNC Greensboro
    5. Winston-Salem State
    6. East Carolina
    7. Lipscomb
    8. Loyola
    9. Towson
    10. North Carolina Central

    It would be considered an upset if we beat any of our other non-conference opponents which include Davidson, Marquette, and Florida. However, we should also be able to grab at the very least 4 ACC victories this season with one game against an FSU team that is battling attrition, two games against each GT, UVA, and BC and one game against the soon to be fired Gary Williams. That puts us in the 14 win range which I think should be good enough to buy Lowe one more year at the helm. I also think that in that one more year at the helm Coach Lowe will solidify himself as coach and solidify the program.

  20. PackerInRussia 11/14/2008 at 4:50 PM #

    Since we’re talking basketball and complaining, I’ll offer up the following: Preseason POY (featured on the front page of ESPN.com). What the heck is a preseason Player of the Year? I’m not a fan of preseason polls because they’re practically meaningless, but at least they’re not purported to be the 25 best teams of the whole season. They’re just a stab at the dark at who may be the best 25 going into the season. But a player of the year? “This person is the best player of the entire year…(except we haven’t played a single game yet).” Next, we should start awarding preseason National Championships.

    disclaimer: this rant has nothing to do with the fact that “The Horse Listener” is preseason POY. The title “Player of the Year” just irks me. OK, that first statement is not entirely true.

  21. packalum44 11/14/2008 at 5:49 PM #

    This guy sounds like an idiot. I hate his previous comment of us never toppling Duke and Carolina even more though. Firstly, no one ever said we wanted to topple them. That could only come from a huge NCAA infraction or scandal…we only want to be a perennial top-20 team and consistently compete and beat UNC and Duke. If you are going to make comments like he has, back them up with some insightful ideas and I don’t know…maybe some empirical data. Wishful thinking on my part, too many talking heads these days. Majority of the population does not demand the same accountability out of the media as the well educated viewers of this blog.

  22. Matthew 11/14/2008 at 6:07 PM #

    I’ve really never seen such a prolonged media backlash as this. Herb was a little better than mediocore here, nothing more. But until this team gets back up to that level — that “eek into the NCAAs on the final weekend” level, we’re going to continue to hear about it.

    No way Sid is in trouble, nor should he be. I don’t even think he has to have a good season. However, if the team continues to have effort problems and chemistry problems this year . . . well . . . I definitely think his seat will be hot next year.

  23. BoKnowsNCS71 11/14/2008 at 6:09 PM #

    Most likely the culprit for rumors would be Peter Golenbock. Always looking for a story.

  24. LRM 11/14/2008 at 7:19 PM #

    I’d imagine it’s tough to feel heat at a school that “rewards” five consecutive losing seasons with a raise and contract extension.

    I doubt Sid is losing any sleep over said “heat.”

  25. BJD95 11/14/2008 at 7:19 PM #

    Goodman is a poor man’s Doyel.

    Lowe and GW are at risk for loud grumbling if they suck out loud this year, but that’s light years away from Leonard “Vicious Scowl” Hamilton, who is genuinely on the hot seat.

1 2

Leave a Reply