‘The most destructive fan base we’ve ever seen’ [Updated 2:30pm]

Big Four Rivals Fans58

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After the college basketball officiating debacle that was also known as the ‘2012 ACC Tournament’ the popular Duke Basketball Report blog (“DBR”) posted an entry that SFN chose not to link for many reasons – most of which was because the quality of the piece was so far below what we expect as minimum standards that we genuinely were concerned that a UNC fan had hacked DBR. (I’m serious…if you dare click on the link we provide in the next paragraph, then I want you to pretend you were reading the piece on a UNC website instead of a Duke site and tell me which frame of reference was more befitting of the piece).

The article – which surely made credible contributors like Al Featherston and Barry Jacobs cringe – is a CLASSIC ‘straw man’ piece that, in addition to being chocked full of factual inaccuracies, takes the unoriginal, tired approach of criticizing NC State fans (what a shock!!) while pretending that many past NC State administrators and coaches had significantly more talent than the national job market has clearly attached to them. The POS piece can be seen by clicking here (if you so choose). The following provides some laughs for you:

It takes a lot of nerve to blame someone else when you screw up that much, but there you have it.

But here’s the rub: people are onto it, and by people, we mean potential future coaches. They understand that State fans have, in the past couple of decades, run off or ruined the careers of Les Robinson (who memorably said that he would step aside because wolves in the same pack shouldn’t fight), Herb Sendek, who at least had State in the tournament on a regular basis, Sidney Lowe, who was one of their own, football coaches Mike O’ Cain and Chuck Amato, and A.D.’s Todd Turner and Lee Fowler.

[snip]

Instead of being thrilled, instead of being happy to finally be heading out of the wilderness, what do you see? Whining about referee conspiracies, about the ACC being out to get them, muttering about finding a new conference because their current one makes life too tough.

It’s amazing.

Things will never get better that way. And if you don’t believe that on face value, look at the worlds Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski walked into.

[snip]

Unless of course, they catch on to what they’re about to walk into with the State fan base and decide, like the departed coaches and A.D.’s, they don’t want the headache.

Maybe then State fans can start recruiting players for a different sport.

It’s the most destructive fan base we’ve ever seen.

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There is SO MUCH that is bad and wrong with this condescending, uneducated article that I am not going to take time to correct the mistakes and explain things to an author whose frame of reference clearly does not extend beyond the second Bush’s residence in the White House.

But, I will ask a couple of questions of simple logic without even mentioning the destruction of the career of a great man and coach named Pete Gaudet:

(1) If NC State deserves criticism for actually employing the awesome talents of Lee Fowler, Les Robinson, Herb Sendek, Todd Turner and Mike O’Cain — then what level of criticism does Duke University – and every other school in America – deserve for NEVER hiring these Michelangelos when some of them have been available for hire for more than a decade now?

(2) How do the tenures of the aforementioned past leaders at NC State compare to the tenure of Duke football coaches of the past?

Duke football is perhaps THE WORST job in all of Division One college football; so, what would be reasonable expectations for a fanbase that averages about 15,000 (of their own) fans per game and is consistently one of the worst in America? Surely, a comparison of the reasonable Duke fans to the destructive NC State fans will yield an OBVIOUS advantage for the reasonable Dookies! Let’s see —

Mike O’Cain was allowed to coach at NC State for SEVEN YEARS (while compiling an 0-7 record vs UNC-CH despite being favored in 4 of the 7 contests).

Les Robinson was allowed to become the least successful coach in the history of NC State Basketball for SIX YEARS; and then was PROMOTED to ATHLETICS DIRECTOR and was in Raleigh for more than TEN YEARS!!

Chuck Amato was provided an opportunity to coach at his alma mater for SEVEN YEARS.

Todd Turner was allowed to ruin our athletics program for SEVEN YEARS.

Lee Fowler was allowed to ruin our athletics program for TEN YEARS.

Herb Sendek chose to stay in Raleigh for TEN YEARS en route to becoming the second least successful coach in the last 70 years of NC State basketball before he willfully CHOSE to leave Raleigh for Arizona State.

By comparison:

Tom Harp (1966-1970) was allowed to coach at Duke for FIVE YEARS.

Mike McGee (1971-1978) was allowed to coach at Duke for EIGHT YEARS (less time than Lee Fowler, Herb Sendek and Les Robinson spent in Raleigh).

Red Wilson (1979-1982) was allowed to coach at Duke for FOUR YEARS.

Steve Sloan (1983-1986) was allowed to coach at Duke for FOUR YEARS.

Steve Spurrier (1987-1989) chose to stay in Durham for THREE YEARS en route to becoming the most successful coach in the last 50+ years of Duke football before he willfully CHOSE to leave.

Barry Wilson (1989-1993) was allowed to coach at Duke for FOUR YEARS.

Fred Goldsmith (1994-1999) was allowed to coach at Duke for FIVE YEARS.

Carl Franks (1999-2003) was allowed to coach at Duke for FOUR and a HALF YEARS.

Ted Roof (2003-2007) was allowed to coach at Duke for FOUR and a HALF YEARS.

David Cutcliffe (2007-current) has been allowed to coach at Duke for FOUR YEARS and is now known to be on the proverbial hot-seat.

Yep, can’t anyone with an IQ above functionally retarded now understand why NC State fans deserve criticism for destructive behavior?

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So, with DBR and Duke fans sitting on such a haughty and judgemental perch of reasonableness and support, imagine ‘our’ aghast when ‘we’ woke up this morning to learn that the Duke fanbase melted down so destructively over night after losing in the NCAA Tournament that DBR had to actually take their message forums OFFLINE to protect the fanbase from even more criticism than would typically befall the nation’s most hated college basketball program?!?!

Just let that hypocrisy of judging others for being ‘reasonable’ and ‘destructive’ sink in for a while!

All of this coming from a fan base that is SO SPOILED that their ‘famed’ students abandoned their basketball this year to the point where Duke released unused and unclaimed student basketball tickets for public sales. That’s right, the great “Cameron Crazies” failed to pick up their minuscule allotment of tickets for their rinky-dink 8,000 seat arena (within walking range in the center of campus) for the most consistently successful college basketball program of the last 30 years.

But, State fans are unreasonable!

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You know…I think I will take ‘unreasonable’ when it comes with acknowledgement from almost every local media outlet that NC State fans are by far the most passionate and broadly supportive fans in the area. Imagine the ‘unreasonableness’ of ranking in the Top 20 of national basketball attendance for eleven consecutive years while producing but a SINGLE team that finished the season ranked in the Top 25?! You know…that really IS unreasonable!

If you want to know about the real support of Duke fans, all you need to do is go to a football game at Wallace-Wade Stadium (that NC State fans aren’t filling)..or, take a look at the turnout for their home baseball game yesterday afternoon.

If you want to know about the real support of Duke fans, just wait until Coach K rides into the sunset and all of those band-wagoners who couldn’t get accepted to ECU start looking for their next stop.

Related: Deadspin’s Coach K is a Dick

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58 Responses to ‘The most destructive fan base we’ve ever seen’ [Updated 2:30pm]

  1. Sweet jumper 03/17/2012 at 10:05 PM #

    DBR=Douche Bags Rants

  2. ancsu87 03/17/2012 at 11:30 PM #

    I don’t like Duke either as they are today. As a kid growing up in the 1970’s and then attending State in the early 1980’s I found myself feeling sorry for Duke and had them as my second fav ACC team. I really liked Bill Foster’s 1978 NCAA final team that lost to Kentucky. When Coach K was hired I did not think much of him (a whiny ass coach then and now) but still liked Duke mainly because of how much he hated Dean Smith. By the early 1990’s I saw him become everything he hated about Dean Smith and then the 1995 season finished me off.

    A little more history on Duke. When Bill Foster took over the HC job this was the situation there: “Bill Foster’s greatest success as a head coach would come at Duke University, taking over a struggling program with a proud history that was searching for stability and strong leadership. Duke was only one of eight schools at that time to have hit the 1,000th victory plateau and the program in its seemingly forgotten past had once seen Final Fours and Conference championships. “I knew Duke from the Bubas years when they were great, and I thought they could be great again, should be great again. I was a little shocked when they offered me the job, it just seemed like a great place to coach.” Foster once said.”

    Sound familar??? Why should our fanbase have any different expectations today then the Duke admin and fanbase had in 1974?

    BTW don’t confuse Bill Foster of Duke with Bill Foster of Clemson.

  3. ancsu87 03/17/2012 at 11:43 PM #

    I guess NC State fans should have stopped going to games like Duke fans did (anybody ever remember seeing Cameron Indoor Stadium during the early to mid 1970’s?).

    “Even though Vic Bubas (1960-69) had rebuilt the Blue Devils into a national power, they began to fall off during his final three seasons. Bucky Waters’ four seasons (1970-73) and Neill McGeachy’s 10-16 season (1973-74) pushed Duke further out of the headlines. And with the legendary Dean Smith at North Carolina and Norman Sloan at North Carolina State both enjoying success, Duke had all but disappeared on the college hoops map. Students stopped coming to games, attendance dipped and the need for someone to rekindle interest became apparent. Foster — who went 120-75 as head coach at Rutgers in the 1960s — was hired.”

    Didn’t we stay in the Top 25 over the last 20 years in regards to fan attendance? How does that get you classified as a destructive fan base?

  4. ancsu87 03/17/2012 at 11:50 PM #

    Having said that about Duke I still hate UNC-BS more for one reason. The UNC BOT, controlled by UNC-BS graduates and fans, were the reason for the destruction of NC State BB and sports in general. It was not a self-destruction but rather an external hachet job done by using losers in the Admin on the inside at NC State.

  5. Ashman87 03/18/2012 at 12:23 AM #

    Well, I certainly agree with you, ancsu87. Before Coach K got to Duke, I too viewed Duke as an interesting team, certainly not having as much disdain for them as I do now. I also was excited when they were good and when they beat the Heels. Of coure this lasted until the mid-eigthties, and it completely disappeared after 1989, the year that most people point to as to when UNC viewed Duke as its “arch” rival, mainly due to the ACC Championship game in 89 involving Smith, K, Laetner, and J.R. “Can’t” Reid.

  6. TLeo 03/18/2012 at 7:33 AM #

    I echo a lot of the sentiments about Duke. I hate them as much as I do carolina because of their stupid flopping and flailing around and their smugness, etc. I work with a couple Duke fans and can’t wait to rub their nose in it tomorrow morning.

  7. McPete 03/18/2012 at 12:15 PM #

    Ted Roof and Carl Franks don’t approve of that DBR article.

  8. NCStatefan 11/24/2013 at 1:49 PM #

    While the evidence cited of us being “the most destructive fan base ever” is bogus, referree favoritism (does happen, referees are human, I officiate and have been guilty of it albeit not intentionally but somehow it happens), running off worthy coaches, etc.

    There is a grain of truth though about being destructive that I think could serve us well as a fan base. Not that we are not the only ones guilty but our fan base in general does strike me as extremely harsh on our coaches and players. Obviously UNC and Duke hasn’t had to endure what State fans have had to over the last 30 years of mostly mediocrity and would likely be as much a clammoring noisy bunch of complainers as there ever was if they did. Many of us, however, are supportive but a little more support and grace for new coaches and players would do us well. We need to stick together and give these coaches a chance to rebuild these teams with the new players they are bringing in.

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