SFN Highlighted in Bruin Nation
A couple of weeks ago, we discussed some of the (much appreciated) recent attention that StateFansNation has been receiving from various media sources.
(We forgot to mention how this entry had previously been linked as a “Blog to Read” from the front page of SI On Campus about a six weeks ago.)
As we were surfing the internet the other night we were pleasantly surprised to randomly run across this entry from one of UCLA’s top blogs, BruinNation. They evidently ran across one of our first conversations related to Steve Lavin and took the opportunity to re-enforce their position on the difference between the quality of bloggers and idiots on message boards.
We love it!! And couldn’t agree more. This is why we have a comments policy that is much more targeted and restrictive than message boards.
Below are some excerpts from BruinNation:
For those of you who have been following O, A, and yours truly know one of the reasons we started blogging instead of writing on message boards is the stupidity we often see the message boards get inundated with. Looks like the dichotomy between bloggers and message boards exists within online communities of other school as well.
I indicated below how Lavin and NC State may be talking to each other. Look how some of the posters in the NC State Scout message board responded:
In contrast to those posters from Scout.com look how bloggers from StateFanNation (a great NC State blog) responded when they heard the Lavin news:
(1) Fans have a very bad habit of simply taking a coach’s overall record and latching on to it as if it would be transferrable to other jobs. Steve Lavin had one of the five best basketball jobs in AMERICA. His numbers look generally pretty good when you look at them without framing them against the backdrop of his resource base.
But, UCLA is UCLA…with little competition on the west coast; not to mention that Lavin inherited the program not too long after they won a National Championship. You need to analyze coaches in comparison to what they have done with their resource base. Lavin managed to go 10-19 in this sixth season (whatever happened to building a program?).
(2) Lavin has been trying to get back into coaching every year since he was fired by UCLA. Nobody has hired him. There is a reason for that. Even more troubling is the fact that despite Lavin’s experience as a top assistant coach at Purdue during Gene Keady’s best seasons, Purdue chose not to offer their job to Lavin when Keady announced his retirement a couple of years ago.
In the end, NC State needs to pay special attention to its brand management (which is something that Lee Fowler’s acceptance of poor performance and years of arguing with the fanbase indicates he can’t comprehend.) Why would NC State want to hire any coach that couldn’t get the job done to the standards of other schools?
Funny stuff. This tells us a little about the mentality of sports bloggers vs. some of those of lot of the dumbshit posters who often flood those scout and rival boards. After all in UCLA’s case – lot of those morons still think Dorrell is an “up and coming” football coach just because he won 10 games!
Anyways after all that … come on NC State … PLEASE HIRE LAVIN and take him off the ESPN studio set.
GO BRUINS.
When a void exists, a market is created. When the void of intelligent fan-interaction exists, great blogs are created…whether it be on the east coast or west coast.
What does Whitt have to do with this conversation?
This year 49 Division I teams have lost or fired their head basketball coach. Of that 49 schools, 41 have hired new coaches and they are recruiting, consolidating committed recruits, counseling/managing existing players/staff and doing whatever else they can to get or keep their programs moving forward.
Florida Atlantic, Manhattan, Morgan State, Northern Colorado, St Peter’s, Penn, and Texas Pan–Am are the only teams other than NCSU that don’t have a head basketball coach. Read that list again people. There is not one top flight, serious, big time basketball program in the bunch.
Everyone else that really matters is staffed up and hard at work and we are adrift. Or at least it feels like we are. Who’s talking with Cedric? Is he still in school? Does anyone know what’s happening with Chris Wright? What about the guys that have committed for this year? What about all the existing players and whatever is left of the staff.
We can’t keep messing around with Lavin, if we still are, about guaranteed money, girl friend problems or whatever. We can’t wait a week for BeeLine to go to his banquet and maybe bring the house down by announcing that he changed his mind and is going to stay at West Virginia.
We are past the point where it is more than just frustrating for all of us that want to know. We are loosing time that we can never make up. We are missing opportunities that we may never have again.
Let’s try not to do anything stupid. But damn it, it’s time to do something
Steve Lavin couldn’t get the job done in Los Angeles…why do we all think Raleigh would be any different. Lavin is a Jim Harrick understudy, though not much studying has ever been required under Harrick, you have to worry about rules infractions. I’m just not sold on this guy.
I’ve said it once…I’ll say it a thousand times. We are ultimately better off without Sendek, but being cited by the NCAA would change that.
I hope we’re still looking at candidates such as Greg Marshall or Whit. Jamie Dixon wouldn’t be a bad choice either. I just hope that the search committee or Lee Fowler realize that we don’t have to have a big name. Sure, the big name coach might recruit better his first season or maybe two, but the history of our team, the sparkling new facilities, education offered by our school, and the rabid fanbase can all help us to land some pretty darn good recruits. Furthermore, I think that despite the fact I didn’t like Herb…he didn’t exactly leave the cubbard bare. If whomever we hire can convince Big Ced to come back, and the coach is a good coach…then he’ll win in his first year or two and recruits will recognize this. We can recruit and win without a big name coach. We can create the big name coach. Whoever heard of Sendek, Valvano, Sloan, or Case before us?
SFN – Do you believe that the offer to Lavin HAS been pulled as it should have been? Could it be that Fowler has not made public the pulling of the offer to keep form “embarassing” his friend Lavin? I hope this Lavin stuff is over even it if does take another week or so to get a coach.
SFN – His friend Lavin didn’t worry about embarassing LF and NC State. LF needs to stop worrying so damn much about his personal relationships — remember how great of a guy Herb was and how Herb deserved all the time in the world since someone had stood behind Fowler 20 years ago when he should have been fired for his role in Memphis State’s NCAA violations?
Wanted to echo what others are saying about the site and to thank SFN for being my “go-to” for info and intelligent discussion.
I really hope that once the search is over we will be able find out more about how this all played out. While I certainly acknowldge that we do not want to rush into a hire, I am blown away by how long this process is taking. The list of qualified candidates that we have a reasonable chance of hiring is not that large, money is obvliously not an issue, our AD is a “basket-ball guy” with contacts all over the country, what is the hold up? Let’s get a contract signed and move ahead.
SFN, the Houston event is only the kickoff of the AAU season and the summer recruiting session. Its the start of the summer race. Every week we are coachless from this point on is another week we are behind. Summer recruiting involves more than Houston AAU and the shoe company camps. Much more. There are tourney’s and events all summer long. Camps to be set up and players to be invited. May 1st has to be the deadline. NC State has had at least “solid” recruiting for a couple years now. We cannot afford a repeat of the ’02 and ’03 recruiting classes. This job is a pressure cooker and no coach left of the list will have 100% fan backing. It is imperative that he is given the chance to succeed early.
I do understand the concerns though. The wrong choice at the right time is still the wrong choice. Maybe its time for Lee Fowler to be removed from this search now. I’m not sure somebody else could not do just as well.
I have three comments:
1) I totally agree with BruinsNation in the SFN is the best blog out there nationally and is meant to be different than a rival.com message board.
2) I totally agree with Dan, and others, that Jed should be removed from the search immediately and Oblinger get a head-hunting firm to complete the job.
3) Wolf Wolf made an excellent comment about the number of schools with coaching vacancies that have not filled those slots and the number of schools that have. The numbers and the schools (basketball caliber) tell the tale about our beloved AD.
SFN: one minor point. You are mistaken that NCSU should issue a statement saying the Decourcy report about an offer being extended to Lavin is/was false. This would clue people in way too much that something is/was in fact going on with him (Lavin). NCSU can’t get into position of refuting false reports while not refuting “un-false” reports. It simply can’t work that way for obvious reasons.
SFN – that is a good point
Moreover, I think Fowler does not deserve the bad wrap he is getting. People tend to vent their frustrations on the only target they can. In this case it’s Fowler. If someone wants him gone they should present some cold hard facts to back up their opinion.
SFN – And when they do, a lot of people will tell them that they don’t know what they are talking about and that they don’t know anything. But, we understand.
My best reason for “why now?” is that I fear my brain is on the verge of exploding. And it’s going to be harder to contribute to this lovely forum if we all get fired.
Still, there are valid reasons for waiting. I admit that.
If I’ve got to blow sunshine, I reckon it would be to this blog. It’s my primary source of information, and I rarely find myself at Pack Pride anymore except to chuckle at the idiocy.
I stand by the COLD HARD FACT that NCSU is the only D-I school (with a basketball tradition) that still has a coaching vacancy. Our AD has put this search on the same fast track as Florida Atlantic, Manhattan, Morgan State, Northern Colorado, St Peter’s, Penn, and Texas Pan–Am.
The AD is primarily responsible for the search. Not the fanbase, not the WPC, not the Administration, and not the Chancellor. The AD.
This whole episode has resembled a train wreck and the fact that the Pack, at day whateveritisnow, has no coach, while we are hemorrhaging players and prospects, rests soley at the feet of Lee Fowler.
I didn’t care for this site’s “editorial viewpoint” prior to April 1…
…but it has been my first daily read on the coaching search since then.
I would be interested to see an interview with Fowler after this is all over and see the role that SFN, Pack Pride, and the traditional media played in the search. I hope Lee is keeping a diary as I’d like to see it laid out day by day.
“People tend to vent their frustrations on the only target they can”
The fact that Fowler is the only target should make it obvious where the blame lies.
I think Lavin is smokescreen to buy time, possibly for Beilein.
For one, there is no reason why this would be made public if he was actually serious about the position. He’s a high profile personality whose candidacy will not jeopardize his current position. The publicity actually would help his career as a public figure for ESPN. LF and crew have been successful at keeping things in the vacuum up to this point (after the initial debacle that is) and there’s no reason why they wouldn’t handle this the same if it were a real possibility. It also buys time for Fowler so he can continue to work out details for a viable candidate. It’s really a win/win for both parties. I say kudos to Fowler for the smoke and mirrors.
Secondly, he brings too much risk to the table as far as his questionable personality and coaching background. True, he was able to maintain a somewhat high level of respectibility at UCLA but this was behind the UCLA name. With the talent that he did recruit he wasn’t able to maitain success for long and was basically run out of town. He was a proven recruiter at UCLA but this does not translate into a good recruiter at NCSU by any stretch of the imagination. Too much risk. Plus, his cheesy personality would never fly in Raleigh.
Let’s let this play out before putting Fowler through the ringer. This being said, Haith still has my vote.
“The fact that Fowler is the only target should make it obvious where the blame lies.”
Blame for what? Yes, it is ‘day whateveritisnow’ and I too would have liked a new coach back in the first week. That didn’t happen. People are frustrated it’s taking a long time. Me too. So what. I need a better reason to get rid of Fowler than the fact it’s taken a long time to find a coach. Lots of coaches are apparently turning us down. Who’s fault is that?
I didn’t care for this site’s “editorial viewpoint� prior to April 1…
…but it has been my first daily read on the coaching search since then.
My sentiments exactly.
In my humble opinion, the only way the AD get’s a pass from me on this f’up search is if he pulls Rick Barnes out of his ass by the end of the week.
“Lots of coaches are apparently turning us down. Who’s fault is that?”
“Lots of coaches” should have never had offers. A guy that is supposedly well connected should have known where the opporunity was. I dont fault Lee for RB. And Calipari orchestrated his whole fiasco. Its from that day on that I fault Lee. The shotgun approach is not the strategy of someone well connected. Its the strategy a blind man uses.
Anyways I apologize to SFN for turning this into a Lee Fowler thread.
I agree with BruinsNation that the blogging community is much more intelligent than that found on message boards.
I to appreciate SFN while at times I think their stance can be a bit harsh, I appreciate the straight-forward commentary and understand the opiinion is based on much more info than I have access too, Thus my F5 button is now worn off my keyboard.
To a new Point, Lets turn it into a game show, who wants to be %%%% the Ad, the Coach, Just answer a pyramid of Questions Correctly about the NCSU program and depending on where you crash and burn determines the Job you recieve in the Athletic Department, Coach, Ad
“I think Lavin is smokescreen to buy time, possibly for Beilein. ”
You think getting publically turned down by someone who hasnt coached in three years is Lee Fowler’s plan to land someone better?
I wonder how Duke fans or Unc Fans would feel about “Fine” Results, I agree with an earlier comment , Sendek , was not stupid, he was a excelletn “rebuilder”. Why should NC State Fans have to settle for Fine results, beat the door mats enough to have a fine record, but totally tank when it matters, Bend over and take it with Carolina and Duke> No one thinks we should beat Duke and UNC everytime wew play, we just need to know it is atleast a 50/50 chance. I liked Sendek, but fine wasnt fine with me.
^^I haven’t read anywhere that he turned down the job. This wacky scenerio makes more sense to me than us actually going after Lavin in the public spotlight.
SFN – Because of the public report of the offer, then if Lavin doesn’t end up being our coach it will look as though he turned us down regardless.
At this point I’m not certain which is dumber. To have offered Lavin without cementing the deal prior or going after a guy on your B-list that has a multimillion dollar buyout. Talk about dumb and dumber.
That MF plane is still in Florida.
That MF AD is still employed…