Tudor Nails a Piece of the Success Blueprint

In addition to this piece, another of SFN’s more respected local writers penned some greath thoughts regarding Sidney Lowe today that merits some attention and discussion.

The News & Observer’s Caulton Tudor compared the big gamble on Coach Lowe to the role of underdog that the 1983 National Champion Wolfpack. Tudor goes on to say:

my hunch is Lowe will eventually improve State’s program and have a long, successful run

Tudor proceeds to speculate more specifically about talent and re-hashes an old NC State internet debate of the last few years — “what if” former coach Herb Sendek had done a better job with his talent evaluation of just in-state players (not to mention out of state decisions like passing on Steve Blake for Cliff Crawford).

Tudor states:

In retrospect, Herb Sendek’s biggest problem was an inability to lure top-line talent. The most obvious red flag came when he couldn’t get Shavlik Randolph, a lifelong Wolfpack fan and the grandson of a school great, away from Duke. That was one of the few times Sendek and Duke went head-to-head over a target.

Improving State’s haul in North Carolina would make a big difference. Many of State’s best players were in-state finds — David Thompson, Tom Burleson and Phil Spence off the ’74 national champions alone. Think of where the program might be today had Sendek signed Randolph, Eric Williams, Chris Paul, Anthony Morrow, Anthony King, David Noel and Reyshawn Terry.

In addition to the names Tudor referened, take a moment to think of what Herb Sendek’s NC State program could have been had Sendek not told ACC Player of the Year and NBA star Josh Howard that he wasn’t good enough for a scholarship at NC State but we would allow him to walk on?

Imagine NCAA Champion Chris Wilcox on a Wolfpack front line that would have overlapped with 7’0 Garner’s David West (Xavier)?

I wonder how this year’s NC State-Texas NCAA Tournament game would have looked if Big 12 Player of the Year, Raleigh’s PJ Tucker, was playing for the team from Raleigh?

Tudor inherently understands what many young NC State fans don’t because they haven’t experienced it — NC State’s program can be nationally successful by keeping North Carolina’s top local talent local in Raleigh.

In the 1970s and the 1980s, the core of the blueprint for NC State’s basketball success program was built on two key components:

(1) NC State was able to land a majority of the nationally relevant talent from North Carolina High Schools that didn’t sign with UNC-Chapel Hill.

History shows that it is relatively inconsequential to NC State’s overall success if Carolina lands the top in-state player (like Buzz Peterson, Michael Jordan, Curtis Hunter, Ranzino Smith, Brad Daugherty, Rashad McCants) as long as the Wolfpack is still signing the “next tier” of legitimate ACC players. Names like Burleson, Thompson, Spence, Shackleford, Washburn, Chucky Brown, Brian Howard, Kevin Thompson, Bryant Feggins, Nate McMillan, Alvin Battle and others (Dinky Proctor? George McClain?) served as heartbeats on the fantastic teams in the 1970s and 1980s.

Under Les Robinson and Herb Sendek, NC State moved away from its traditional model of landing the “best of the rest” in North Carolina. Wake Forest gladly stepped into the role and it wsn’t a coincidence that the Demon Deacons have simultaneously experienced the greatest 15 year period of excellence in its program’s history.

Since 1990, the Demon Deacons have basically “replaced” NC State as the destination for key local talent that historically made a tremendous impact playing in Reynolds Coliseum. Before 1990, State would have almost never missed on Rodney Rogers, Chris Paul, Craig Dawson, Eric Williams, Justin Gray and Josh Howard. Think of the impact that these stars have had in elevating Wake Forest’s program while NC State’s program (that once served as these players’ destination) floundered.

This whole NCHSAA-talent issue is one of the primary reasons that I scoff at the ‘experts’ that say State can’t be successful because of its proximity to Duke. Hell, State has had single seasons with more NC players on our roster than Duke has had in spans of a decade. Why does it matter how close we are to Duke if we have so rarely competed for talent against them? A more detailed look at the facts of the situation indicate that Wake Forest’s success actually has a stronger impact on NC State than Duke’s success. Forming this conclusion would take time, research, and some critical thinking skills that are all counter to skills of being a member of the national media.

(2) Of course, there was another key component to much of NC States 1970s and 1980s success — talent from the Washington, DC area.

Wolfpack greats like Kenny Carr, Hawkeye Whitney, Clyde Austin (Va), Thurl Bailey, Sidney Lowe, Dereck Whittenburg, Quinten Jackson, Bennie Bolton, and Rodney Monroe all called the area home. (Where was Kenny Matthews from?)

Where is Sidney Lowe from again?

Basketball Recruiting General NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe Tradition

49 Responses to Tudor Nails a Piece of the Success Blueprint

  1. Micky McCarthy 05/11/2006 at 10:40 PM #

    Don’t forget about David West from Garner, who Sendek told wasn’t good enough to play in the ACC, but was welcome to walk-on. I believe he and Josh Howard were both at Hargrave at the same time.

    Unbelievable

    Jeff: You mean the David West that I said the following about in the middle of the piece?

    “Imagine NCAA Champion Chris Wilcox on a Wolfpack front line that would have overlapped with 7′0 Garner’s David West (Xavier)?”

  2. Pack92 05/11/2006 at 10:47 PM #

    Thank God someone actually understands this. You do NOT have to land every Michael Jordan. One or two never hurts but the next level of guys will make the TEAM work well. An entire team of those next level guys with a good coach are nearly unbeatable.

    The Josh Powell example sums up Herb in a nutshell. How could you not recognize the talent that young man had? The Randolph example was such a slap in the face of Wolfpack fans it does not bear repeating here.

  3. mwcric 05/11/2006 at 10:49 PM #

    Good post! I have a couple of questions, though:
    (1) Why does Les always get bashed so badly? Am I mistaken in my recollection that at his time at the helm the university hamstrung itself with some of the toughest academic restrictions in the nation among athletic scholarship-granting institutions? I thought a lot of talent passed State by then b/c they could go to better teams w/o as much academic pressure. Am I way off-base?

    Jeff – you are only off-base if you think that I was ‘bashing’ Les by stating simple facts in this entry

    (2) Similarly, I was also under the impression that Tucker’s exodus to TX rather than attend any UNC-system school was due to the now well-documented facts of the system’s more stringent requirements.

    Jeff – what other good “UNC System” schools are there that were recruiting him and are worth going to?

    I’m not disagreeing with you – just trying to clear some confusion up in my own head. It’s kind of ironic, though – Duke and WFU are thought of as prestigious institutions of learning, but being private they don’t have to reveal their standards for admittance for athletes. Maybe they have more wiggle room for athletes than the state schools…

    Jeff – in the mid 1990s when Duke, Carolina and Wake were the top of the ACC…Carolina and Wake were ranked last in the ACC is average SAT scores on their roster. NC State was #1 in the ACC in average SAT scores and last in the ACC at the time. Just curious…did all of our ‘sacrifice’ in those years really make that big of a difference to the rest of the world’s perception about NC State academics / athletics? Some people get crossed-up thinking that the athletics teams drive the perception of a school’s academics. Nothing could be further from the truth. Schools with high ranking academic programs seem to have no problem recruiting the dumber kids and passing them off as great students.

    In an unrelated question, I’ve read in a couple places – most recently the Simon Says blog – that NBA coaches who have moved to college coaching positions have poor track records, but I can’t think of any examples. You guys are obviously sharp basketball minds. Can you help me out? The only coach I can think of is Larry Brown, who went from the NBA to KU and won a title – and of course got in some trouble too.

  4. Hawkeye Whitney 05/11/2006 at 11:06 PM #

    I think Coach Lowe’s value will be shown in helping land a few of the blue chippers as well as the second tier players. His NBA experience and his personality should be appealing to any player who has NBA aspirations and talent out of high school. This is why I am so excited about the staff that has been assembled. IMO, The tone of this post continued the conventional wisdom that we are somehow “second-tier” among our rivals in the Triangle. I think that is a mindset that needs to go. My hope and belief is that we will soon consider our basketball program “top notch” and first-tier” under Coach Lowe’s leadership.

    Jeff – I don’t think that we are “second tier” compared to our rivals. What I was trying to prove was that not landing the top talent in the country & state of NC has historically created first tier programs.

  5. Jeremy Hyatt 05/12/2006 at 12:25 AM #

    wow all this talk about nc state basketball is getting us all giddy. keep the bytes coming, this site keeps all the hard core fans from getting famished on ncstate bball in the off-season…thx sfn

    off-topic , but man, 3 things heavily on my mind, (in this order) is the status of:
    1) simmons
    2) wright
    3) grant

  6. redfred2 05/12/2006 at 1:38 AM #

    I have heard “Dan” and “(waves)” credit Sendek’s offense as the major reason for Gavin Grants decision to play at NCSU??? I wonder about Grant to begin with, but seriously, on the other hand, just how many it turned away. Shavlik Randolph for sure, but how many players, named in that article, would have considered NCSU with a different coaching style in place? I have to believe quite a few.

    This is going bust wide open! Stagnation and X’s and 0’s are a thing of the past. This is going be fun to play, and fun to watch, pure basketball excitement again. I don’t expect to set the world on fire right off the bat, but I do expect to enjoy watching players having fun and playing their asses off again.

    I would advise Sidney Lowe to come right out of the gate in the first game with a “Princeton Style Offensive Set” using the “Pro Style Version” of course, to set the expectations real low. Hell, things could only get better for him after that.

  7. class of 74 05/12/2006 at 6:38 AM #

    No matter how good of a coach you are if you don’t get them you can’t coach them. At least that’s what my friend Lefty Driesell used to say. Over the past 40 years our talent pools have been: this state, DC and Metro NY.

    It should be apparent to all with Coach Lowe’s ties he will have contacts in DC (home) and NY (Coach Ernie Myers). That leaves North Carolina, and if he uses the family theme and relies on Chucky Brown, DT, TB, Alvin Battle, Phil Spence, Corchiani etc. he should have the recruiting angle covered nicely.
    With that being the case, we should see a marked improvement in our program and the days of hanging banners should return in the next few years.

    The process was long and ugly but in the end this hire is the best thing to happen to our program in 16 years. Gosh that number 16 hurts to write but better days await that I’m certain.

  8. Dan 05/12/2006 at 9:02 AM #

    LF was on Rivals Radio this morning basking in the media spotlight.

    I only caught the tail end of the interview, but he is up to his old tricks. In attempting to explain the Herb Sendek situation, he continues to take an adversarial, if a bit softer, stance towards those who disagreed with him.

    Basically stated that everyone who mattered supported and believed in Herb except the ‘internet fans’, as if that label somehow means they are not true red fans. To his, for lack of a better word, credit he did mention that it is the norm in sports for fans to want to reach the next plateau one the current one has been reached on a consistent basis.

    I was a staunch Herb defender, but I still have no idea why on earth Lee Fowler feels compelled to attack any of his fans simply because of disagreement. Its not like they were vandalizing property or hurling batteries on the court. They were simply disagreeing. Lee needs to learn that when it comes to the fans: If you dont have anything nice to say, keep it to yourself.

    I’ll try to fnid a link to the interview. It was pretty much a softball festival.

  9. RickJ 05/12/2006 at 9:03 AM #

    Awesome entry – The academic angle is the most compelling for me.

    “Jeff – in the mid 1990s when Duke, Carolina and Wake were the top of the ACC…Carolina and Wake were ranked last in the ACC is average SAT scores on their roster. NC State was #1 in the ACC in average SAT scores and last in the ACC at the time. Just curious…did all of our ’sacrifice’ in those years really make that big of a difference to the rest of the world’s perception about NC State academics / athletics? Some people get crossed-up thinking that the athletics teams drive the perception of a school’s academics. Nothing could be further from the truth. Schools with high ranking academic programs seem to have no problem recruiting the dumber kids and passing them off as great students.”

    This is the most important information I’ve read in a long time. Had Josh Howard, Chris Wilcox, David West & P.J. Tucker come to NC State – would they have been successful academically, particularly under the new APR system? This question has very little to do with the coach, it is an institutional one that doesn’t just affect athletes.

    Wake maintained a terrific graduation rate while being ranked last in the ACC in average SAT scores. We have taken a terrific beating regarding Chris Washburn’s 470 SAT. I was naïve enough to think this problem was nipped in the bud years ago when it was revealed that Kevin Madden was accepted at UNC with a sub 500 SAT. Not only did it not change a thing, but Madden managed to GRADUATE. Jay Williams is continually praised for graduating from Duke in 3 years and being accepted to medical school with a 90 some hour degree in Political Science.

  10. Wulfpack 05/12/2006 at 9:03 AM #

    http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/438734.html

    It will certainly be interesting to see who the Pack can hold onto during this time of transition.

    SFN – Please don’t take this as a criticism…but, this link has nothing to do with the conversation. We are working hard to keep the comments here focused on the entry. We discuss our comments policy here and highlight our goal of trying to build archiveable conversations here.

    We aim to keep all comments focused on the topic of the original entry. When you type leave comments, you may ask yourself if you are addressing the topic at hand. This allows us to be particularly effective at building an archive of issues and topics through the years. It is very nice to be able to go back and take a look at what was being said about certain topics and issues at the original time of discussion.

    THANKS!

  11. Matt E. 05/12/2006 at 9:12 AM #

    Wasn’t PJ Tucker a partial qualifier?

    SFN – No.

  12. Wulfpack 05/12/2006 at 9:32 AM #

    SFN, I understand and apologize. As a point of clarificatio, I found an article that I thought would be of great interest to this community. I saw no other place to post it as all other pertinent comment sections are closed. I would suggest keeping a general comments section open or active so fans can fill in the gaps, so to speak. Thx.

    SFN – That’s fair. And we are trying to find the appropriate balance of how to provide these types of opportunities without haivng a free for all message board. We DEFINITELY appreciate the value add of this kind of stuff. Thank you very much

  13. ncsu96 05/12/2006 at 9:36 AM #

    As usual Tudor does a good job.

    I believe the effects of Sendek’s one losing season had seriously hurt our recruiting. This correlates to the Cam Bennerman/Justin Flatt and the Engin Atsur/Mike O’Donnell classes. Just goes to show even having 1 mediocre recruiting class will stall a program.

    I have to believe Sidney Lowe has a pretty unique sales pitch for recruits: he’s alumni and won national championship, and his NBA experience. I have to believe this will really give him a major advantage. Can’t wait to find out….

  14. Dan 05/12/2006 at 9:48 AM #

    “I have heard “Danâ€? and “(waves)â€? credit Sendek’s offense as the major reason for Gavin Grants decision to play at NCSU??? ”

    Red, I dont think you’ve ever seen me mention Gavin Grant in that way. Its possible, but I dont remember it. I will say this about Herb now that his tenure is over.

    I believe he sold the offense as different things to different people. Take this quote from Chris Wright as an example:

    “Guys like Mike Bibby and Jason Kidd… they are great point guards in the NBA and play in a similiar system.” –

    http://northcarolinastate.scout.com/2/485581.html (free content)

    You can find similar quotes from similiar type players who have chosen to come to NC State.

    The fact is that Herb Sendek sold his offense to some kids as an NBA offense very much like the Sacramento Kings and the NJ Nets. These NBA teams do use this playset. However, it used to create beneficial matchups and space to allow the players the room be creative and explosive. To open up the key in order to allow excellent PG’s like Kidd and Bibby to make the passes we see on ESPN.

    But to others, like Dan Werner and Trevor Furgeson, I believe the recruitment process stressed the perimeter game. Now I’m not a mind reader, so I’m not going to accuse Herb of lying to Chris Wright, Larry Davis, Gavin Grant, Courtney Fells, and Cedric Simmons (all guys who I believe bought into the NBA comparison), so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he was trying to get to that style of play. But was Herb going to realiztically ever get there? What you need to run that system is two essential pieces. And I’ll use the Kings as the example because they used the playset much more than the Nets this year and in more similiar ways. The two pieces you need are a great PG (Mike Bibby) and F/C that can do it all from above the stripe (Brad Miller). Note that the Kings two assist leaders were Mike Bibby and Brad Miller. But was Brad Miller actually Brad Miller in college, or did he need years to develop these skills? How many college kids are going to have that mature of a game that early? Not to mention that the only PG he ever recruited, Julius Hodge, he forced to play the 3 simply because he had so many other guards he wanted to play.

    Now when the Nets run the playset, its almost exclusively to clear out the paint so that Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson can drive the lane without having to worry about shot blockers being camped in the paint. NOTE: The NBA’s rules on defense really makes this possible. Read the following link for the new rules on defense, the 3 second defensive lane violation, in the NBA:

    http://www.nba.com/features/jackson_rules_response.html

    This is exactly how to explain the recent Gavin Grant comments. Gavin thought he was coming to a place where he would be put in space and allowed to be creative. When Gavin got here, he realized that was not the case. I think Cam went through similiar frustrations, and Courtney Fells was starting to feel them.

    This sort of play style in the college game has a glaring Achilles’ heel. The zone defense. In college you can take all five guys and pack it in effectively jamming lane as to deny the NJ Nets like approach. Still, if you had a effective PG, you could still create dribble penetration in order to have kick outs and passes to cutting players. But the only PG Herb ever had was forced to play the wing for his Soph, Junior, and half of his Senior year. (The last half of Hodge’s year, Herb relied on Jules to dribble drive and make the dish…Best basketball of the entire Herb Sendek tenure for a reason). What this left was the weave and heave we all came to loathe.

    I still believe the playset can be successful at the highest level of the college game, and we’ll see it happen soon at G’Town. The Duke game was a thing of beauty. And G’Town is recruiting the types of athletes that can make it happen. JTIII is emphazing the recruitment of PG’s and is taking more of the NJ Nets approach rather than the Sac Kings.

    Maybe this will help explain to some why kids like Gavin Grant, Courtney Fells, and Chris Wright wanted to play here, and why Herb struggled with it. What I really failed to understand with Sendek was two things. When he missed on the 5 star PG’s (Gilchrist, Shakur, Sosa), why wasnt the next best PG brought in. Look at Tyrese Rice at BC. There is talent out there to be found. You cant play a halfcourt set without a PG. And why of why did Herb never add a playset to deal with opposing team packing in the zone?

    In passing, the playset has helped Ced Simmons develop a game most his age do not possess. This from NBAdraft.net:

    “Vision and passing skills are above average for a post …”

    http://www.nbadraft.net/profiles/cedricsimmons.asp

  15. BJD95 05/12/2006 at 9:48 AM #

    I really had never thought of it this way. I always disclaimed the “local competition” angle more on the basis of basketball recruiting being, for a large part, national in nature. Certainly most of the major programs (and definitely Duke and UNC) recruit this way.

    I certainly don’t believe for a minute that NC State should accept “second class status” – but I do believe that there are THREE programs with intrinsic advantages above and beyond the rest of the pack (and not coach-dependent). Those three are UNC, UCLA, and Kentucky. NC State AS AN INSTITUTION is set up to compete just as well as every other program in the country, IMHO. Look at them as being “A+” institutionally, above the next tier of 20-30 or so “A” level programs, of which NC State would be one.

    Jeff – I list 6 programs with stronger intrinsic value — Kentucky, Carolina, Duke, Indiana, UCLA & Kansas. Interestingly, Duke wasn’t on this list 20 years ago…so, the obviously things can change and program’s can grow based on who is running the ship. Indiana, for example, may be in for some decline in the future.

    As a pre-emptive rebuttal, I think programs like Duke and UConn are behemoths b/c of the Hall of Fame coaches in place – not an inherent institutional advantage.

    Jeff – It’s hard to argue with that. I lump Michigan State, Louisville, Syracuse, Texas, Cincy, Arizona & Florida into this bucket

  16. audhumla 05/12/2006 at 9:49 AM #

    “Jeff – in the mid 1990s when Duke, Carolina and Wake were the top of the ACC…Carolina and Wake were ranked last in the ACC is average SAT scores on their roster. NC State was #1 in the ACC in average SAT scores and last in the ACC at the time.”

    Not to be contrarian, because I agree whole-heartedly, but … how much of that can be laid at the study desk of Todd Fuller and his 3.9 GPA in Math?

  17. jncope 05/12/2006 at 9:55 AM #

    I am no Herb fan and I am glad he has moved on. However, some of the recruiting criticisms in this thread are unfair. Chris Wilcox, PJ Tucker and Steve Blake all had academic issues that would have prevented them from playing at State.

    SFN – No they didn’t. They were academic risks that Sendek chose not to take (like Scooter Sherril whom he did take). Other schools took the risks and got the rewards. Lastly, Steve Blake was never an academic risk in any way, shape or form.

    I wasn’t aware of the Josh Howard thing. If that is the case and it wasn’t due to academics, then Herb definitely blew it on that one. However, everyone makes mistakes and I feel that overall, Herb did a pretty good job recruiting. He definitely upgraded the talent from where it was when he took over. Also, let’s not forget about Chris Wright. There is no telling what he would have done at State. Sometimes it only takes one player to make everyone else a lot better. Look at what Julius Hodge did for our program. Look what Chris Paul did for Wake Forest.

    It’s okay to pick on Herb for his lack of game-time coaching, his inflexibility and lack of enthusiasm for rivalry games but let’s be fair when it comes to his recruiting record.

    SFN – We agree completely. Let’s be fair about the recruiting record and not continue our history of rationalizing and excusing away everything.

  18. graywolf 05/12/2006 at 10:13 AM #

    Herb’s gone. Sidney Lowe is here and I am beginning to believe that he can get the job done. Tudor gets it. Yes, we can achieve again!!

  19. joe 05/12/2006 at 10:17 AM #

    UNC and UCLA basically got to their elite status because of 1 coach – Smith and Wooden. That means it’s reasonable to assume that Duke is also going to stay at the top even after K leaves. In other words, Duke now has the same kind of advantage that UNC and UCLA have.

    Jeff – Frank McGuire won a National Championship in a perfect season long before Dean Smith became the coach at Carolina. UCLA has played in National Title games with four different coaches. It doesn’t matter HOW they became an elite program with one coach. They have proven the ability to generate success with enough different coaches that it is obvious that they have a top program

    In some ways Duke might have more of an advantage now than UCLA had back under Wooden because there is so much more hype around top teams now with virtually every game for top teams on TV and 24 hour sports news channels hyping up teams like UNC and Duke.

  20. choppack1 05/12/2006 at 10:33 AM #

    “Not to be contrarian, because I agree whole-heartedly, but … how much of that can be laid at the study desk of Todd Fuller and his 3.9 GPA in Math?”

    Actually, probably about 10% of it – tops. It’s not like the b’ball team had 3 players.

    Regarding the “in-state” recruiting thing perhaps the most ironic note is that the best period of success Wake has ever had was led by a center from the Virgin Islands and guard from the DC area.

    It’s also worth noting that since the university increased their academic standards for athletes and since prop 48 (the enhanced version) became the law of the land many of the top NC talent is staying away from the North Carolina schools.

    However, I don’t think it was the talent that was holding our program back and keeping it from winning titles. IMHO, it was Sendek’s inability to inspire confidence and execution in the closing minutes of games. 3 late collapses doomed him – at UMd (year 4), Duke ACC championship game in 2003, Vandy in 2004. Hopefully, Sidney will inspire confidence as the team goes down the stretch. Even though he may not have the organizational prowess of Sendek (and I think Sendek was one of the best around in that area) I think he can exceed Sendek’s results because I think he’ll be strong in an area where Sendek was terribly weak.

  21. mwcric 05/12/2006 at 10:41 AM #

    Jeff – I agreed with your post. All I’m saying is that one can infer in reading it that Les and Herb willingly and purposefully recruited lesser talent than was the norm at State previously. While I agree with what you’re saying, I just thought it was appropriate to note that some of the players mentioned could not have been recruited by Les or Herb even if they wanted them, due to what I thought were extreme NCSU requirements. I wonder how much Les “moved away” from State’s traditional recruiting model vs. how much the administration pushed him away. However, I fully concede that I may be wrong and remember things incorrectly.
    Regarding Tucker, I admit that I do not know who in N.C. recruited him, if anyone. I thought I read somewhere – possibly SFN – that the UNC system’s accelerated requirements had at times negatively impacted recruiting, and Tucker was an example. I’ve been led to believe that was a major reason Calipari decided not to come.
    I completely agree with you regarding the misconception that athletics drive the academic reputation of universities. That is why I wrote what I wrote. IMO, the NCSU faculty & administration from the late 80s and early 90s are far more responsible for the program’s collapse than Les Robinson. He did the best with what they gave him – how many players did he lose second semester because of their ridiculous self-flagellation?

  22. class of 74 05/12/2006 at 11:24 AM #

    Whether it was Case, Bubas, Smith, Sloan, Driesell, Holland, Valvano, K, G. Williams or Roy Williams their success was predicated on the talent in the their programs more than the plays or systems they ran. The most consistent recruiters have had the most consistent winning programs.

    Coach Lowe will bring in better recruits due to his style of play, the lure of his NBA background and he will utilize the Wolfpack family resources unlike anyone who’s had this job during my life. This is why we should all be eager with anticipation of greater success than seen over the past 16 years.

  23. vtpackfan 05/12/2006 at 12:32 PM #

    I like the example Tom Izzo has put forth. He has landed many in state recruits since taking the job at E. Lansing. Using networks in place in metro area’s in NYC, and D.C. will always be of great use. Guess where everyone else looks too, so you will have to take the good w/ the bad. By making a visible and meticulous look at in state players you hedge your bets while the inner city recruits love you know, don’t know you later.

    (1) You can really evaluate these players with a comfort of certainty. They are playing against each other, and like opponets. Apples vs. Apples.

    (2) Sell to them that they will team up and represent the State when they play UNC and Duke teams with players from everywhere. Use it as motivation, just as Izzo got the Flint-stone boys to play.

    ( 3) Lastly, I have no facts to back me up on this, transfers are less common with in state recruits.

  24. joe 05/12/2006 at 12:33 PM #

    UNC’s 57 national title was only 4 years prior to Dean Smith taking over, not “long” before.

    Also Duke was an elite program under Vic Bubas in the 60s, the only thing they didn’t do with Bubas was win a national title.

    I think people expecting or hoping Duke to run into problems after K are going to be disappointed, much like people expecting UNC to tank after Smith (except for the 1 really bad year)

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