Congratulations to former NC State assistant coach, Mark Phelps who was named as Keno Davis’ replacement at Drake today. (Link to article)
Talk about timely!? Just last week we ran this entry where Phelps was prominently featured.
Related to our aforelinked entry will be the interesting topic of who Herb Sendek hires to replace Phelps at Arizona State.
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April 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Lee Fowler?
April 21st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
plz.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
He may not be the greatest coach in the world but he sure knows how to develop his assistants. Will Archie not fill that post? Seems like a natural transition.
Saw an espn.com preseason top 25 poll where ASU is relatively high.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=3337602
April 21st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
plz call him ‘Coach’ Fowler
There you go ncsuftw01, fixed.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Unrelated, but the NCSU baseball team has snuck into the top 25 at #24, replacing ECU.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:09 pm
aforelinked?
April 21st, 2008 at 6:20 pm
baseballamerica.com rankings page
April 21st, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I think Herb’s assistants can’t wait to get out from under him. I never hear Thad Matta throwing any love to Herb and the fact that he took one of Herb’s assistants (Archie) tells me even more.
Good move on Mark Phelps part. At some point you need to make that jump if head coaching is what you want to do in life.
April 22nd, 2008 at 7:50 am
I think most assistants can’t wait to get their own ride. It’s why you join the profession.
Congratulations to Mark Phelps.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 am
I’m surprised Mark Groce(Gross?) hasn’t gotten a job yet. I figured he’d get one before Phelps - he seems like more of a high flyer.
Sendek’s former assistants actually have a pretty good history. Matta, Miller and Cole all did pretty well. I think he’s probably a good guy to learn from. You can learn good things from him and lots of things you’d change if you ran the show. (I’m probably wrong, but I don’t expect great things from Phelps.)
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:26 am
chop: Think you mean John Groce.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
Choppack1 - It is John Groce and I agree with you on him. He was my favorite assistant coach under Sendek. An unbelievably passionate guy.
Other than Matta, Jim Christian is the most successful head coach that worked for Sendek. He was at Kent State for six years and won 20 or more every year and finished with the highest winning percentage in the history of the MAC. He was recently named the new head coach at TCU.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
Many of Sendek’s early assistants, like Matta, absolutely hated the guy because he was so terribly anal and draconian in his approach to basketball.
Obviously, Sendek improved on some of this as he gained experience because guys like Phelps remained loyal through some “interesting” times.
Other guys like Sean and Archie sort of fall in the middle. Both are on good terms with Herb personally, but neither enjoyed Herb’s brand of basketball and both waited for the quickest route to better basketball to build their careers on…Never say never with regard to Archie, but he won’t head back to ASU unless he is 100% sure that that is his best option for continuing to build his coaching status with the exhaustion of other possibilities.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
“Other than Matta, Jim Christian is the most successful head coach that worked for Sendek.”
I think it’s safe to say that Sean Miller has been pretty darn successful at Xavier. He will get a big-time job very soon.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:59 am
“Many of Sendek’s early assistants, like Matta, absolutely hated the guy because he was so terribly anal and draconian in his approach to basketball.”
Talk to Coach Matta much?
SFN: If only you knew….Matta’s opinion of Herb is/was pretty well known by people who know things and don’t just make up reality in their own minds.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 am
“Talk to Coach Matta much?”
Just once.
I also used to play basketball a lot with a guy who played for Herb at Miami. We talked more than once if you need to know…
Also, since you are interested, I have actually talked directly with 3 of the 4 coaches that I mentioned above. Only one of my comments was based on conjecture, but it was pretty easy logic even for you I hope.
Just because YOU love someone doesn’t mean others don’t hate him. A lot of people love and hate Bobby Knight and Coach K.
Perhaps if you had any personality and would venture from your life in Mebane scouting out “the next Adam Simons”, you might have direct info too rather than just love and conjecture…
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:30 am
RickJ - Good call on John Groce. Maybe he doesn’t interiew well - I don’t know why he hasn’t gotten his big break yet.
Pack93 - I don’t think it’s unfair to call Sendek “anal”. That’s part of what made him successful. You won’t work for Pitino if you’re laid back and lazy. I also think that’s why his assistants have had decent success. I think both his strenghts and flaws are probably very obvious to those around him.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 am
^
Chop,
Good points about Sendek.
I have always said that I thought Herb would do well at ASU because he focuses on a lot of fundamentals—especially on defense—that are absent from the Pac 10 and would allow him to challenge some of those guys as a result. The focus on some of these fundamentals definitely makes a difference with regard to assistants’ takeaways…
Unfortunately, the blind Herb lovers take offense if you point out Sendek’s flaws and don’t crown him the greatest coach that NC State could ever have and the greatest coach the ACC could ever know after Dean/Roy and K…
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“I have always said that I thought Herb would do well at ASU because he focuses on a lot of fundamentals—especially on defense—that are absent from the Pac 10 and would allow him to challenge some of those guys as a result.”
The Pac 10 had three teams in the top 50 in scoring defense. Two of those (WSU-3 and UCLA-10) were ranked in the top 10, and ASU at #33. By contrast, the ACC had no teams ranked in the top 50 in this category.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
How much of those numbers are pace-supported? I got the impression that a lot of Pac-10 teams play SLOW, whereas State is the only really slow ACC team.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
“Just once”
& he said he hated Herb?
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Shooting guard,
Just ignore packgrad, if you ever utter the word “Sendek” and it is not followed by “world’s greatest coach” he will be on within seconds to post his one line “arguments”. He acts like he has inside information but he gets his information from message boards.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I have an uncle who reputedly will argue anything. If it’s sunny outside my dad says this uncle will try to tell you it’s raining. I’m wondering if he’s on this board, because there seem to be some people just spoiling for an argument for no good reason in particular. Packgrad93, are you really my Uncle Richard? Why you hating on ShootingGuard?
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
saying former assitants “hated” Herb is a bit much IMO.
Rick: packgrad, Your opinin is useless. Unless you can refute his statement with something other than your opinion then don’t bother posting
SFN: ^ditto. Again, many people here have talked to a lot of people through the years that have educated views about what Herb’s assistants thought of him. PARTICULARLY Matta. Why do you try to argue facts and ’scoop’ with your humble opinions based on nothing but what you wish were true?
April 22nd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Is everyone’s opinion useless, or just those that disagree with the status quo?
SFN: Just the uneducated ones and the ones who aren’t smart enough to listen to insight and facts and allow that information to help guide rational conclusions.