Here is an update on how State’s non-revenue sports are doing so far this school year plus a few other tidbits at the bottom.
Men’s Cross Country
• Finished 2nd in the ACC Championships
• State has finished at least 3rd in the ACC for the past 20 years, including finishing 1st or 2nd in the ACC in 18 of those 20 years
• Virginia won their 2nd consecutive ACC title and has won 3 of the past 4
We don’t focus on the non-revenue sports here at SFN, but I thought I would pass a long a couple of highlights that recently came across my email that highlight some successes by our women athletes:
First of all, Golf’s Lauren Doughtie got her first tournament win:
Lauren Doughtie came from behind in grand fashion on Sunday to earn medalist honors at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate Championships at Fox Run Golf Course (in Knoxville, Tennessee.)
The NC State soccer team has forfeited their only ACC victory this season over Boston College because they used an ineligible player. The information was out last week, however there is no explanation to be found on the NC State official website. The game story still has us winning, but the game has been changed on the schedule to reflect a 0-1 loss. The Technician coincidentally has a story today explaining the situation with quotes from Head Coach George Tarantini:
“It is certainly something we have never faced before,” Tarantini said. “We discussed the situation right away.”
Tonight in Reynolds Coliseum, the NC State volleyball team snapped a 56 game ACC losing streak with a 3-1 win over Boston College. Witnessed in person by myself and good friend and fellow stat major ruffles31, the Pack now stands 1-0 for the season in the ACC and 7-9 overall. Congrats to Coach Stubbs and the ladies!
Historical SFN soccer entry for background
In the middle of football season we can’t just ignore the other sports in which our program is currently struggling …so, we thought we would throw some love towards “Section Six” for their poignant reasoning.
So, from the coach himself, there are no excuses for not making the NCAAs, and missing the tournament is unacceptable. If/when the team does not reach that goal, then… right? Right?
When you read Tarantini’s comments like the following…
We didn’t cover the re-launch of the ‘upgraded’ GoPack.com this past week despite the obvious opportunities they provided us to criticize the website for the minimal coverage that they provided NC State alumnus, Cullen Jones, after Jones was a part of one of the most significant moments of this year’s Olympic games.
GoPack’s insignificant vanilla coverage of Jones paled in comparison to coverage other college sites like Auburn gave their swimmers in Beijng. Jones represents EVERYTHING that is right with collegiate athletics and I just don’t understand why NC State would not want to do everything in their power to be married to him privately and publicly.
For some of us, the last memories of ‘07-’08 Wolfpack sports is a good one: the great run of the baseball team that ended one win away from a berth in Omaha. Included in this run was a win in the first regional hosted at home for the Wolfpack (and two nice wins over a loaded South Carolina team in the process).
If you visit regularly visit SFN then you know how to search our archives to find any of our many articles on the current position of NC State’s poorly performing Athletics Department. But, if you need some quick help you can click here for just a sampling of some entries that might be of interest to you.
In that^ spirit - and as Lee Fowler enters his NINTH year of ‘leading’ NC State’s Athletics Department - the projected performance of the programs on which he has put his stamp for almost a decade seems to resemble the underwhelming performance of recent years.
Amazing race that is sure to be one of those unforgettable Olympic moments and NC State’s Cullen Jones wins a gold medal in Beijing while Michael Phelps’ quest for 8 gold medals marches forward. You can click here to the race from NBC/MSN.
How do NC State’s ACC winning percentages and conference finishes compare to the other schools in the conference during Lee Fowler’s tenure as AD from 2000-01 to 2007-08? Below are winning percentage statistics in ACC play for the 13 sports that have win/loss records and average finish for the 8 sports that do not have win/loss records.
Notes:
• These stats are ONLY for the 21 ACC sports in which NC State competes. They do not include ACC sports in which State does not have a program (lacrosse, field hockey, rowing) or non-ACC sports (gymnastics, rifle).
GREENSBORO, N.C. - Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced today that Nora Lynn Finch has been chosen to fill the position of Associate Commissioner for Women’s Basketball Operations and Senior Woman Administrator.
Athletic Director Lee Fowler released the 2007-2008 annual report for NC State Athletics. Except for a few individual student-athletes and a couple individual programs, it was the accomplishments of NC State’s fantastic supporters and fans that received the most attention in the report.
First, the NC State fans helped land Head Football Coach, Tom O’Brien; now, the support of the very fans that Lee Fowler so often criticizes provides his athletics program its primary success story of the year. (Oh the irony)
Here are a few of the highlights:
In previous entries, several commenters had expressed an interest in some historical statistics for comparison purposes. Below are some conference title and winning percentage stats over the last 22 years for the past five Athletic Directors at NC State.
Notes:
• For the 1989-90 season, Jim Valvano was AD until October, Harold Hopfenburg was interim AD until April when Todd Turner was hired. For this analysis, since he was AD for the majority of the season, Hopfenburg will be considered the AD of record for 1989-90.
• ACC championship stats are only for the 20 sports in which all 5 ADs fielded teams (Softball is excluded).
As you no doubt know by now, the Georgia Bulldogs advanced to the CWS yesterday, shit-canning the Pack Nine 17-8. I was disappointed, but in no way surprised or really upset.
Elliott Avent has been at State a long damned time. He has not won an ACC title, and twice bumped up against the “Sendek glass ceiling” - losing in the Super Regionals (i.e., Sweet Sixteen). His teams are consistently pretty good, but never great. Do I think Avent’s a great coach? No. Do I want him replaced? No.
Caldwell is N.C. State’s first All-American since 1996. A two-time NCAA qualifier and owner of a 62-9 career record, Caldwell won his second straight Atlantic Coast Conference championship this season. He also placed fifth in the NCAA Tournament at 149 pounds. As a 141-pounder, Caldwell was named the ACC’s 2006-07 Wrestler of the Year. He is the jewel of N.C. State’s program.
Haus, 46, compiled a 58-52 record in his eight years at UNC following two as head coach of Johns Hopkins, which went to the NCAA semifinals both seasons.”Obviously, we’re not at the level we would like to be,” UNC athletic director Dick Baddour said Tuesday. At the same time, Baddour made it clear that the Tar Heels should be competing for the national championship.
“My goals have always been to be in the top three in the conference. If you’re in the top three you always have a chance to win the championship. That’s an obvious goal as well. Minimum goals, we don’t want to be in the bottom-half of anything.. the bottom-half in any sport.”
–Lee Fowler, PackPride.com, 5-22-08
“Our minimum should be middle of the conference, not last in the league”
–Lee Fowler, Technician, 8-31-07
These statements lead to three questions.
Disclaimer: Only facts and statistics will be stated below, you the reader can draw your own conclusions and opinions.
Did NC State’s athletic programs make progress and do better this school year than they did last year? One metric (and certainly not the only one) is to look at regular season conference standings.
State competes in 21 different ACC sports plus gymnastics (EAGL) and rifle (SEARC & GARC). In the 2007-2008 school year, 6 out of those 23 programs finished higher in their conference standings than they did the year before, 11 finished worse and 6 maintained the same standing. All 12 ACC schools compete in the sport unless indicated.
The Pack lost a heartbreaker today. They were up 7-2 after the seventh inning, but the Yellow Jackets scored eight runs the rest of the way to win the 1st game of this year’s ACC tournament 10-9. The Pack did score two runs in the eight inning to retake the lead 9-8, but State’s shortstop was thrown out at home in a collision with the catcher. On the play, the umpire ejected shortstop Tommy Foschi due to a crazy rule in college baseball that protects fielders who make a choice to block the path of the runner.
Disclaimer: Only facts and statistics will be stated below, you the reader can draw your own conclusions and opinions.
Listed below are the overall ACC records for NC State’s team sports (teams that have a won-loss record) for the eight year time span Lee Fowler has been AD (2000-01 to 2007-08).
Revenue Sports
• Football: 28-36 (.438)
• M Basketball: 60-68 (.469)
• W Basketball: 63-57 (.525)
• Baseball: 109-104 (.512)
Both of the high profile revenue sports, Football and M Basketball, have losing records in ACC play.
Both W Basketball and Baseball have winning records in ACC play.