Wolfpackers around the country woke this morning to read their internet news and were hit with a dose of reality that will change all of our moods related to our beleaguered basketball program!!! We learned some important information that will change our view of the last nine years that we obviously have overlooked in the rolling assessment of OUR program – Herb Sendek has a winning record in ACC play!!!
That is correct. Look at that again. We all learned from some guy name Brett Friedlander in today’s Fayetteville Observer that, unbeknownst to most of us, “Sendek…checks in at .510 in the ACC.” That is right…Sendek has a winning record against Atlantic Coast Conference competition!!!
WOW!!! No wonder many in the media choose to side with Lee Fowler and call us “crazy”. We are evidently all working off the wrong set of facts!!!
Don’t ask me where these counterfeit wins magically developed…and don’t ask me to recall the excitement that I experienced when we won these games. Just accept it to be true and move on with your life. Honestly, if you can find a way to move on while believing that these wins actually exist, then you will find your life to be much more pleasant. As Lee Fowler conveniently forgets/ignores five years of actual performance when he only cites statistics from the 2001-2004 seasons, this new strategy of creating artificial wins that never happened really is the “logical” next step, isn’t it?
Obviously, I am being sarcastic. As a Wolfpacker, or simply someone who can divide and move decimal points, you know the sad truth that is Herb Sendek’s “achievements” over the last nine years while collecting $750,000+ a year to roam Case Athletics Center and as our program continues to be left behind by our peers and completely forgotten by the national media.
Of course, just because YOU can do math and can stay in touch with reality, doesn’t mean that the people responsible for providing you the news seem to be able to. But, that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be able to execute such basic functions. In today’s commentary, Friedlander provides us all with exhibit #9,342,093 why the world turns away from mainstream media sources and continues to look to “alternative” channels for their information. (Think Dan Rather wishes he would have never heard the word “Blog”?).
Seriously…if we can all sit around our computers and provide (a) more factual information and (b) more insightful analysis and commentary of the factual information, then why wouldn’t a critical thinker trying to absorb as much information as possible not log on? Add to this an ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide and you’ve got a recipe for disaster for the Friedlanders and Fayetteville Observers of the world.
Today’s example comes from the following quote:
Look at their winning percentages. Sendek and his dry toast personality check in at .577 overall and .510 in the ACC. The more colorful Amato, meanwhile, is at .621 overall and an even .500 against league competition, despite having the best quarterback in ACC history for four years.
Think about this for a second…Friedlander has been writing about this stuff for (supposedly) ten years! And, his basic baseline of knowledge doesn’t even provide him a general gauge for the fact that, even providing Sendek the benefit of a winning ACC Tournament record, Sendek is still approximately TWNETY GAMES UNDER .500 against ACC competition in his career at NC State?! Did Lee Fowler get a hold of this guy’s notes while he wasn’t looking? Obviously, the guy doesn’t really have a knowledgeable grasp of what is going on amongst the living…which adds to this heap of embarrassment and irresponsibility that he wouldn’t take more time to make sure he had his facts correct.
I have NO IDEA where Friedlander’s numbers originated, but Sendek’s REAL WORLD ACC record is detailed below for your benefit (and Brett’s).
Friedlander has now publicly stated that his opinions are based on a certain set of “facts” that we have proven to be grossly erroneous. For example, Brett underestimated Sendek’s 54% winning percentage by 3 percentage points…that is if you only count HOME GAMES!! Sendek’s HOME RECORD is only 3 points higher than the 51% for ALL games that Brett thought was acceptable. Add in Sendek’s 30% winning percentage on the road and the TRUTH is very different.
So, now that his primary and only cited FACT has proven to be completely inaccurate…will he re-consider his position? Or will he continue to mirror Lee Fowler’s thought process and spend a day or two digging into his trenches and searching for some obscure, self-selected, irrelevant nugget of a stat to help support his “opinion” that he forgot should have been originally formed from ACCURATE FACTS?
What is so wrong with changing your mind when the facts change?
Apples to Apples
Lastly, if you have read Friedlander’s commentary then you will note that I have avoided comment on his stupid, childish, and IRRELEVANT attempt to compare Herb Sendek and Chuck Amato – 2 different men; 2 different sports; 2 significantly different CAREER RESULTS in their current jobs; 2 different historical traditions of those sports at NC State; and 2 different sets facilities and resources supporting the program.
Friedlander’s incongruous ‘discussion’ of football and basketball screams of laziness. (I have to use the word ‘discussion’ since he presents no accurate information or relevant analysis to support his current episode of diarrhea of the mouth.)
Instead of subjectively attempting to compare an NC State alum that cried at his press conference announcing his return to Raleigh with a basketball coach that leads the ACC in transfers over his tenure and cannot find a single former player to every publicly come to his defense…why NOT try to compare Sendek’s performance with other BASKETBALL metrics? (One answer would be that such an exercise would actually take some time and effort. May I present exhibit #9,342,094 of why consumers now turn to alternative resources and not traditional media outlets). I hope that I don’t muddy these tainted waters by daring to compare Basketball with Basketball.
Attached below is a comparison of Herb Sendek’s performance in the ACC with NC State performance
against conference foes in the first 37 years of the ACC.
We pick this time horizon because it represents a LONG TERM horizon that intentionally excludes six years of Les Robinson. (Not that Les’ 6 years dilutes the long term records enough to make a huge difference, anyway). We exclude the Les Robinson era because it was:
* was hampered by academic and recruiting restrictions impaired Robinson’s ability to perform. None of these restrictions were ever in place in the Sendek era.
* was impacted by a University objective that winning was not a priority. With Larry Monteith and Todd Turner leading the administration, no secret was made that NC State de-emphasized winning. This (supposedly) has not been the case since the mid 1990s.
You will see A LOT in the chart below that supports your “feeling” that NC State’s standards continue to slip and history continues to dilute every year that Sendek remains in Raleigh. The easiest observation that I can make from what you will see is the following: Herb Sendek’s ‘winning’ percentage against EVERY TEAM IN THE ACC is BELOW THE HISTORICAL AVERAGE created by the first 37 years of conference play with the lone exception of Georgia Tech, who ultimately fired Bobby Cremins 5 years ago for recent performance almost identical to what Sendek had created in his first five years in Raleigh.
See, Brett. That wasn’t so hard. Now that someone has done all the work for you…we’d be “interested” to see what your “commentary” is on the actual facts?
