“There were no three better basketball programs in the country at that time than the NC State program, North Carolina and Maryland.”
* Terry Holland speaking of his first ACC Tournament at the University of Virginia
Wow. ^That is flabbergasting. I learn something new every day! Imagine my surprise when I learned that it was NOT INHERENT in the order of the world that Duke and Carolina are naturally always the greatest basketball programs ever. How can it be that this has not always been the case…and why are we constantly told that it should be accepted that it will always be the case?
There will be some folks that will want to respond to me with, “That was 30 years ago. Things change” without realizing that they are making much of the point of the Wolfpack faithful — things DO CHANGE.
But things only change if LEADERS are smart enough and talented enough to take actions to create positive change. In the absence of leadership, you have failure. That is what we have at NC State. Winners CREATE change and are positioned to take advantage of changes at the competition. People that are solely focused on building personal resumes and cashing fat checks usually are too content to strive for greatness. I guess I don’t blame them if they can figure out a way to get away with it.
The Carolina Example
Over the last decade, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s basketball program has been in so much turmoil that they have employed four different basketball coaches; at one point, the Tarheels had employed four coaches in seven years. But…of course…Herb Sendek shouldn’t be expected to compete with “Roy Williams” even though Williams has only been at Carolina for 3 years.
Defenders often refer to Herb Sendek’s “record against Carolina as only being slightly worse than Jim Valvano’s record”. It is interesting that the same crew that always has an excuse for everything, fails to point out that Valvano went head to head with Dean Smith…not 4 different coaches like Sendek. They also fail to reference the new basketball arena and other resources that Sendek has that V didn’t while competing against the Dean Dome. (Why did we build the Pig Palace, again?) They also fail to carve away V’s first 2 or 3 of years (when he went winless vs Dean) because “V was new”, a benefit that they provide Sendek for an entire five years of performance. Fascinating hypocrisy.
During Carolina’s transition decade, Maryland was able to play in two Final Fours and win a National Championship. Georgia Tech was able to win more NCAA Tournament games in a single season than Herb Sendek has in a decade. Wake Forest was successful in changing coaches and built a national program that achieved arguably their greatest seasons in history (capped by two weeks of a #1 ranking).
Why NOT NC State?
The immediate answer is because NC State doesn’t do anything to attempt to improve. It seems that the University is more than pleased with being on the bubble – just like we have been in 4 of our 5 consecutive NCAA Tournament bids that you hear so much about.
“The enemy of the best of the good.” – Anonymous
“I never worry about action; only inaction” – Anonymous
“You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try” – Beverly Sills
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act…but a habit.” – Anonymous
“Yeah, doc, ya gotta help us! We’ve tried NOTHING, and we’re all out of ideas!” – The Simpsons
