Sometimes a home truth just hits you like a ton of bricks.
Here in the Triangle, State is a distinct third to two other programs. We’re #3, and Fowler’s proud of it. He boasts about our alleged basketball accomplishments even though there’s no real reason to do so – particularly with those elite programs right in the same neighborhood. We go to war with those programs on a regular basis, and haven’t beaten them in years. Yet Sendek defenders constantly suggest we are among the nation’s elite – five NCAAs and the rest of that balderdash masquerading near-perfect mediocrity.
And now, with the clarity of thought caused by the end of yet another Barmecide feast of a season under Herb Sendek, it finally hit me. North Carolina State University is … France, at least with respect to the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Why is this?
Think of the Triangle as Continental Europe. There’s England, the traditional world power and ruler of the basketball scene – obviously, UNC. Then there’s the relatively new behemoth, the tower of strength that arose under the leadership of a malevolent leader – Duke, naturally, as Germany.
Then there’s France/NC State. The perennial third place power: sometimes capable of making a run at European greatness, but always, eventually, sinking back into confusion, squabbling, and also-ran status.
Also, when the French go into battle with either England or Germany they usually get their heads handed to them despite much a priori boasting. The French then spend a certain amount of time sulking about their latest shellacking before gearing up for another inevitable beating. Sound familiar? 8-38, mon Dieu!
That’s NC State basketball in a nutshell: A great tradition squandered, coupled with a refusal to recognize that it was squandered. Lee Fowler, our Jacque Chirac, mouths off constantly about the alleged “Top 15� and “Top 25� status of a program that generally gets whipped like a pizened dog when it takes on truly elite programs – Duke, UNC, and yesterday Texas. We’re elite only in Lee’s own mind, much like Jacque Chirac pretending France is still an international contender instead of a colony for Mickey Mouse.
Like the French, we boast of expected victory over our rivals. Like the French, we always seem to suffer a humiliating defeat by those rivals every time we actually have to prove our boasting. But hey, we are better then Clemson basketball, much like France is stronger than Belgium. As if either fact really matters.
And one other thing: Like the French military under Charles Martel and Napoleon, our basketball program once knew true greatness. The question is whether, unlike the French, we have the willpower and fortitude to insist on greatness again.
Qu’est-ce-que-vous dites, Monsieur Fowler?
