Steve Lavin and John Beilein (of West Virginia) are clearly the two most public names being discussed related to NC State’s coaching search.
On Raleigh radio this morning, David Glenn expressed that his sources indicated that both Steve Lavin and John Beilein feel as though they have offers from NC State!? If this were recruiting…then it is customary for schools to create situations where “the first one to say yes gets the job”. But this isn’t recruiting.
Conversely to Glenn’s sources, today’s News & Observer “Eyes on State” blurb included the following:
Two people close to the school said Sunday that the search may not be as close to an end as most fans would like to believe. Even so, the talk through the weekend continued to center on Lavin, West Virginia’s John Beilein and Fordham’s Dereck Whittenburg.
Wow. Either Fowler and Company are very savvy and have completely manipulated the information that is flowing to the public
Our take is more lenient than you might expect. As far as we can tell, there actually can be an acceptable reason why NC State does not yet have a coach hired. Bookmark these comments and we will elaborate when all is said and done with the search. High risk; high reward. We agree with SFN’s blogger, Jeff, who has repeatedly begged fans to hold off on the urge to criticize Fowler until all is said and done. There will be plenty of time to debrief when this is over. Our current belief is that this current delay in hiring a coach could be beneficial. We’ve already missed the AAU event in Houston this weekend…what is the real impact of another few days of delay?
Additionally, Taylor Zarzour (on 1090 am) reported that the pressure is mounting on Fowler and it is no secret that this hire will ultimately decide his fate at NC State.
Well…it’s about damn time the guy had to do something other than hold down spending and support losing & mediocre coaches while the Wolfpack Club builds NC State’s facilities with record fund raising off of a rabid fanbase with whom Fowler has publicly ridiculed for years.
SFN has heard rumors to support Zarzour’s comments regarding the pressure on Fowler. But, instead of hearing that the pressure is building from any particular source at NC State, we’ve heard it more from the Fowler-side; ie – the pressure of the search is taking its toll on him (and his family). We guess that they don’t know how to handle Lee actually having to work past 4pm in some manner that doesn’t include eating, drinking, and schmoozing for his big salary.
SFN has also heard some comments that refer to a possible rift developing between some key Wolfpack donors and Fowler. (What has taken you so long?) At this point, we don’t know of any specifics and wouldn’t run them right now if we did.
When all is said and done, we will probably be able to add some items to our “Best of” List.
