Why You Need to Be FIRED UP!

General Media NCS Basketball Required Reading55

Finally! Someone in the media writes a home run piece discussing reality!! And, it ended up being a self-proclaimed Tarheel? We’ll take any dose of reality that we can get. Thank, you Matt Rehm.

Today’s piece on CBS Sportsline (not written by Gregg Doyel; Don’t Feed the Troll) is a a great read.

Some Wolfpackers have jumped off the deep end after State’s ‘misses’ on Rick Barnes and John Calipari. Some have even replied to potential candidates with comments like “I’d rather have Sendek.”

That’s absurd.

Relax. Relax and enjoy. Enjoy and get excited about the future. There is so much about which to be excited right now that you are missing out on a lot of fun!! You may just need some context to understand why you should be excited (particularly if you are under the age of 30). Allow me to oblige,

I guarantee that NC State’s next basketball coach (as long as he is not named John Brady) will have a more successful tenure than that of Herb Sendek. Guaranteed.

Most people (somehow) forget that Herb Sendek coached at NC State for ten years, not only five. In recent years, far too many fans bought into the Fowler/Sendek crew’s belief that simply “making the NCAA Tournament” was THE standard by which the program should be judged. Most schools field programs to win championships. NC State fielded programs to try to place well in the ACC and make the NCAA Tournament.

This explains why State’s RPI averaged a medicore #45 over the last five seasons and why each season’s schedule was crafted in a manner to manufacture a bloated overall record and squeeze the Pack into the Tournament (where Sendek produced a mediocre5-5 record). This also explains why ten years of opportunity didn’t produce a single signature season that compared with signature seasons of any previous NC State coach not named Robinson. (If you are new here, then you would do yourself a favor by referencing the following two links: Five Straight NCAA Tournaments and RPI & ACC – The Stat Book)

Want some other guarantees? Easy. The next NC State Basketball Coach will also:

* average better than #45 in the RPI when you selectively choose his best five seasons.

* finish in the AP’s Top 25 more than a single time in a decade.

* have a better average NCAA Tournament seed when you selectively choose his best five seasons.

* have a better average ACC Tournament seed when you selectively choose his best five seasons.

* win more than five NCAA Tournament games in the next decade. In fact, if Cedric Simmons stays in Raleigh for another year I will go on record that the Pack will win more than five NCAA Tournament games in the next five seasons (a time period that Sendek played in zero NCAA Tournament games)

For a little enthusiasm about the future, I genuinely believe that fans need to take a look back to realize what NC State’s program can, and should be. This isn’t about wishing for the good old days, nor is it about glorifying the past and foolishly thinking that the world doesn’t change. But, you need to understand that there are significant differences between what true basketball PROGRAMS can achieve compared to what individual COACHES can achieve.

Are UConn Basketball and Virginia Tech football long-term “programs” because one coach in their history was able to generate success? Did Walt Hazzard and Matt Doherty’s unsuccessful reigns at UCLA and UNC indiate that those programs were not set up for future success?

Of course not.

Wolfpackers need to get excited about the future!!! NC State’s tradition, facilities, fan support, position in the ACC and historical success (1940-1990) creates a COMPLETE PROGRAM that has so many innate and inherent advantages that it will be difficult for the program NOT to be more successful in the future than it has in the last 16 years.

Fans need to never forget the accurate historical context of Herb Sendek’s decade of NC State Basketball:

* In the history of NC State Basketball, only one coach (named Les Robinson) was less successful than Herb Sendek.

* In the history of NC State Basketball, four different coaches…every coach not named Robinson or Sendek…won at aleast one ACC Championship.

* In the history of Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball, 17 coaches have been provided the opportunity to coach for at least 10 years and only one of those coaches clearly compiled a worse performance than Herb Sendek.

I am not concerned about the future of the NC State Basketball Program because of our past. Not its recent past, of course; but the long term past is a clear indicator of what the program truly can be.

NC State claims 10 ACC Championships and 2 NCAA Championship. In 1987, only 7 other programs had won more basketball games than our program. Of course things have changed significantly since then. But, the only thing that has changed has been NC State’s standards and performance, not our program’s core strengths and advantages. In fact, with the addition of the RBC Center and the Dail Practice facility our core resources have actually IMPROVED!

Only two programs have more ACC Titles than NC State; only 12 other programs have as many or more National Titles. But, NC State won those two national championships with two different coaches.

Only 7 schools in college basketball history have won multiple NCAA Titles with more than one coach.

A flash in the pan program wins a national title with one coach. A great coach can win mulitple national titles at one school. But, only GREAT PROGRAMS can win national championships with multiple coaches.

If you REALLY want to know what most experts innately understand about NC State’s program then take yourself back just a couple of days and read the pieces written when John Calipari was being considered for the job. I know that it is painful, but think about it.

Suddenly, all of the national and local media had no problem talking about what NC State could be. They were going so far as predicting what NC State was going to be. Suddenly everyone seemed to recognize that NC State was going to be a national power. Suddenly, many people were experiencing revelations that State won’t play Duke and Carolina in the NCAA Tournament unless we all make the Final Four.

This wasn’t all because of the name John Calipari. This was because of the match between Calipari and NC STATE. We may not have Calipari, but we still have one half of that equation. The media and the public were able to visualize the addition of a successful coach to what NC State’s program already has in place. If Calipari was being discussed in relation to the Clemson job? or the Virginia Tech job? or any of about 300 other jobs in Division One jobs, the visualization of the future would not have been so grandiose.

The next basketball coach at NC State will not have the name Barnes or Calipari. But, regardless of their willingness to admit it, or their ability to accurately express it – the world understands that the next basketball coach at NC State will have some amazing resources at their disposal to legitimately elevate State’s program BACK into the Top 20.

NC State has everything that is needed to be significantly more successful than Herb Sendek’s tenure of the last decade. (Everything to this point except for proactive and strong management of the program.) I just can’t believe that it took a Tarheel to help all of you feel good about the recent changes.

General Media NCS Basketball Required Reading

55 Responses to Why You Need to Be FIRED UP!

  1. class of 74 04/15/2006 at 8:27 AM #

    I think we have a journalist that’s been reading this blog. A good counter to the normal media foolishness.

  2. redfred 04/15/2006 at 3:32 PM #

    I agree with the article and the comments above.

    Just think if there were THREE future hall of fame coaches, all coaching in the same conference, two of them with a close history as mentor and assistant, and regularly battling to gain dominance. How good would that be the NCSU and the whole of the ACC with respect to the national media. Raleigh would become the center of college basketball attention for months. That can do nothing but bolster recruiting. Put Roy and K on notice. Show the fans that you are absolutely serious about winning again. Don’t play it safe again. Sure, the guy will piss SOME people off, but he couldn’t possibly divide the fan base as bad as Herb. Big risk for NCSU if it doesn’t pan out, but what the hell, a decade and a half have already been wasted. Open your minds to the possibility. It would set the college basketball world on fire with anticipation and Raleigh would the center of the universe for a while. Love him or hate him, the man is a household name and one hell of a basketball coach. It is absolutely worth all the risk.

  3. BladenWolf 04/15/2006 at 7:43 PM #

    That was the best article I’ve read about the situation thus far. Very insightful.

  4. Astral Rain 04/16/2006 at 12:57 PM #

    While I’m not going to get into the whole Valvano debacle, Chris Washburn was a huge embarassment to NCSU, as well as some of the other players V brought in- and that should count against his record. We have been throughout our history on probation five times if you look it up, but not since 1990- we’re not Outlaw U here…

    As for our tradition- football wise, it’s not that great. It’s not terrible- most years I remember us making at least a weedeater bowl, except for the time I was at school (the last years of O’Cain). Amato has faults, but he has gotten the program respectable.

    For basketball, whoever the coach is- it is unlikely he’ll produce the same results as Herb. Either he’ll improve, and get us to the occasional regional/Final 4 level, or he’ll stink, and we’ll can him quicker then we did Herb. He just deserves support for 3 years until he can get his system in order. I’ll trust Fowler to find the best one we can get- to do otherwise is counterproductive. He did go after the best early, you can’t fault him for that.

  5. redfred 04/16/2006 at 4:05 PM #

    This is an email sent I sent a to friend last week. Probably get me cut off….

    The search is…well…dead in the water. I have even heard names like Bobby Cremmins being tossed around, with a familiar “he is a NICE guy” as part of the criteria. I’ve already heard that crap for a decade, it has nothing to do with basketball. But anything, I mean losing every game for years to come, is better than watching someone flash perfectly good talent in your face and then ruining their futures by yanking it away, for the sake of his own personal agenda.
    I do not know quite how I have come to this conclusion and I can’t put my finger exactly on why I think a majority of the alumni feels this way, but it appears that they think the school represents something far and above, something that no one else in the general public is even remotely aware of. Most young people I know now just think of NC State as a place for losers, with a capital “L” right now. Granted, it is based purely on sports and shouldn’t be, but the place you work (UNC) has their GREAT public perception rooted deeply in exactly the same things.
    I think NCSU will unfortunately make another totally SAFE and vanilla choice at this point, they won’t ruffle any feathers. There is no one left on their current list with any ability to make immediate impact anyway.
    There is but one man out there, love him or hate him, with the balls to do what everyone wants. Signing him would instantly create a media fire storm and national buzz like never seen before in Raleigh, North Carolina. NCSU would gain immediate notoriaty and basketball respect the moment he stepped on the campus. The Pack would immediately be back on the national radar screen as force to be reckoned with, whether real or not. Regularly going head to head with his former protege and the current legend in Durham, how much more press and publicity could the administrators ask for? Fans at all the other ACC schools would fill the stands just to see what the guy will do. Barnes or Calipari couldn’t have created all that even if they had signed on.
    The potential recruits that everyone is so worried about, especially C Wright, would still be getting a strict disciplinarian and regimented coach, just like Herb. Only they would have one who actually understands how to coach and develop their talent for the next level. He is a hot head. So what? He has successful predecessors, Alford, K for one, and he graduates some players. Who really likes K’s demeanor on the bench anyway, but he wins, so all is forgiven. So what’s the problem? It’s not like a marriage, a life long appointment to the supreme court, or even a decade long guarantee like the last one.
    Put K and Roy on notice. For once, show the fans you are really serious about winning again. Take what the hall of famer has left, even if he only coaches for five or six more years and pisses some people off along the way, who cares? Let him bring back the fire and respect, and then be on his way. Maybe after he rebuilds and puts in a few good years, there will then be a whole new crop of coaches emerging that aren’t sooo afraid and are actually dying to compete in the ACC.
    Besides all that, the man could surpass Dean Smith’s record while still wearing RED in Raleigh, or better yet in the Dean Dome itself. That sounds so good, it hurts. That would be just a little too sweet.

    Maybe me thinks too much. Never happen.

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