Friday Morning: Lee Fowler on 850 The Buzz Friday; Audio Link Now Up

AD & Department Fans NCS Basketball NCS Football87

Thanks to all of you who have posted 30 updates and comments regarding Fowler’s “interview” this morning. We’ll continue to have more commentary as time goes by.

11:15 Update

Here’s a link to the audio of the interview:

Lee Fowler Takes Your Calls (850 The Buzz’s Blog)

My apologies if I wasn’t the smoothest reader on the air, but I had an office visitor come in past a closed door and distract me while I was reading Sw0rdf1sh’s quote.

–RAWFS

9:50am UPDATE:
Before today’s relative waste of time on 850 we all had questions that we would like to see Fowler REALLY answer and not side-stepp. Since he just opened the door to more questions/follow-up, we thought that it would be a good time to ask you to log whatever questions you would ask in the comments section of this entry. Since LF gives so many “Q&As” to the press then you know that isn’t finished talking. Who knows…the next interviewer may read SFN and pick up on some questions?

It is really fascinating, but you should go check this entry from March of 2005 when we did a very similar exercise. Even though some of those questions were Herb Sendek related, a lot of them would continue to ring true today.

Here are a few to get the ball rolling:

(1) In your interview with GoPack that was published on April 13th you indicated that in no uncertain terms that there would be changes coming within NC State’s Basketball staff.

In this off-season, there will be some changes made within the basketball office. Sidney is going back to square one, looking at what each member of the staff does to make certain it is the most efficient and effective way of getting things done. He is reviewing all facets of the basketball operation.

In Sidney Lowe’s subsequent interview with the News & Observer that was published on April 29th, Coach Lowe leaves no ambiguity around the issue and 100% contradicts you when answering a similar question:

N&O: Will the staff stay intact?

Lowe: Yes.

N&O: Will the support staff stay intact?

Lowe: Yes.

Since you consistently discuss Coach Lowe’s control of the team last year in public and share your thoughts on what happened during our collapse – Which one of you is right? You say there will be staff changes. He says there will not be. Is he defying you by not making changes?

…alright gang….your turn!

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

AD & Department Fans NCS Basketball NCS Football

87 Responses to Friday Morning: Lee Fowler on 850 The Buzz Friday; Audio Link Now Up

  1. Wulfpack 05/17/2008 at 7:38 AM #

    I’m with Packer in Russia. Until LF has any real reason to sweat, he’s not going to give the fans anything. Doesn’t have to, that’s the point. For as bad as we have been in athletics the past few years, the money just keeps on pouring in. Got to hand it to the guy.

  2. highstick 05/17/2008 at 10:51 AM #

    I thought it was interesting that they must have been “monitoring” this site during the interview. I posted something about “only losing 4 more games that the prior year and also about the losses to NO and ECTC”. Well, it wasn’t but a few minutes later that they mentioned that.

  3. redfred2 05/17/2008 at 1:34 PM #

    RAWFS, thanks very much for the compliment. I did try to type a condensed version again because you asked, but there’s too much there. That interview did nothing but convince me that there is brick wall out there, and it’s getting the best of the head that I keep banging into it. Besides, I get way too deep into all of it, and it just comes out as rambling and convaluted anyway.

    Somebody, PLEASE, cheer me up.

  4. highstick 05/17/2008 at 5:04 PM #

    Wish I could, Fred, but my head is hurting too!

  5. Old School Wolf 05/17/2008 at 10:03 PM #

    Today’s local paper illustrated choppack1’s observation above that Gold’s subsequent comments put Gold in agreement with the point RAWFS made Friday morn about the perceived professionalism of our SID. News from UNC-CH Friday confirmed that a NC football player had been dismissed from scholarship and a Cal basketball player had been released from scholarship. Great planning or just coincidence that both news items were confirmed/released on a Friday . Friday, I’ve heard , is the day that political types release unfavorable news in the hopes of minimizing the impact of the news. Perhaps just coincidence. At any rate , the Greensboro Daily Tar Heel took the bait and printed a three column story on the UNC-CH basketball release. The GDTH must need more time to research the football dismissal (or perhaps the story was not written for them by UNC-CH) as the football dismissal didn’t make the Saturday paper. Interestingly, we chose Friday (news burial day) to announce the signing of our latest footbal recruit. Shouldn’t we have chosen a more prominent news day so we could highlight again the perseverance and attention to detail that TOB and his staff have (which was led to the signing of this football recruit at such a late stage.) To be fair and to the GDTH’s credit , there was a small recap under “area briefs” noting our newest football recruit.

  6. choppack1 05/18/2008 at 8:15 AM #

    Old School – there’s also how are spring game is handled. We have the biggest spring game in NC – but there’s no way you’d ever know it. Our athletic department certainly doesn’t mention it. They put all of the fans on side of the stadium – and the cameras on the same side. So at night or in the newspaper, when you see pictures of the spring game, all you see is empty stands. Stands that actually look worse than some of the other local games. Good work!

  7. redfred2 05/18/2008 at 11:22 AM #

    Chop, that is a really simple thing you’re talking about, but there is NO ONE in Raleigh who thinks that way. The crowd is out there exhibiting their passion and loyalty just like they always do, all NCSU has to do is to walk someone over to the other side of CF, and position them so that they can capture it on film.

    Thanks for pointing that out. It’s just another example of how the very simple minds in Raleigh cannot see the obvious, or make use of an already built-in advantage that’s FREE and just “sitting” right under their noses. I swear, it’s like it’s intentional. Like they’re afraid to show it and further pump up their own fanbase, because it could raise expectations even higher, and make their employees/ administrators have to actually work to keep up with all of it.

    Almost seems there is a standing order within the entire AD, to keep it low key, and keep the excitement and expectations down. I could go into Sidney Lowe’s first official game as the HC of the NC State BB program AGAIN, but that kind of lost it’s punch with the events of last season. But either way, this administration is so lacking vision, simple as it may be, that if it wasn’t so sad, it would be truly laughable.

  8. choppack1 05/19/2008 at 10:15 AM #

    redfred – That’s an excellent analogy. Of course, I can see somewhat why they tried to downplay the expectations in Lowe’s case. But for the life of me I can’t understand why you wouldn’t try to play up these intra-squad events (in both football and basketball) that are well-attended by Wolfpack faithful. Unless, as you say, they are afraid that they’ll actually be accountable for the enthusiasm.

    In spite of this, it certainly doesn’t stop them from asking us to finance these upgrades does it?

    When I was school, the starting salary for an NC State grad was > than the average starting salary for a UNC grad, they didn’t point that out either…

  9. redfred2 05/19/2008 at 11:51 AM #

    chop, no matter what transpired after the fact, the “choice” of Sidney Lowe as the Head Coach of the NC State BB program was/is Lee Fowler’s baby. They ended up with Sidney Lowe as result of their own inability to promote this BB program properly, and I still believe that it will turn out to be a good stroke of luck. Even if it doesn’t though, NC State hired him, and he DESERVED a proper welcoming back then.

    It’s just more of the same, with the administrators proving that they don’t want to get too close to anything that may turn out bad and eventually reflect back on them. Just like they don’t want the responsibility of anything that might turn out too good, and require more effort on their part to maintain.

  10. choppack1 05/19/2008 at 12:42 PM #

    redfred – I actually believe he got a really nice reception upon the initial hiring. And you’re definitely right about the “ho-hum” marketing in his initial season.

    I’ve guessed in the past that part of our Sports Marketing and overall school promotion behavior appears to be in the spirit of “don’t wake up that giant next door.” This of course presents a Catch 22. You can keep on doing what we do obviously do for the spring game – keep it the best kept secret in the state – and insure the status quo. Or you can promote the spring game and say, “come visit the biggest spring football game in the state!” at the risk of annoying Erskine Bowles, BOT, and the all-powerful UNC-Ch marketing arm. In theory, the consequence of this would lead to a full Kennan Stadium coupled w/ a Final 4 game later in the day – a recruiting bonanza.

    As it is today, you kind of insure you’ll always be second rate and small time. It’s definitely a self-fullfilling prophecy.

  11. redfred2 05/19/2008 at 6:39 PM #

    chop, I can’t state it any better than you just did!

    The people who stood outside in the heat and welcomed Sidney Lowe very early on was nice, but how much effort was required from anyone at NCSU to put that on? Answer: Almost NONE. Those were FANS, they came because they wanted to be there, I didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary that was done by the university. I’m talking about Lowe’s first game, as well the supposed “celebration” of the ’83 national championship team, woo hoo.

    I tell ya, I’d hate to be one of their kids? Could you imagine one of their birthday partys? I envision a white cake, from Food Lion, with the barcode price tape still in plain view, and a gift certicate from somewhere like Dollar General.

    Gotta hand it to them, those folks definitely have a knack for making a special day, something that you’ll never remember.

  12. kyjelly 05/20/2008 at 9:03 AM #

    Please end the thread ^redfred2 and choppack1 can finish their love fest on the phone!

1 2 3 4

Leave a Reply