Two Coach Lowe Interviews (Updated 10pm ET): ‘Not that I can discuss at this point’

08-09 Basketball General Sidney Lowe94

Interview with 850TheBuzz

Interview with the media

The real story of the day may come from what was not said in Coach Lowe’s time with the media:

Q: Any other personnel changes?
A: Not that I can discuss at this point.

Q: Not just the players, but any other staff changes?
A: Not that I can discuss at this point.

The following are comments related to the 850TheBuzz interview:

Let me just say…I LOVE listening to Coach Lowe. Nobody is perfect, but I really appreciate his articulation of his perspective.

A couple of quotes from Coach Lowe:

“As a competitor, the only thing I was thinking about (at the end of the year) was getting started again”

“I really want to look forward”

In a morning show interview with candid answers, NC State basketball coach Sidney Lowe addressed a number of issues from last season and looked ahead to next season. Concerning the widely discussed chemistry issues that possibly stemmed from JJ Hickson’s playing time, Lowe placed blame all around, but focused on players accepting their roles in order to win as a team. Lowe, who is entering his 3rd year coaching the Wolfpack, also talks about what he has learned from working in the college game and the influences surrounding college players that the pros don’t experience.

* Good news is that the team only got 5 days off at the end of the year before being called back for conditioning. SFN Comment – This is in contrast to what appeared to be only 5 days of conditioning for the team for all of last summer.

* Adam Gold did a good job of probing what he wanted to probe. SFN Comment: This is not a criticism, but I would like to see that kind of probing

* Coach expects Brandon Costner to have a very good year. SFN Comment: We hope Brandon Costner has a very good year. However, the ONLY way that Costner has a year that resembles his freshman year instead of his sophomore year will be if he plays like a power forward who has a decent shot as opposed to plays like a wing forward who is too big and too slow forhis position.)

* AG brought up the post players and brought up Tracy Smith’s progress. SFN Comment: At first it felt as though Sidney sidestepped Tracy Smith which scared me due to the rumors that have swirled related to potential eligibility challenges. But, Coach finished his conversation about the post players with reassuring comments about Smith (particularly his

* Good question by Ovies near the end the interview about what Coach has learned/adjusted to?

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08-09 Basketball General Sidney Lowe

94 Responses to Two Coach Lowe Interviews (Updated 10pm ET): ‘Not that I can discuss at this point’

  1. hball57 06/21/2008 at 4:27 AM #

    I guess you really don’t know Brandon Costner if you think that. As an ex College Basketball Player myself, and having a daughter who is a College basketball player, I know (1) the amount of work required to have any success at this level and (2) that you can’t watch on TV or from the stands and tell if someone is “lazy” or not. And look back on his R-FR year and watch those games and see how hard he worked. If you think it was just against Duke and Carolina, you are simply wrong. Thanks at least for your comments.

  2. Rochester 06/21/2008 at 7:20 AM #

    Didn’t Costner already finish school, or isn’t he about to? There seemed to have been rumors when the season ended that he might walk away. That he didn’t and that he has shed 10-15 pounds already in offseason workouts shows me the kid is serious about redeeming himself this fall. I don’t think he’s coming back to just jog down the court and launch up a random 3-ball or two. I think he’s going to do what we all hoped he would last year, when he was a pre-season all-ACC pick.

    It shouldn’t take the worst season in recent memory to motivate these guys, but at least they are using it for motivation. I think we’ll finish somewhere in the middle of the pack this year (5th-8th). Not good enough, but certainly better than the abomination we endured last year.

  3. Wulfpack 06/21/2008 at 7:54 AM #

    Costner was a lazy ass last season, end of story. Countless times I saw him refuse to challenge opponents driving the lane or attacking the rim. He stood there with his hands on his knees. He did not help his teammates out. In short, Costner stunk last year. I’m not even going to talk about his offensive meltdown. All I needed to see was his lack of energy on the defensive end. A complete no show. If that’s harsh, sorry. But it was the truth.

    If we are going to count on Fergie as out starting 2 guard, we might want to go ahead and accept the 12th place trophy. Fergie may be able to run and jump (I don’t really know), but when it comes to playing with a basketball in his hands, he’s all over the place. What I do see in Fergie is a desire to succeed. I don’t see that in a few other guys on this team without naming names. I also see a guy that can and will stroke it if given the opportunity. But I do not see an athlete. If you want a comparison, I’ll give you Demarcus Nelson. When it comes to athleticism on the basketball court, that would be a no contest. We will need Fergie’s minutes but he’s not a starter in the ACC.

  4. redfred2 06/21/2008 at 9:35 AM #

    Ferguson is not the most athletic player on the court, especially when comparing him to someone like Nelson, he’s definitely not going to take the ball and overpower too many people. But that’s not always what it takes. Look at the influx of euro ballers, for the most part they’re not physically imposing or dominating athletically, they are the type of heady ball players who know the game and play within a TEAM concept. Trevor Ferguson is the type of BB player that should be able to contribute if there is a system in place, along with a supporting cast of players who will work harder to cover his possible deficiencies in certain areas, allowing the TEAM to benefit from what he’s good at.
    Again, like too many players in both the past and at present, I see an overall lack of confidence, and more untapped potential in Tervor Ferguson.

  5. redfred2 06/21/2008 at 10:53 AM #

    I wish Hickson would have stayed and played. I wish Cedric Simmons would have stayed and played. I wish Andrew Brackman would have played. I wish we could have held onto the entire incoming class and not lost them during the transition period. I wish the administration would all evacuate their offices and let someone else take over for a while.

    I wish, I wish, I wish…

  6. ClassOf95 06/21/2008 at 10:59 AM #

    I guess it’s the fact that I was a freshman at State in 1991 and I’ve known nothing but heartache but I am taking the “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach to next season. I like Sidney Lowe but anybody can be a Monday morning quarterback. All of this talk about postseason meetings, conditioning schedules/goals, and the statement that the players know what he expects out of them. Didn’t they know last year? Was there no conditioning regiment in place? Were there midseason meetings to discuss out wretched performances? I know we were young and I know some players were forced into the spotlight obviously before they were ready but that doesn’t excuse the lack of effort that was apparent to all. I think Javi did his best but wasn’t ready. Marques was like a deer in headlights and wasn’t ready. “Turd” Ferguson (I say that because it’s funny. Not out of disrespect to him) needs some confidence. Amazingly Courtney seemed to lose his confidence and play passively often too. And someone one step away from the coaching staff told me that it was Costner and McCauley who pouted and caused the biggest rifts last year. They would never get on board with what the coaching staff was trying to do. These are major problems. (Also, I hear it’s Monte Towe that may not be back.) I just step back and think that this situation would never happen at UNC, Duke, Maryland, or a host of other schools and I wonder why it was allowed to happen here. I would rather lose by 80 and play 5 walk-ons that were trying hard to execute the game plan than have 5 McDonald’s All American primadonnas half-assing their way up and down the court losing by 10. Remember, we were picked to contend for the ACC title and we didn’t even get to play in our own tournament! And I will not lay that solely at the feet of a first year transfer point guard.

  7. packpigskinfan23 06/21/2008 at 11:23 AM #

    habll57- I actually ran into Brandon last night. Cant say I know him WELL(we dont hang out on a regular basis) but I can say I see him around town and in class often, and I do associate with him more then on the “whats up man, nice shot the other night” level.

    His nickname fits his personality.

    oh and btw- he does look to have dropped at least 10 lbs. I dont know about 15…

  8. wufpup76 06/21/2008 at 2:54 PM #

    ^About Costner – he was FAR and AWAY our best rebounder his freshman season (’06-’07), especially when he wanted to be

    I was there for the Wilmington game when he grabbed virtually every board there was to be had … It was extremely impressive

    If he is in shape and and can get his rebounding tenacity back, I believe this would help us immeasurably … I’m not as worried about his shot, that will come back in time after sporadic play/injury … But if we can get some board work out of Costner, Smith, and McCauley we are already that much better of a team … If you’re not going to play great team D then you’d better be able to get some defensive boards

    To be honest, as awful as we were offensively last season I am much more interested in seeing what we do defensively and rebounding wise … The offense will work itself out or it won’t – but defense and rebounding can keep you in a lot of games

  9. redfred2 06/21/2008 at 3:18 PM #

    I don’t think I’d be calling someone who hasn’t found the confidence yet, or possibly lacks overall athletic skills to match up with some of the competition, but who is out there playing hard and trying hard like we’re practically begging every other player on the team to do, a “Turd”.

    But that’s just me.

  10. Rick 06/21/2008 at 3:18 PM #

    “Now on Costner. Many still want to knock Costner for the type of shape he was in last year, totally ignoring his summer knee injury which prevented him from the normal summer work on his game.”

    Does the knee injury make him force food down his throat?

    I hope he has changed his attitude because it was all bad last year. You can blame this mysterious knee injury but it was more than that.

  11. ClassOf95 06/21/2008 at 5:09 PM #

    redfred2 – it’s from a Will Ferrell/Norm MacDonald sketch on Saturday Night Live. Alex Trebek talking to Burt Reynolds. “Mr. Reynolds has apparently changed his name to Turd Ferguson.”

  12. redfred2 06/21/2008 at 8:53 PM #

    ^My fault CO92, I use to love SNL early on, but the humor doesn’t really do a thing for me nowadays. Sorry for raking you over the coals just because I’m out of the loop. No offense.

  13. hball57 06/21/2008 at 11:18 PM #

    Let me talk about Ferguson again. First of all. i think last year was about him gaining confidence. He was our leading scorer against Fla St, and he had double figure games towards the end of the year. Someone made the comparison with Nelson at Duke. Nelson actually plays the 3, so he would be Fells match up. Ferguson would natch up with Schyer or Paulus, if Smith is playing point. I don’t think there is a real physical 2 guard in the league outside of McClinton at Miami, and Ferguson did a very good job against him at the Tournament.

  14. redfred2 06/22/2008 at 10:56 AM #

    hb57, I was looking at recruiting and ran across info on Ferguson back before he ever even went to Pitt. I thought back then that he might be the type of unorthodox kid who could jump out and surprise some people. I still think that he might, that is if he has players around him who will wise up enough to give him an opportunity.

  15. kyjelly 06/22/2008 at 10:00 PM #

    I hope he is right,but since Sid take no responsibility for last seasons showing I am afraid it will be a case of the same stuff different day.If Degand is our savior on have doubts he was the best of the three points we had but still very week indeed. Also I think our biggest problems even last year is our defense which this year as well will be pretty week .

  16. packbackr04 06/23/2008 at 11:33 AM #

    My favorite memory of last yr was during a game, we brought the ball up court and were in our halfcourt set and i look and there is Costner, standing completely and totally out of bounds. i dont believe that is what the coaches told him to do… so it begs the question, why in the hell was he just standing there out of bounds and not moving. you can blame that on what you what, but it spoke volumes to me about the kind of player Costner is. I hope he comes back this yr and proves me wrong, i really do, but that had nothing to do with a knee injury.

    Ferg can play the 2 for us some until someone steps up and takes the spot from him, i have no problem with Fergie getting some PT after his play last yr. He is just not the kind of player that you win ACC titles with.

    I was really hoping Johnny Thomas was going to help this yr, but it sounds like his knee is not well.

    and i say “dont let the door hit ya on the way out Monte” we need a big man coach. Larry harris is a recruiter, plain and simple, we need him on the phone, not on the practice courts teaching big men how to box out.

  17. redfred2 06/23/2008 at 9:09 PM #

    “He _________(insert name here) is just not the kind of player that you win ACC titles with.”

    04, sorry, but we do not seem to have many players who are willing to play TEAM basketball long enough to do anything, so there is really no single player ANYWHERE who can carry us to any sort of title on his own. We’re no where close to that anyway, I’d be elated if they came out looking like they had been taught, and learned, something about playing fundamentally sound, TEAM basketball this upcoming season.

    I heard the rumblings, but is Towe really gone for sure?

  18. RabidWolf 07/06/2008 at 10:36 AM #

    incresed conditioning and strength is very good, but these guys need to be one additonal thing…..aggressive.

  19. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 07/07/2008 at 3:43 PM #

    “incresed conditioning and strength is very good, but these guys need to be one additonal thing…..aggressive.”

    This is a group that thinks it is cute to name your players ‘The Big Lazy”. Anyone using that term this year should have the scholarship yanked.

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