Memo To The Athletic Department: Hire This Guy

08-09 Basketball Alums NC State Administration NCS Basketball65

Ever wondered why Wake Forest has a better atmosphere than NC State?

Mike Odom has never scored a point for Wake Forest, but when the Deacons play No. 1 Duke tonight, he will be called on to give the team some oomph.

During breaks in the action, Odom will cue up “Zombie Nation” or another high-energy song from his laptop and send it through Joel Coliseum’s sound system. Within seconds, thousands of Wake fans will be whipped into a frenzy that will give the players an added charge.

“Every game is special,” Odom said. “Obviously, Duke is No. 1, and our fans will be excited. We want to keep that excitement when they get here.”

Odom grew up in Raleigh following ACC basketball. While a student at N.C. State, he served as student manager for the basketball team.

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

08-09 Basketball Alums NC State Administration NCS Basketball

65 Responses to Memo To The Athletic Department: Hire This Guy

  1. SaccoV 01/29/2009 at 10:11 AM #

    I don’t want this to be a hijack or anything, but is anyone else out there getting really tired of the descriptions of these tight games between ranked teams as “improbable” or “upset”? I mean, last night, Tim Brando did everything he could to ruin watching a pretty close basketball game by opening his mouth, and to cap it all off, he called (#5) UNC’s win at FSU (unranked) as “improbable” also forgiving the fact that UNC lead by 13 in the second half and the game went into overtime. Next, calling Wake Forest’s at home win over Duke an “upset” is dumb beyond belief. Is anyone else as mad about this as I am?

  2. Classof89 01/29/2009 at 10:14 AM #

    Umm, maybe the fact that it was a matchup between two top five teams in which the home team was performing well had something MORE to do with the atmosphere than the music? Given the state of our athletics program, they could have the chicks from thee Dollhouse (or whatever the heck they call that place these days) giving free lap dances at halftime, and they wouldn’t sell out the RBC…

    I’ve been a State fan for over 30 years, and I’ve never received mail in the middle of the season from the ticket office trying desperately to sell me some basketball tickets (both to the regular season AND the ACC Tournament)…until this year…I’m not wasting my money…

  3. BoKnowsNCS71 01/29/2009 at 10:33 AM #

    The pleas to buy tickets might be a sign that the WP Club is seeing the signs of waning interest in Lee Fowler’s production in the area of basketball.

    It’s also a bad economy but folks will drive hundreds of miles to see a team it thinks has a chance to win and go to the NCAAT. When that confidence wanes — even the people who are given free tickets to the games or have corporate seats don’t show.

    Just a sign of problems to come and the tip of the iceberg of issues that our AD is complacently ignoring. Guess when they start making cuts or layoffs in the coming year – the message might sink in.

  4. Alpha Wolf 01/29/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    SaccoV, you must not have gotten the memo: the only teams that are supposed to be able to beat each other in the ACC are Duke and Carolina.

    The rest of the league are supposed to be their patsies.

    This is not the ACC I grew up with. Every team (except Virginia pre-Sampson) was thought to be capable of beating any other team on their home floor.

  5. Classof89 01/29/2009 at 10:42 AM #

    They are really in trouble when these RBC Center seat rights expire (didn’t the corporate ones have a 20 year lifetime?) How many people are going to want to re-up $50,000 or $100,000 to see this crap?

  6. Wulfpack 01/29/2009 at 10:47 AM #

    “He has had 2 easy jobs- Kansas/UNC. How did he earn this?”

    Oh, I don’t know. Maybe the fact he has been averaging about 30 wins for the past 20 years might have something to do with it. Just a guess though.

  7. Alpha Wolf 01/29/2009 at 10:54 AM #

    “It’s also a bad economy” and a lot of folks won’t cross the street to see a team that depresses them more times than not.

    Really, are any of us rubbing our hands together at the chance to play Carolina this weekend? How many of us are really excited, and how many of us are feeling like we’re going to an execution?

  8. Classof89 01/29/2009 at 11:00 AM #

    ^^
    Good topic for Statefansnation to explore may be the long term financial future of the basketball program…what does the fine print on the seat rights sold when they built the RBC say? I remember my boss telling me that if a partnership or corporation bought the rights, they were for 20 years, and only the ones sold to individuals were truly “lifetime”…But are even the “lifetime” rights transferable to the holder’s heirs? Or are thousands of seats going to come back on the market over the next 10-15 years?

  9. Daily Update 01/29/2009 at 11:13 AM #

    89: That would be an interesting topic.

    Seriously, can anyone imagine the atmosphere at the RBC for a #4 ranked NC State team vs. Duke? We haven’t had a top five ranked team since the 1980s at some point.

    Alphawolf: I am dreading going to the RBC this weekend. There are going to be thousand and thousand of UNC fans there.

  10. Classof89 01/29/2009 at 11:21 AM #

    Closest thing I can remember in the RBC Center is the game against Duke in 2005(?) where they were No. 1, and we were top 20 and we beat them…I wasn’t at that game, but it sure sounded loud on TV…

  11. CStanley 01/29/2009 at 11:29 AM #

    Winning while playing some exciting basketball would help cure a lot of RBC Center’s problem.

    BTW, anyone have flashbacks of our ’83 run after Wake’s between the legs pass & dunk last night?

    Boy it sure would be nice to one day get back on par with Wake Forest in sports.

  12. TheCOWDOG 01/29/2009 at 11:35 AM #

    I hear ya Alpha. It’s too bad we can’t provide the same kinda matchups that FSU presents to UNC. ie. a scoring guard that troubles Lawson, and heigth that contains Tyler Handsalloverya.

    BTW. Did you forget the Virginia teams of Wally Walker, Jeff Lamp and Iavaroni?

  13. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 01/29/2009 at 11:41 AM #

    I would love some music in the RBC but I do like the band though it seems like that have the same song rotation every game. I think that is because the pep band is more or less a rag-tag group from the marching band and a ‘come to the game if you can’ type of deal. I may be wrong but that is what I understand it to be.

    At the very least they need to amplify the band. For those unfortunate few that are on the 3rd level you can’t even hear the band much less do they pump up the crowd.

    I was pleased to hear the old Earth, Wind and Fire song during a TO during the overtime against Miami. That song used to be the theme of ACC basketball during the Jefferson Pilot games back in the 70’s and early 80’s. I don’t recall the name of the song but it brings back memories when I do hear it.

  14. howlie 01/29/2009 at 12:51 PM #

    “Does anyone else hate the slow clap/play, then get faster of our fight song to open our games? It is such a weak opening to the game.”

    +1
    It is hard to imagine a more deadening opening–like the dead trying to wake the dead.
    “Ma (clap) (pause)(pause); … ma (clap) (pause)(pause); … ma (clap) (pause)(pause); …; ma (clap) (pause)(pause); … ma……. [as the caissons, go snoozing along]… snooze… “GO STATE!’…

  15. WV Wolf 01/29/2009 at 1:16 PM #

    In my opinion it all comes down to the product on the floor.

    Anybody who has been to a Stanley Cup playoff game at the RBC Center in 06, 02 or 01 knows that it can be the loudest house in the NHL. The noise level for Game 7 vs Edmonton supposedly hit 134 decibels.

    You put a championship caliber team on the court/ice and you’ll leave with your ears ringing. You put 10+ years of mediocrity, blown leads and cupcake opponents on the court and you get an equivalent atmosphere.

    The band and the sound system can play whatever they want, I’m still not going to be pumped up for Central next Tuesday. Or for Carolina on Saturday for that matter.

    It can even be the same song, it all depends on the context. Rock You Like A Hurricane in June 06 = adrenaline rush. Rock You Like A Hurricane at the next home game, meh.

  16. Noah 01/29/2009 at 2:22 PM #

    Let’s put it this way: I had the albums “Autobahn” and “Radio-Aktivität” in 1975. Still do, as a matter of fact. Both are the most nascent form of techno-electronica, a genre that I trace to Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and the song “On the Run.”

    It goes back further than that. Even in Floyd’s own repertoire, Astronomy Domine. We can all thank Robert Moog.

  17. Noah 01/29/2009 at 2:23 PM #

    BTW, I was trying to remember the last time we were ranked in the top-five during the regular season. It would have had to have been in maybe early 1975, right?

    I remember getting to the top-10 in 1984 after beating Houston and Arkansas, but I don’t think we made top-five.

  18. Packster 01/29/2009 at 2:31 PM #

    I tried to tell everyone when the RBC was being planned that there would be almost as many UNC fans there than NCSU fans.

  19. Classof89 01/29/2009 at 2:53 PM #

    ^^
    Certainly neither Herb nor Les ever came close to sniffing the top 5. What about Washburn’s only season here–didn’t we begin the year pretty high in preseason? I’m fairly sure we were top 10, can’t remember if we were top 5…of course Washburn didn’t even make it through the whole season, and that was the beginning of the end for Valvano…

  20. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 01/29/2009 at 3:32 PM #

    The beginning of the end for V was when he accepted the AD job and left the world of coaching for the world of politics. A game he had no idea how to play and allowed some pin-headed professors to run all over him.

    A smart politician would of destroyed the main nutty-professor at the first sign of dissent. I don’t remember his name right now and I sure as hell hope he isn’t associated with NC State anymore. Was Oblinger a part of that lynch mob?

  21. TheCOWDOG 01/29/2009 at 4:07 PM #

    We were preseason #1 in ’75 Noah, held it for 3 weeks, last time on the Top five charts.

  22. Evroccck 01/29/2009 at 4:44 PM #

    I was at the game last night, and I have to say it was by far the best college basketball atmosphere I’ve been too. It was insane, high energy, and never a dull moment.

    As a long time state fan, we’d be blessed to have this sort of atmosphere just one time in the RBC.

  23. Noah 01/29/2009 at 4:57 PM #

    We were preseason #1 in ‘75 Noah, held it for 3 weeks, last time on the Top five charts.

    Yep, that’s what I was thinking.

    In 1985-86, we actually started pretty slow. We were only 3-3 out of the gate. We had lost Spud Webb and didn’t have a point guard. Nate McMillan had been playing small forward. We tried everyone on the team, I think, before we gelled. That was an incredibly good team, but they could disappear for entire stretches. They didn’t have any outside shooting…but were very tall.

    The funny thing was that team should have gone to the Final Four. We got a very good draw in the tournament and some other folks got knocked out ahead of us. We ended up playing Kansas and at the under-eight TO in the second half, we had a seven-point lead and the ball. We got outscored by 15 the rest of the way.

  24. choppack1 01/29/2009 at 5:58 PM #

    WV Wolf – Not really a fair comparison.
    1) By college basketball’s design, NC State will never play a game as big as a Game 7 Stanley Cup Final.
    2) Go figure, a hockey arena was rocking for hockey’s version of the Super Bowl.
    3) I went to a Canes playoff game in the GREENSBORO COLISEUM and the place rocked.
    4) The RBC was specifically designed to be a great hockey arena, it was designed to also serve as a place to play basketball.
    5) For basketball, it kind of stinks. Even if you are on the lower level, you are not that close to the action. If you are in the upper level – its very far from the action.
    6) As others have noted, we’ve never gotten a feel of what it would be like if we were a power in the arena.

    We’re basically absorbing the full knockout blow punch of playing a bad to average to OK brand of basketball in the ACC combined w/ playing in a hockey arena combined w/ playing in a hockey arena that’s too damned big to be filled on a regular basis.

    And let’s face it, taking in the average good game – not game vs. an elite opponent or a rival – in the RBC will never be like taking in a game at Reynolds.

    In case you never went to Reynolds or went when it was in its prime, you start out by actually walking through the campus of NC State – no other way to get there. Maybe you were walking from one of the restaurants on Hillsborough Street, maybe you were walking from your dorm or from your class – but darn it, you were at NC State. But there was something deeper, whether you knew it or not, you were walking a path that people had been walking for more than 40 years.

    Just as the freedom students enjoyed at football games gave you that feeling of freedom that you get at a college campus where life revolves around the college, walking to Reynolds gave you see the same feel…you felt like you were on a college campus and it was the center of the universe for that moment in time.

    When you saw the arena, the feeling of going back into time really hits you. It didn’t look like most arenas (even the 80s). Then you went inside. The first thing you noticed was the smell of freshly popped pop-corn. The aisles were thin, but you never felt uncomfortable – maybe because you knew uncomfortable were the seats (wherever you had them) IN the arena.

    Then, as a student, it meant for most of us, standing at an angle, awkwardly positioning yourself for the best view of the game…So many great memories and such a unique place to watch a game. Well, if you weren’t there – especially for the big games, you just didn’t understand.

    I’ll give Wake credit. Their arena is the perfect size – and the seats feel much closer to the action – especially in the lower arena. Great sightlines – I enjoyed their pregame last night – it looked good on the tube – even though having a guy in a Demon Deacon shirt ride around on a Harley is silly on it’s face – it’s very loud, so that’s always nice. They give away shirts to the students, they also give out stat sheets to everyone at the half (or at least they did.)

    Their arena is good even if the team isn’t great. At the RBC, we’ll need a special opponent and/or need to be a special team in order for that place to be…not such a comfortable, distant place to watch a basketball game.

  25. Primewolf 01/29/2009 at 9:26 PM #

    The intro song for the team this year is an abomination. Communist music like the football team used the last year of Chuck’s regime when they walked down the stadium to the field.

    They have shortened the intro, but it is terrible. I cannot image anything any worse. Howe do we do this? What an embarassment. In the section around me, we just look at each other dumbfouned. You have to laugh.

    Even worse— during a timeout or two, they show short stupid clips of the BB players being asked an incredibly stupid question, ” like what player on the team is most likely to be president?”

    Of course the players look stupid tryint to answer these types of quesitons. Worse, it always occurs duing a critical time out when Coach is trying to coach. Inevitably some player look up at the jumbotron, which makes it even worse. The fans are laughing at the players response on the jumbotroan and the players are distracted from the timeout.

    Can it get any worse for NC STate Athletic department leadership and basic decision making. Is there a responsible adult in charge.

1 2 3

Leave a Reply