Quote of the Day: Coach Kellie Harper

Quotes of Note34

“This is a great university. I didn’t realize how good it was until I got here.”

– NC State Women’s Basketball Coach, Kellie Harper

Link to Ken Tysiac’s blog entry

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Quotes of Note

34 Responses to Quote of the Day: Coach Kellie Harper

  1. Wulfpack 05/20/2010 at 10:32 PM #

    My first thought is I’m not quite sure I know how to take that. I’m certianly glad she feels this way, but how did she feel about it before she took the job? And perhaps most importantly, why?

  2. Broccoman 05/20/2010 at 10:44 PM #

    Any BCS job > Western Carolina.

    How many low-major head coaches wouldn’t jump at the chance to coach at even the worst BCS school?

  3. StateFans 05/20/2010 at 10:59 PM #

    When reading it in the context of the article, I first take it as praise for our fans and then for the University community.

    I then took it as another example of how far we have fallen off the radar that ‘the market’ just doesn’t know how great it is in Raleigh.

    In the 1980s —

    * Jim Valvano turned down jobs at Kentucky, UCLA and the NY Knicks to coach in Raleigh.

    * Kay Yow turned down numerous opportunities to move on.

    * Dick Sheridan turned down opportunities from Georgia, LSU, Auburn, Arizona and South Carolina to coach at NC State.

    …unfortunately, ‘how great of a place’ NC State is hasn’t been promoted for at least the last 10 years.

  4. STLPack01 05/20/2010 at 11:16 PM #

    I take it as both of the above: she didn’t realize (as I didn’t coming to NCSU as a college sophomore in 1997 as well) how great the tradition, rivalries, and community at NCSU was, AND the reason why she didn’t know about these things is because of how far we have fallen as a brand. I deal with the later on a regular basis with my friends and coleagues.

  5. Alpha Wolf 05/21/2010 at 7:45 AM #

    NC State is indeed a great school that has great alumni and fans.

    We’re often called passionate, sometimes irrational or unreasonable, but the fact is this: we know what we’ve got, even if no one else seems to. We sit in one of the best places to live and work in the world.

    We only want our sports to reflect what our degrees reflect: success that is well-earned through hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Show me an NC State graduate, and I will show you a champion. There is no reason for each and every team that wears the red and white to have that same success and that same dedication.

    The coaches and leaders who embrace those ideals and achieve them from time to time earn a Wolfpacker’s undying love. Those who don’t, well, they don’t earn the respect of the fans.

  6. durhamwolf19 05/21/2010 at 7:59 AM #

    How many times has Chancellor Woodson already said that we need to promote the NC State brand and improve on our marketing? This is something you never heard from Monteith, Oblinger, Nielsen and Fowler. they were too busy sucking up to the UNC BOG to ever put NC State’s best foot forward. Thank God we don’t have a criminal in charge like Oblinger any more and an athletic director whose main focus is his next trip to his lake house.

  7. McCallum 05/21/2010 at 8:14 AM #

    People throw around the term “great” with much too frequency. I hear these Clemson folks constantly telling me how difficult Clemson was to attend and graduate from, how it is a “great” school, etc but once I ask them as “compared to what” they give you the collie turned head gaze. I hear much of the same from Georgia alumni but taken in measure to others, the university opportunities in either SC or Ga are pretty humorous.

    State is a middle of the road large state university. It has some good programs (textiles, CALS, arch, forestry and yes you geeks……engineering) and some that are bottom dwellers. The rapid increase in CHASS has allowed in a large number of unremarkable students that would have been just as well served in getting their degree from unc-G, unc-Charlotte, App or unc-Asheville. I know, those incoming SATs are much higher but aren’t they everywhere else?

    Take a look at the basics folks. State makes it a pain in the a$$ to get through that place NOT because the subjects are terribly difficult but because the administration of the university is hostile to students. (at least it was during the Dark Ages) If the university still has in place the class drop date AFTER the 1st chemistry 101 exam then the place hasn’t changed a bit.

    “Great” is awfully subjective folks. Any step toward greatness would mean blowing up the Office of Inclusion and Diversity and State is way too inclined toward kissing a$$ to ever want to be “great”.

    Put away the promotional mentality. Put together a holistic plan and execute the darn thing from top to bottom.

    McCallum

  8. wolfpackdawg 05/21/2010 at 9:06 AM #

    The rapid increase in CHASS has allowed in a large number of unremarkable students that would have been just as well served in getting their degree from unc-G, unc-Charlotte, App or unc-Asheville.

    You are dead on McCallum..BTW I had to take Chem 101 twice..D the first time.

  9. JEOH2 05/21/2010 at 9:30 AM #

    As a Graduate in CHASS…I’d like to see actual figures that back that up McCallum…not saying you are wrong, just want some concrete clarification…

    Also, when you say the “rapid increase” in CHASS are you speaking of those who enroll in the college or of the programs the college offers or of focus/funding?

    BTW, I take Coach Harper’s statement as candid honesty and a positive one at that…”What Is This Place Called NC State…”

    Favorite Line From That Commercial “…the Audubon of Inovation…”

  10. Lock 05/21/2010 at 9:32 AM #

    –The rapid increase in CHASS has allowed in a large number of unremarkable students that would have been just as well served in getting their degree from unc-G, unc-Charlotte, App or unc-Asheville.–

    Just a heads-up, but yeah, some of those CHASS grads read this. Some of those CHASS grads scored higher than you did in both English AND math on the SATs.

    And some of those CHASS grads have been NCSU fans all their life and have multiple family members who are also State grads.

    –Any step toward greatness would mean blowing up the Office of Inclusion and Diversity and State is way too inclined toward kissing a$$ to ever want to be “great”.–

    Yeah, diversity, that’s a good thing to blame, that always ends well.

  11. wolfpacktexx 05/21/2010 at 9:37 AM #

    “…unfortunately, ‘how great of a place’ NC State is hasn’t been promoted for at least the last 10 years.”

    When we select and seat our new AD with experience to “Hire and Fire”. I am confident there will be some quick changes and competence placed in the SID department…

  12. packplantpath 05/21/2010 at 9:55 AM #

    “Just a heads-up, but yeah, some of those CHASS grads read this. Some of those CHASS grads scored higher than you did in both English AND math on the SATs.”

    Yea, the arrogance of science and engineering students/graduates towards the rest of the student body never ceases to amaze me. I say this as someone who has graduated, twice, from science fields. The fact is, these conclusions about humanities as easy come from their exposure to the classes to fulfill degree requirements. Yep, those classes are generally joke easy. I guarantee you that the intelligent grads/students in CHASS feel the exact same way about science classes they take to fulfill degree requirements.

    In general, the biggest drawback of science/engineering graduates is their ability (or inability) to write. Better and more challenging CHASS requirements for non-majors would alleviate this somewhat.

    Perhaps I’m strange in my love of literary expressions of science. Read E.O. Wilson’s writings for the general public. It reads as if St. Augustine spent the latter part of his life as an entomologist and evolutionary biologist. Read Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene to see captivating explanations of natural phenomena that is both insightful and educational for the scientist and layman.

  13. coach13 05/21/2010 at 10:10 AM #

    Are we straying off topic or is it just me?

    Back to Harpers comments. Marketing. If we had it she would have known before hand. Anyway, I think her comments are genuine and well received.

  14. Pack Mentality 05/21/2010 at 10:11 AM #

    This is a great university in technical, math, and science based degrees. If my kids want to major in anything outside of those fields I will suggest that they go elsewhere.

  15. Alpha Wolf 05/21/2010 at 10:25 AM #

    Yea, the arrogance of science and engineering students/graduates towards the rest of the student body never ceases to amaze me.

    I hope that I have not fallen into that category.

    Yes, most Sci/Eng folks think that their classwork is “harder.”

    But on the other hand, the non-tech students can be just as snide and condescending towards the eng/sci kids, calling them geeks and whatnot.

    I’d say that road runs in two directions and with a lot of traffic besides.

    In general, the biggest drawback of science/engineering graduates is their ability (or inability) to write.

    Communication is an essential part of a successful career, no matter the walk of life. Science/Engineering folks would do themselves a favor by mastering it.

    I also believe that there has been a general erosion of writing skill across the board in the last 10-20 years. Having read a number of the so-called Honors History papers that Wolfpack95’s students pen, I would say that I was far less than impressed with their skills. These kids are supposedly in the upper percentiles of their school, but I wouldn’t trust some of them to write a note to their Mom much less pen a decent paper.

    Read E.O. Wilson’s writings for the general public. It reads as if St. Augustine spent the latter part of his life as an entomologist and evolutionary biologist. Read Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene

    There is a lot of great writing from scientific minds today, consider Sean B. Carroll, Gregory Stock, etc.

    Richard Feynman was awesome, as was Issac Asimov’s hard science writing.

    And some guy named Einstein wrote some pretty cool stuff.

  16. ncsu_kappa 05/21/2010 at 10:41 AM #

    McCallum – I’m very curious to know how the office of diversity and inclusion has a negative correlation to the success of NC State.

    If the roles were reversed and you were the only person (or in good classes 1 of 3) that looked like you I would love to know welcome/comfortable you would feel. Now think about an 18 year old kid, who is in their first experience away from home and the challenges that come with making that transition.

    It’s my guess, the office isn’t there to throw good money after bad or participate in negative NPV projects (which I assume is your assumption). They are there to provide support for people who may feel isolated in hopes of increasing their retention/graduation rates for populations of people who have much higher than average drop out rates.

    This comment is almost as funny as packalum44’s, “I”m smarter than coach Lowe” comment (I almost spit my toothpaste on my computer yesterday while reading that). Unless, you were/are privileged to know of some esoteric context. If so, please share.

  17. Six Pack 05/21/2010 at 10:44 AM #

    I think her quote simply says, Wow, I had no idea that such a sleeping giant loomed in the shadows. The potential trully is tremendious for NC State and now that potential just needs to be marketed to the country. The holes and devils have been doing it since the ESPN influence explosion of the early 1990s.

    Montieth, Turner, Fowler, Oblinger allowed NC State to play second fiddle and never thought the school was worthy of anything better. The Sports Marketing Department needs to be cleaned out and some trully innovative, light-a-fire-under-their-asses type folks need to be brought in to promote State’s athletic teams.

  18. McCallum 05/21/2010 at 11:06 AM #

    Couple of points:

    1) I’m not looking down on CHASS majors. My point was that the increase in CHASS (2nd largest enrollment on campus now, roughly 4th in the late 80’s) has brought in a wave of students not broken out in the historical land grant mode. Politically and culturally this group will be much more liberal both in a social and political context and their degrees are much more commonly found in the greater body of universities around the nation.

    So if your 2nd largest school within the university is not well noted then the context by which you start to frame up concepts of “greatness” start to lose credit at that point.

    Now I do enjoy some fine reading and would be more than willing to exchange points on the ideas and concepts of literary deconstruction as they apply philosophically to brick and mortar projects such as the decline of Greek Revival styles in favor of post modern styles (which is no style) and in art specifically concerning dadism.

    Reach for that higher SAT and GPA when I ask you to talk with me at length on 2:1 clays.

    2) Is the university still hostile to students? I’m not sure since my days ended up there long ago. What I do know is that my limited graduate work as well as my conversations with graduates from nearly every university in the southeast (UGA, Clemson, Furman, unc, UVa, Auburn, wake forest, Vanderbilt, etc) have shown me that the university was a big pain in the a$$ concerning the most minor items. From attempting to get a pig cooker out on the brickyard (which required a damn permit application process as well as a physical plant engineer to come out and look at the path I was going to drive the pickup pulling the pig cooker) to the general run around you’d get from department staff to the massive amounts of red tape to do nearly anything up there (one calculus professor lost my final exam and I obtained a no cookies for the class. I saw him a few days after the final and wanted to know what happened since I had been holding a 86 average for the class. His response was that “I had failed to turn a final in.” When I explained to him our conversation as I was leaving the final exam, he was president of the aikido and I knew a guy in the club, he admitted he’d lost the damn thing. What did the school do? Take it again and the guy then admitted that the final he was giving me was going to be “much harder” than the first go round)………..the university was like a terribly run organization where EVERYONE was institutionalized. Maybe this was a holdover mentality from the days of all male and all ROTC but it was night and day from every other experience I’ve heard.

    3) Diversity as it is framed up these days in a good thing to blame (and destroy). Now days it hardly means anything outside of race, gender and which race and gender you want to get your groove on with at the time. True diversity of thought involves some venture into understanding the real value of “greatness” and that it should not be a standard term to slap on anything you hold near and dear to your heart.

    4) Einstein was a communist supporter and general lout.

    Sorry to stray off topic but I’m not much on the “pat yourself on the back” and tell everyone how “great” you are in things. That reeks of complacency and complacency, usually attached to former achievements, is something that hangs like a mill stone around the neck of State.

    I could see unc becoming tired and complacent but it does not happen that much. A school like State it seems to be the standard fair, no thanks I say.

    McCallum

  19. packplantpath 05/21/2010 at 11:09 AM #

    No Alpha, I don’t think you fit the mold there. I don’t even think it is most scientist/engineers, but there is definitely a vocal minority (the lunatic fringe) who look down on humanities. I think you are right about the condescension running both ways. Since NC State has a known science/engineering tilt, and being in science myself, I suspect I only saw one side of it.

  20. DRW 05/21/2010 at 11:14 AM #

    McCallum: Since obviously hate your alma mater so much, perhaps you’d like to give your diploma back.

  21. McCallum 05/21/2010 at 11:22 AM #

    ncsu kappa,

    Your response reminds me of a letter to the Technician in the late 80’s when the “multicultural center” was built. (which it was and maybe still is the “follow unc” response to their black cultural center)

    Seems a graduate student in math, of all dang majors, was writing to request a trashy white cultural center. Poor guy said that he’d felt a little isolated living so far away from “big hair and double wides” and that being left out hurt him. He went on to lament the lack of primer covered Cameros and women singing the praises of Conway Twitty as their tight designer jeans swayed from side to side. He even ran the numbers, knew that was coming, on the actual cost to roll in an Oakwood double wide and a few Vegas on cinder blocks to serve as a trashy white cultural center. It was one of the funniest letters I’ve ever read and written by a math major of all things.

    But to your comment, frankly if the topic concerns retention due to isolation because people do not look like many of the people they go to class with then you are full of it. The fact stands that most of this inclusion and diversity non-sense is to perpetuate a grievance group mentality among students that, in most cases, should not have been admitted to the university anyway if quotas were not applied for those getting federal money. Plain fact is that feeling good about yourself might sound noble and “great” but if you can not absorb the memorization required for organic chemistry then no amount of “inclusion and diversity” is going to help you unless you reduce the standard. One wonders how these Chinese graduate students made it over here in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s without all of this inclusion dreck?

    I get the news letters, I see the agenda. Reason number 3,432 that the general fund will never get a dime from me.

    McCallum

  22. wolfmanmat 05/21/2010 at 1:12 PM #

    State has several well respected programs. Look at the design school. Very high regarded. The issue with State on academics is this: we WERE an ag, textile and engineering school. We are still a good engineering school…not MIT, but near GT/VT on many disciplines. But, Ag is gone and textiles is shipped over seas. It takes time to establish yourself on other disciplines, like the Business School, which is new and just not established as quality. UNC/etc have established business/medicine/law/etc that gives them an advantage over us in quality of education. Alot of our former “core” programs(Ag, Textiles, even Vet) have changed and left us with no law, no medicine, no established business school. The admin didn’t see this coming and didn’t adapt our core programs quick enough.

  23. choppack1 05/21/2010 at 1:14 PM #

    I think the “diversity” movement has little to do w/ the undercurrent of this thread:

    The fact that our new dynamic women’s HC basketball coach didn’t know NC State was such a great place to be.

    We’re really attacked on all fronts. The local mainstream media – both print and television – has plenty of fun at our expense.

    The city and even the surrounding neighborhood seem to regard the state’s largest university as an annoyance at best.

    Finally, our own university leaders – have failed on both a customer service front (internal public relations of both existing students and alumni) and the overall image of the univesity presented to the outside world.

    I can totally understand why Kellie would think that this was going to be nothing but a quickstop on the way to something bigger and so much better – because if one wasn’t associated w/ this university – they wouldn’t be likely to have a positive impression of it.

    To be fair – it’s a cross a lot of the land grant/engineering schools carry. The “state” flagship school usually has a journalism, law and medical school – which insure them good print and a more steady revenue. The state school is usually older and more “quaint” – hence, it’s usually a much nicer place to visit.

    But you know what really did it – our overall suckage in athletics. If we had been good in basketball and/or football the last few years- you can be damn sure that Harper would have known about how special NC State was. You know this in the same way that you know VaTech is a special place in spite of having some of the worst events I’ve ever seen. (Of couse, those events are so bad – it’s convinced me there’s an awful spell on the place.)

    Hopefully, folks will again know what a special place our university is because of what’s happening on the field and in the classroom. (I don’t think we’ll ever change that MSM stuff – those folks are just too morally bankrupt to stop.)

  24. JEOH2 05/21/2010 at 1:36 PM #

    I always chuckle a little bit when people imply that diversity has little to no impact on a college experience…it was actually a reason I chose State…and the multicultural center was a reason many stay there…

    It’s pretty telling that Coach Harper was at Western Carolina, and didn’t recognize how great NC State is…we REALLY need a media blitz promoting all various aspects of the University while the goodwill on our athletics is resonating on a national level…

  25. sksr97 05/21/2010 at 1:51 PM #

    It all started down hill when Mary Anne Fox left!!

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