Local media rushes to defend NC State against national hacks

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Many props to long-time ACC sportswriters Al Featherson and Brett Friedlander for their latest columns that will be linked towards the end of this entry

Also, our local radio guys like Dave Glenn, Joe Ovies, and Adam Gold have defended us all week as well. Maybe from now on the hosts won’t waste time on their shows featuring Parrish, Decourcy, etc…since they have proven to lack perspective and knowledge on the topics relevant to their listening audience? Why give these guys a stage when the hosts’ own opinions are much more interesting and accurate? Why have “experts” on the radio who know less about the topic than the actual hosts? Hopefully, if any of our local radio guys read this entry, then they will take those questions as a compliment, an honest suggestion from someone who listens daily, and chooses local sports talk over satellite radio.

Gold and Ovies have already weighed in on the Sendek/Lowe/NC State/Hate State topic here and here if you haven’t read their columns yet.

We have 5 years of data from Sendek coaching at ASU that proves NC State fans were exactly right about Herb Sendek’s record at NC State, yet these experts that we are subjected to on local radio aren’t ever asked to discuss Herb Sendek and his lack of progress at ASU.

We are still waiting for that update on the “revival in Tempe”, Seth. How about you, Gary? Remember this comment:

I decided right then I wasn’t getting off the phone until I got Herb Sendek to pat himself on the back a little bit. I wanted him to talk about how well he’s been doing since N.C. State fans pushed him to Arizona State in 2006 despite the fact that Sendek was coming off five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, and I wanted him to contrast it to the current struggles in Raleigh.

Why don’t you call him now and ask him about his 1-10 Arizona St. team and contrast that to the struggles in Raleigh? Where are all of these articles on Herb Sendek 5 years later about his progress at Arizona St.? How could such a great coach be struggling in year 5 of a rebuilding job? I can’t wait until some other major conference jobs come open and the national pundits start pushing Sendek’s name for these openings.

Anyways, here are the two articles from Featherston and Friedlander.

Full link an absolute must read:

Just because Sidney Lowe hasn’t worked out is no reason to consign N.C. State to college basketball’s dustbin. There is no reason that State can’t compete at the highest levels of the sport – up there with Duke and UNC. The school has great facilities (I’m not talking about just the RBC, but also about the Weisinger Brown practice facility), a passionate fan base, no unusual recruiting restrictions. They play in a great conference and they’re always on TV.

And they have a great history of success, even if guys like Brando and Patrick don’t know it.

Obviously, N.C. State has its share of delusional fans who thought that Rick Barnes would jump at the chance to replace Herb Sendek and who now think the Pack can lure Jamie Dixon or Jay Wright or Mark Few. But every school has fans like that. Just because new AD Debbie Yow is unlikely to hire a proven BCS-level winner does not mean she can’t make a great hire … maybe a mid-level Division 1 head coach such as the guys Duke, N.C. State and Georgia Tech all found in the early 1980s when they picked up Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano and Bobby Cremins from Army, Iona and Appalachian State, respectively.

She just has to find the right guy.

By the way, I wonder if the headline writer for Parrish’s story actually knows anything about the “Ugly Duckling” fairytale. Think about it – in the Hans Christian Anderson story, the ugly duckling grows up to be a beautiful swan … more beautiful than any of the ducks it was compared to.

Considering the potential of the currently ugly Wolfpack program, that might not be such a bad characterization after all.

Another must read:

One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday morning is getting up early, turning on the television and watching The Sports Reporters on ESPN.

It’s not that I’m looking for deep insight, breaking news or any kind of professional inspiration from writers who are far better at their craft than I could ever dream of being.

I just enjoy listening to the superstars of my field try to sound like experts about people and issues with which they are only marginally familiar.

What these guys lack in actual knowledge about things such as, say, the ACC, they make up for with a string of clichés and stereotypes passed down in Final Four hospitality rooms from generation to generation.

Or in the case of the N.C. State basketball program, they simply kneel down before the shrine of Herb Sendek and rewrite history.

ACC & Other Big Four Rivals Coaches College Basketball Editor's Picks Fans Media NCS Basketball NCSU Sports History Sidney Lowe

49 Responses to Local media rushes to defend NC State against national hacks

  1. steve 02/12/2011 at 9:32 AM #

    I’m glad somebody finally stepped up to tell the truth, even if it took too long. Reading the DBR report, I was a little bit surprised – I feel like I know our history pretty well, but when you add in the Southern Conference years, we were even better than I thought. I guess the constant drumbeat of the so-called experts in the MSM was beginning to brainwash me.

  2. Daily Update 02/12/2011 at 9:36 AM #

    Featherston was one of the best local writers for a long time with the Durham Herald. He knows his stuff as well as anyone and always did a great job.

  3. nitewolf 02/12/2011 at 10:00 AM #

    I’m printing out that first article and hanging it up on my corkboard by my desk. It contains nothing that I didn’t know already, but, it will be handed out to every d**khead that wants to spew revisionist history garbage to me in-person about my basketball program. Well done!

  4. GAWolf 02/12/2011 at 10:04 AM #

    But for sites such as this one, their efforts to rewrite history would go completely unnoticed and history would be indeed rewritten. It’s nice to see the local media speak out against ridiculously false and nearly slanderous statements, but it’s really not that extraordinary of a feat considering the facts are so easily available to prove these national numbskulls wrong. Isn’t that their job after all?

    Don’t get me wrong, it’s FANTASTIC to finally see some of these guys get with the program and report fair and accurate accounts of the admittedly sordid tale that is the history of NC State hoops. However, this is just an olive branch. There’s much to be done to win me over entirely. Ovies and Gold are undoubtedly leading the charge. I’ve been warming up to them for some time, and I, too, am a daily listener to the morning and afternoon local sports talk shows.

    The rest of the folks are just following suit, and therein lies the problem that perpetuated these myths in the first place.

  5. Ed89 02/12/2011 at 10:13 AM #

    ^^^I agree. The DBR article is the best on the subject that I have seen. They do an overall really great job over there, IMO. That article should immediately be sent to every national media outlet.

  6. NCSU88 02/12/2011 at 10:15 AM #

    Part of the problem with the current generation of sports reporters, especially those in the MSM, is that many were exceptional athletes and experts at playing their respective games, but have no official training or background in doing research (which takes time) and checking their facts (which takes more time). The end result is the broadcast of their opinions and editorials that get portrayed as fact. Looking at the talking heads on ESPN is like a class reunion of ball players from the 70s and 80s with a few 90s thrown in. I think ESPN would rather have a “name-brand” reporter than a “generic” reporter who actually knows what they are talking about. It’s all about the revenue and getting the story out now.

  7. tvp1 02/12/2011 at 10:22 AM #

    ^Look at the picture of Gary Parrish…pretty sure that he wasn’t an “exceptional athlete” at any point, unless you count “exceptionally fat and uncoordinated.”

    The Featherston column is the absolute heat. Just destroys Parrish, Davis, et al. Everyone print out copies, link it to your facebook page, retweet it, whatever.

  8. GAWolf 02/12/2011 at 10:30 AM #

    I just read teh Featherston article completely. While it’s the best of any disinterested take I’ve seen, it’s still devoid of another critical fact about Sendek’s tenure and it still furthers one ridiculous misnomer. That is that Sendek was deemed unsuccessful by our fans because he didn’t compete with Duke and Carolina. That’s just hardly the case. Sendek didn’t compete against ANY top 25 teams on a regular basis. His record was horrid against all teams ranked above his.

    He smashed cupcakes, got smashed by teams that were supposed to be better than us, and ultimately won less than his share of the “jump ball” games.

    Featherston is starting to get it, but that one fact alone tells me he doesn’t TOTALLY get it (yet). Unlike the national guys he seems capable of the type of critical analysis it takes to collect and understand simple facts. While every team’s fans want to compete against their rivals, the Sendek story is much deeper than that. Saying he never competed against Duke and Carolina alone is a pretty shallow analysis of why he didn’t have “success” in Raleigh.

  9. VaWolf82 02/12/2011 at 11:12 AM #

    You can expand your definition of who Herb couldn’t compete against. He never had a winning record vs the RPI Top 50 when he was at State. His best record vs the Top 50 came in 2004 when he was 7-7.

  10. Sweet jumper 02/12/2011 at 11:14 AM #

    Featherstone’s excellent summary of facts is what I have been telling folks for years who think State was stupid to let HWSNBN leave or to “fire” him (as most outsiders believe). Very knowledgeable fans of other ACC teams have forgotten or are unaware of HWSNBN’s initial 5-year record at State and his 5 years at ASU. They dwell of 5 straight NCAAT appearances and dismiss the fact that Hodge’s committment and Fowler’s incompetence saved his job after his 5th year at State. Since Seth Davis is a Duke grad and fan, I bet he regularly reads the DBR. I wonder how he feels reading the facts about HWSNBN and N. C. State’s bball history from the pen of a Duke fan.

  11. wolfmanmat 02/12/2011 at 11:23 AM #

    I hate Herb as much as the next guy. He rans the Princeton offense at an ACC school for god’s sake. But, I think the point these guys are making is valid. Our program was better with Herb. Not saying it was great and Herb didn’t deserve to go, just saying that Lowe has been much, much, much worse than herb, who did make NCAAs(with poor seeds, but hey). I don’t think they are suggesting that Herb was the solution long term, just pointing out that Sid is clearly worse.

  12. wolfmanmat 02/12/2011 at 11:26 AM #

    I’d relate it to State Fans laughing at UNC when Bill Guth(highest win % at UNC I believe 2) was run out of town to see the Dough boy come in. Herb is our Bill and Sid is our dough. Obviously commentators with ties to UNC/Dook are going to laugh at us right now.

  13. wufpup76 02/12/2011 at 11:36 AM #

    GA makes some good points, but at this juncture both articles are music to the ears (or eyes) of a fanbase that has been more than raked over the coals.

    My favorite throw-away line: “Kneel before the shrine of Herb Sendek”.

    ^That’s fantastic.

  14. PoppaJohn 02/12/2011 at 11:49 AM #

    Wish we could stop talking about Sendek, but I LOVED the articles. Thanks!

  15. JT 02/12/2011 at 12:00 PM #

    Good articles, very welcome. But I’m Sendeked out- he was mediocre and everybody knows it. I’m just about ready to see more forward looking threads on the Pack and less Sendek stuff. I’m also sick of the “UNC cheats” threads- while I agree with them, I’d rather ponder NC State news and theory.

  16. Texpack 02/12/2011 at 12:05 PM #

    Al Featherston has always been one of my favorites. Both of those articles were outstanding. Very accurate representations of the views of many State fans.

  17. uknz27 02/12/2011 at 12:24 PM #

    When you compare the three historically dominant programs of the ACC— State, Duke, UNC–since 1990, you realize that one of the instrumental causes of the blues’ rise to unprecedented mastery of the conference was State’s self-imposed implosion. Up until that point, State claimed a third of all titles, NOONE has filled that void.
    Duke and UNC should be thanking us for getting out of their way for 20 years. It’s about time that stopped.

  18. JeremyH 02/12/2011 at 12:30 PM #

    I wish we could stop talking about Sendek because he deserves better than to be dragged through the mud ad nauseam in support of a debate with idiot media figures.

  19. Lunatic Fringe 02/12/2011 at 12:49 PM #

    Guys – If you get a chance please send those guys an email of thanks.

  20. phillypacker 02/12/2011 at 12:49 PM #

    Look, ESPN and CBS Sports are pieces of multi-national conglomerates. They could not give a flip about accuracy, unless lack of accuracy might hurt their appeal to their biggest fan bases/audiences. (I would be happy to discuss this further but not now.)

    Parrish wrote for the Memphis Commercial Appeal, where he covered sleaze magnet John Calipari, and won awards for his work, blah, blah, blah. Are Parrish, or Patrick or Gminski,or Seth Davis brilliant commentators within their industry? Do they approach their subject like journalists? (I was a multiple award winning journalist but left the business for a better life.)

    No not at all. They are people who knew someone, well known former athletes, or slick confidence men, many young and ignorant, yet believing they can follow a nation of college basketball while also having some idea what is actually happening in a local situation. (ESPN also has some reporters covering specific conferences, but I’ll let you read Heather Dinich’s “work” and make your own judgment.)

    These guys, mostly, can talk fast and be concise and the conglomerates are happy because ESPN/CBS/FOX are kind of like Hollywood: you don’t put your money on one film (or region/conference): you spread your exposure to risk as wide as possible, across the nation. ESPN fostered the emergence of the “sports media slut,” who fit well into this approach. Of course, other networks followed. (I exclude Jay Bilas and a few others from this.)

    It is lucrative but there are major drawbacks, like not knowing what you are talking about.

    Does anyone think that Gminski or Patrick thought up the stupid box that argued State fans should be sorry for firing Sendek? That whole exchange about Sendek was conceived by some up and coming hot shot producer at ESPN who knows nothing about the real world of ACC basketball. These two are just parroting ESPN Bristol’s version of how the world is.

    I have an idea for ESPN. I can imagine a show entitled “Pulling Our Heads Out of Our Asses: Why you can’t blame NC State and its fans for Herb Sendek’s Leaving.”

    Here are a few things for you to google, while you do your “research:”

    *Winning percentage for NCSU coaches since say, WWII, up to Sendek’s hiring. (The unfortunate hiring of Les Robinson skews the number down considerably). Sendek’s very heavy diet of cupcakes OOC also skews his winning percentage way up.)

    *Everett Case
    *Norm Sloan
    *Jim Valvano
    *”Herb Sendek Cupcake”
    *David Thompson
    *The Dixie Classic (Check to see if Adolph Rupp was afraid to compete in it)
    *Reynolds Coliseum
    *Who created the ACC Tournament?
    *Who brought the practice of cutting down the nets to college basketball?
    *Where were the first 5-10 years of the ACC tournament held?

    *NCSU is 24th in total victories and 26th in winning percentage. How can this be, considering two AD’s incompetent coaching searches, which ended up with State 1)not winning an ACC tournament or ACC regular season title since 1989 and 2)finishing with an average of 7th place in the ACC over the last 20 years.

    Maybe this situation is a little more complicated than the mouths and their producers can understand, however, we should always hold out hope for them.

  21. IMFletcherWolf 02/12/2011 at 12:51 PM #

    Thanks to Al and Brett for coming to our defense. I don’t like running down Herb either, but in comparison to our previous basketball history, it’s obvious he came up short. These articles and the facts/statistics presented within prove his performance was substandard, and thus unacceptable to most State fans.

  22. Lunatic Fringe 02/12/2011 at 12:53 PM #

    From Al Featherson’s article:

    In that 44-year span, compare the three Triangle programs:

    UNC: Two national titles, 11 conference championships; 952-316 (450-110 conference), 49-20 NCAA

    Duke: No national titles, eight conference champions; 859-414 (368-235 conference), 35-11 NCAA

    N.C. State: Two national titles, 16 conference championships; 890-376 (370-225 conference), 25-14 NCAA

    EXACTLY!!

  23. phillypacker 02/12/2011 at 12:55 PM #

    Sorry for the length but I feel a lot better after posting that.

  24. IMFletcherWolf 02/12/2011 at 1:05 PM #

    Thanks for your thoughts, philly. Featherston’s column has many informative stats that prove your point. Lunatic has some listed above.

  25. rky 02/12/2011 at 1:20 PM #

    Per Al: “Obviously, N.C. State has its share of delusional fans who thought that Rick Barnes would jump at the chance to replace Herb Sendek . . . ”

    Seems like I remember some folks on this site having details proving this to not be so much of a delusional thought. Perhaps those details can come to light at some point. (?)

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