When Champions are Made… ADs, not Coaches…

Coaching Carousel Debbie Yow21

I hesitated on whether to bring this to the SFN community at large or just make a forum post, but I think its worth throwing out there in light of the “misinformation” being spread on the blogosphere and the recent outstanding blog post here on SFN’s homepage.  This is the moment NC State fans have been waiting for regarding how good (or bad) of a hire Debbie Yow is.

Wolfpack fans have been seething at the teeth to get any information they can regarding possible coaches for the NC State basketball team, but there isn’t a lot of solid evidence.  Why is that?  Simply put, we finally have an athletic director that knows what they are doing.  Debbie Yow has been, if nothing else, very tight lipped to the media and very blunt on what she does and doesn’t want.  My favorite media quote has to be during her press conference when it was announced that Sidney Lowe would be leaving NC State.  Yow was asked how she would “pitch” the NC State position to a coach who was concerned about competing with Roy Williams and Coach K.  Her response:

“I don’t have a pitch. My pitch is thank you for your limited interest, and we’ll be moving on ” she said. “The last thing I need is to try to convince some guy, some coach that this is doable. I want someone with the vision, the passion, the chutzpah, to tell me, it’s doable. link

God bless that woman.  The use of the word ‘chutzpah’ brought back feelings of Jimmy V which was an added bonus, but I digress…

Point is, Yow is doing two things that Fowler never managed to do: 1) keep a tight lid on what is going on and 2) handle the media.  Both of these characteristics make her look confident and, more importantly, competent.  Contrast how little we know now to how things unfolded in 2006.  Anyone remember the Calipari affair?  I mean, here at SFN, we make jokes about UNC and “Marrying a Stripper” with Butch Davis, but Fowler basically made NC State the guy who shows up at the strip club to find a wife, falls in love with one, then gets embarrassed in front of his friends when the stripper laughs at him and leaves.  Anyone remember 5 years ago when the news stories came out that Calipari had met multiple times with NC State and despite getting paid LESS money than what we offered, was STILL rejecting NC State?

So am I writing this to open an old wound?  No, I’m writing it to remind the fanbase of how much of an incompetent dullard we had running the last coaching search and how different things are now.  Next time someone tweets that a coach isn’t interested in our position or some “anonymous source” says we are looking at an individual, don’t be fooled by what the media, or writer looking for hits on their “news” story, is claiming.  The truth is that we won’t know anything for certain until it’s all over.

Just to give our readers at SFN a better idea of the competent athletic director running our coaching search, I want to post an excerpt from a 2009 interview that Mike Wise (106.7 The Fan) had with Yow.  She was asked about the rumors that relations between Williams and Yow had gotten so tense at Maryland that she wanted to discuss possibly not renewing Gary’s contract.  When asked about the rumors, this was her response and the continuing questions.

Wise: “How close were you to having a conversation with Dr. Mote about whether or not Gary was going to remain?”

Yow: “I think those are odd questions, to be candid with you. I’m telling you that I remember in 1998, I’ve extended his contract seven times in 15 years, and the one in 1998 was the one that occurred when we hadn’t yet gotten past the sweet 16. And I got pummeled with e-mail–you know, ‘You’re an idiot, you don’t know what you’re doing, he’s never gonna be able to win it, you’re crazy, you’re the problem.’ And of course then we go ahead and we go to the Final Four in ’01 and then we win it in ’02….

Wise: “So wait, you didn’t answer the question. So you didn’t go to Dr. Mote’s office or you did?”

Yow: “So how is your day going, Bill?”

Wise: “No, but this is one of those crazy rumors Debbie.”

Yow: “I can’t respond to crazy rumors, because there’s too many of them. And what happens is, you start justifying them and then you kind of spend your life trying to respond to them, and then you wouldn’t be able to do your real job….” link

We’re in good hands.

About NCStatePride

***ABOUT THE AUTHOR: NCStatePride has been writing for StateFansNation.com since 2010 and is a 2009 graduate of the College of Engineering.

Coaching Carousel Debbie Yow

21 Responses to When Champions are Made… ADs, not Coaches…

  1. Wufpacker 03/28/2011 at 3:35 PM #

    Not to nitpick but just to clarify if I am remembering incorrectly. I thought that Cal did not “reject” us until he had a pretty good idea that he could get a renegotiation from Memphis meeting (if not topping) our offer.

    I know it’s a minor point, but I thought that was how it happened.

  2. Nigel Tufnel 03/28/2011 at 3:55 PM #

    In the book I am reading now, I came across this quote today.

    “We cannot insure success, but we can deserve it.” .

    I think that with the new PTB, we are headed in the right direction and deserve it.

    Also, found this when I googled the quote…

    Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski ascribes to this theory. One of the winningest coaches in the history of college basketball, surprisingly Coach K does not focus on winning. He encourages his players not so much to go out there and win, but rather to be sticklers for excellence. Do that, he says, and the winning will follow.

  3. stejen 03/28/2011 at 3:59 PM #

    Does anybody remember when Fowler complained that the coaching search was so stressful that he lost something like 20 pounds? That statement alone tell me he knew HIMSELF he didn’t know what he was doing.

  4. PoppaJohn 03/28/2011 at 4:00 PM #

    SFN – Good stuff! Keep it coming! Gotta keep us going until the presser.

    BTW – Saw the email about the coaches caravan today. Wonder who Debbie will bring to the pig pickin’?

  5. swamppack 03/28/2011 at 4:04 PM #

    ……..and until she proves any differently, she deserves this kind of supportive post. Good Post. I love the way she is handling this whole situation. Don’t forget how smoothly and quietly Sid’s stepping down went. She’s got all the bases covered.

  6. packof81 03/28/2011 at 4:23 PM #

    Silence is golden.

    The media pundits don’t know anything. They’ve just been restating what is common knowledge like they have the inside scoop.

  7. MrPlywood 03/28/2011 at 4:46 PM #

    When a hire is made, I fully expect DY to deflect and/or refuse to answer any questions about any coach “not” hired and focus solely on her choice.

  8. Howler 03/28/2011 at 4:59 PM #

    Five years ago, the passing of time during the search was almost more than I could bear. This time, I practically relish it. The media are the ones going nuts this time, not us. And when the announcement is made, whoever it is, I guarantee you the media will report it as an out-of-the-blue shocker and a gamble, not as a compliment to Yow, but as a way to show that she is unpredictable and is somehow NOT doing her job by keeping the media in the dark. When in fact, just the opposite is true.

  9. BJD95 03/28/2011 at 5:11 PM #

    Silence through this Friday is a very good thing. No nervousness allowed until then.

  10. GAWolf 03/28/2011 at 5:24 PM #

    Come Monday… will it be alright? Come Monday, who will you be holding tight, BJD?

  11. leewolf 03/28/2011 at 5:31 PM #

    Ah another week of this might drive me nuts but…

    I think it’ll be worth the wait. This is exactly what cracks me up about some of the pay sites. The authors on those sites have started to get a little pious (for lack of a better word) about their sources and how much more superior their sources are than anyone else. This despite the fact that their sources KNOW that those folks are writers running a pay NC State site while many other folks who have sources are just Joe Nobodys. The problem is that they are operating under the rules of Fowler, not the rules of Yow. She knows who they are, she has them under control just like everyone else.

  12. Wolfy__79 03/28/2011 at 5:32 PM #

    silence the lambs’…media that is 🙂

  13. choppack1 03/28/2011 at 6:02 PM #

    Nice find. Isn’t sad these days that women have more balls and chuptza than men…of course, that’s not exactly an accident.

  14. Thompson44 03/28/2011 at 6:03 PM #

    For those of you who insist on hiring a big name I suggest you check out the 5 minute interview Shaka Smart did on PTI…This man is smart, a good motivator and can Coach his ass off. I can’t help but think he would be the perfect fit for this University. You can call me crazy but I do hope that Yow is at least going to make that call because if he gets an interview I think he gets the job. He was accepted at Harvard and Yale and chose to play basketball instead because he loves the game. I think that translates into the passion that he shows on the sideline. When was the last time we had a Coach like that who was not named Valvano…..

  15. buttPACKer 03/28/2011 at 6:04 PM #

    the twat at “the big lead” has taken douchebaggery to new heights : “The guess here is that if Shaka Smart and VCU lose Saturday evening, he’ll be on the phone early the next morning with officials from NC State. If they don’t get Smart … well, there just aren’t that many viable options with experience and the Wolfpack could end up with someone who doesn’t even have the meek credentials of Brian Gregory. The audacity of the school to think it could get Sean Miller, even though he was an assistant there, is laughable. ”

    The number of blow-hards in the media is astounding!

  16. buttPACKer 03/28/2011 at 6:19 PM #

    I have to say that with Debbie Yow at the helm I am completely at ease… Almost all the other programs have their new hires, but even with 2 weeks having passed in don’t feel panicky. Contrast that with how we all felt 6 yrs ago, and from day 1, no less!!!

  17. Wufpacker 03/28/2011 at 6:35 PM #

    Serenity now! Serenity now!

  18. PackInsider 03/28/2011 at 7:25 PM #

    Anyone know what we offered Calipari? And what did he make at Memphis?

    NCStatePride: The linked article stated that we offered somewhere around 2mil while Memphis offered under 2mil.

  19. swamppack 03/28/2011 at 8:50 PM #

    Good to read through these replies and see the appreciation for the professionalism displayed by the AD’s office so far. There has been nothing leaked as of yet that would lend to any justified speculation that I am aware of. That by itself is very encouraging.

  20. travelwolf 03/28/2011 at 10:35 PM #

    The way I look at it, the longer our coaching search continues during the NCAA Tournament, the better of a chance there is that we’ll end up with a coach who is still in the tournament.

  21. Fenrir 03/29/2011 at 6:09 AM #

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