My flight landed in Houston this afternoon…and before I could get off the tarmac my phone was met with a barrage of texts and emails and phone calls about all hell breaking loose in the NC State men’s coaching search.
Maybe this is one of those times when it is beneficial to not be sitting around the office glued to the computer and therefore singularly focused on (any topic) the coaching search?
Now that I’ve had my fill of Berryhill Tamales and found a Panera to buy my $2 coffee so I don’t feel guilty for using ‘free’ wi-fi, I’ve secured a couple of minutes to chime in regarding the rapid developments of this afternoon — namely the reported ‘spurning’ of the NC State job by Shaka Smart, Gregg Marshall and Mick Cronin.
As you recall, the News & Observer reported late last week that (1) VCU’s Athletics Director said that NC State had not contacted Shaka Smart and (2) Gregg Marshall had not even been contacted by NC State.
…And today we learn that three coaches who had not even been contacted by NC State have ‘turned down’ NC State’s job! CLASSIC!!!
If you are new to SFN, then you may have missed this great entry from earlier in the year where one of our authors took the time to explain to you why some national sports media are…well…national sports media as opposed to members of MENSA or any well-respected profession or cutting edge corporate organization.
I very much encourage you to give it a whirl. It will help you understand how these ‘Einsteins’ can’t figure out what couldn’t be more clear to me right now — The moment I got the news that Mick Cronin and Gregg Marshall had ‘turned down’ a job that they were never offered, was the moment it became clear to me that Debbie Yow’s search for the next NC State Men’s Basketball Coach is over.
Unfortunately, the media is littered with morons like ‘SportsbyBrooks’, Gary Parrish and CBS’ Matt Jones who continue to prove that their depth of analytical thought runs about as deep as their paper-thin resumes and pre-pubescent looking pictures. (How old does one need to be to have a CBS Twitter account? Seriously?!)
So…the following is what we think/speculate is happening/has happened today:
- NC State has either secured, or is very close to securing an agreement with our next head basketball coach.
- The search firm has shared that information with other potential candidates and those coaches – like Marshall and Cronin – have run to the media and their fans ‘spurning’ jobs they were never offered. (Unfortunately, too many in the lazy media just regurgitate what self serving agents and coaches tell them to be true.) It is called saving face and politically posturing for their current situations. I understand it. But, I don’t like it.
- To give credit where it is due, our local sports media seems to get it. 99.9’s Joe Ovies attempted to enlighten a self-proclaimed journalist (and rumored friend of Gary Williams) today with the following:
RT @joeovies @sportsbybrooks we’re at the classic point where coaches were informed they weren’t “they guy”
- I do not know if this means a deal is actually finalized with our top ‘mystery candidate’. I would tend to believe that one, or both of the following statements are relatively accurate:Â (1) Debbie Yow felt as though her agreement was in a strong enough position to ‘release’ all of the other candidates; (2) Debbie Yow has an acceptable ‘fallback’ candidate who has agreed to the job if her top candidate should fall through during the home stretch.
- Again, we’ve got no inside information...(ok…maybe we have just a little inside information)…nonetheless…we would expect this thing to be wrapped up by Wednesday/Thursday of this week.
If we are wrong…we are screwed.
For some fun, you can click on our Twitter feed for a review of some twitter interaction from today.
