Winning the Press Conference

Coaching Carousel Debbie Yow NCS Basketball95

As the Internet continues to grind out speculation regarding the the coaching vacancy in the Wolfpack men’s basketball program, the now legendary thread on the StateFans Nation forums got me to thinking; what really drives this collective desire to find out any information on who the next coach might be? Why would hiring Rick Barnes/Billy Donovan/Sean Miller excite a larger percentage of the fan base than hiring Shaka Smart or Gregg Marshall? As we pointed out last week, truly educated opinions on coaches are few and far between, it’s primarily a perception game that drives fan excitement.

And then it hit me.  The press conference to announce the new hire is the program’s first “win” under new leadership. Let’s just say that Debbie Yow rolls up to the podium with Billy Donovan in hand in a few days. The press will go nuts, the coverage will be national and the admins at StateFans Nation will probably have to get even more powerful servers to handle all the traffic. We’ll all stroll into work the next day with our chest stuck out and that Tarhole who works for you will have to grudgingly concede that little ‘ol NC State pulled off a big hire.

Under that scenario, we haven’t won the first game yet, but we have won the press conference and fired a strong first shot in the perception war. The payoff is immediate and it would feel really good to get that first win.

Contrast that with the announcement that we hired Shaka Smart/Gregg Marshall/insert mid-major here. I’d be pleased and not disappointed in the least.  However, in terms of fan excitement, we’d all have a very hopeful wait and see attitude. We wouldn’t get the immediate payoff of winning the press conference.

The irony is that winning the press conference is certainly no guarantee of restoring Wolfpack basketball to its previous greatness. It would will be nice to win the press conference, but there are much bigger fish to fry.

 

 

 

About SMD

SMD graduated from NC State at a time when beating UNC-CH in both major revenue sports was a regular occurrence. This was well before a time when I could express my frustrated attempts at being a writer on the "internets." When I'm not talking about the Pack, I'm probably arguing politics.

Coaching Carousel Debbie Yow NCS Basketball

95 Responses to Winning the Press Conference

  1. beeeejay 04/04/2011 at 1:16 PM #

    So will we get another email response from the athletic department like we did with pastner if what bjd is saying is hopefully true?

  2. BJD95 04/04/2011 at 1:17 PM #

    Not logical for Smart to be our backup while we negotiated with Marshall. That is logical if a bigger name involved. And we would give Smart the courtesy to not make it look like we turned him down.

    People are digging like mad for info, and coming up dry. What a wild ride.

  3. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 04/04/2011 at 1:19 PM #

    The coaching search clearly waited until Sunday so they could make an offer to Smart. Smart reviewed and said no. There is absolutely no one Yow can hire tomorrow, except Stevens, that she couldn’t of hired two weeks ago except Marshall.

    I can’t spin that State has had a 3 week long search and the name that was clearly our choice, a mid-major coach, stays put basically saying no.

    I think State can get a solid coach but I see it very unlikely, not impossible until the AD lady sings, that State will hire a coach that makes a splash. Could work in the long run but hell, State could of hired a non-NCAA mid-major 3 weeks ago, except Marshall and he could of been in Raleigh last weekend.

  4. beeeejay 04/04/2011 at 1:21 PM #

    BJD i will ask why if our main targets have been finished for awhile why this search is still going on. Is it a matter of negotiating or will lucy pull the football out from us again?

  5. Rochester 04/04/2011 at 1:23 PM #

    Isn’t it possible that Debbie waited until she could have an opportunity to sit down face-to-face with Smart, and SHE decided he wasn’t the guy after interviewing him? No offer forth-coming = Shaka staying at VCU = media spinning it like he turned us down. But maybe we turned him down.

  6. BJD95 04/04/2011 at 1:23 PM #

    Or we announce the hire in the next day or two. And the hire will speak for itself.

  7. beeeejay 04/04/2011 at 1:28 PM #

    bjd i generally agree with your points in the posts that you write for sfn so i will take your optimism as a good sign and pray you are correct

  8. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 04/04/2011 at 1:30 PM #

    I don’t see how anyone can come to the conclusion that Yow has a big hire but just wanted to wait to give Shaka the chance to be considered. Or that she has had the top gun waiting for weeks and has finally decided to make the hire.

    If Yow had a big name, that big name would be in Raleigh. I hope I’m wrong but I can’t come to any other conclusion.

    Coaching searches that are going well don’t take over 3 weeks, really 4 weeks or longer knowing that Sid was out.

    Has Bobby Knight signed with UNLV yet? Bring him in and then hire Archie in 3 years.

  9. anonimus 04/04/2011 at 1:34 PM #

    Hurry Debbie, lock it in with Monte Towe and Larry Harris! Twitter and third parties are telling me they are the best you can get b/c you’re so mean.

  10. PackerInRussia 04/04/2011 at 1:35 PM #

    “So will we get another email response from the athletic department like we did with pastner if what bjd is saying is hopefully true?”

    I don’t see the need. That e-mail didn’t mention Pastner by name, so I think we can assume that it still holds true. Unless he wants to send out the same e-mail.

  11. wolflane74 04/04/2011 at 1:38 PM #

    Thinking negatively it could be that we are getting turned down by all of our A list and some of the B list.

    Thinking positively, DY could be waiting on Stevens because he has expressed interest through an intermediary or it is taking some time to work out a very large cotract with a home run type hire.

    I prefer to keep thinking psoitively until I hear officially.

  12. MattN 04/04/2011 at 1:39 PM #

    I don’t see how the latest development can be viewed as anything but devestating to the coaching search. It’s one thing to get turned down by a 1st ballot HOFer. We just got turned down by a 33yo one-hit wonder. This is a huge black eye.

  13. PackerInRussia 04/04/2011 at 1:43 PM #

    If Smart really was a last resort, do we need to keep an eye on Debbie in case she tries to pull a Jerry Lundegaard and “flee the interview” process? Post a few people outside of motels near cities of interest just in case.

  14. highstick 04/04/2011 at 1:44 PM #

    Dang, we sure have a lot of stupid fans! None of which should ever be close to serving on a search committee for a coach!

  15. PackerInRussia 04/04/2011 at 1:47 PM #

    By the way, I pointed to this article (http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/tournament/2011/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=6276122) on the forums to say that Shaka may not be interested in leaving. There were some things in that article that made me think that he might be wired a bit differently than others and wouldn’t leave just to make some mo’ money. I could still be wrong of course.

  16. statemech 04/04/2011 at 1:47 PM #

    I don’t think anyone should take any “recent development” seriously. If there’s anything I’ve learned from following discussion here and elsewhere it’s that nobody will know anything until our final decision is OFFICIALLY announced. I’ve seen everybody here go from pessimistic to optimistic and back again many times. WE should all sit back, relax, wait, and AFTER the official word has been announced we can start to react.

  17. 74wulf 04/04/2011 at 1:48 PM #

    No way to spin this one folks. All those who think this search is significantly different from Fowler’s, please stand up. And those standing, if you think DY’s row with GW doesn’t hurt us, please bend over.

  18. Wulfpack 04/04/2011 at 1:51 PM #

    We made an offer, guys. He turned us down. The VCU AD confrimed it.

  19. NCSU84 04/04/2011 at 1:56 PM #

    THIS JUST IN:

    Shaka Smart to remain at VCU

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6290035&campaign=rss&source=NCBHeadlines

  20. Deucepeters 04/04/2011 at 1:59 PM #

    It’s awful quiet on the SFN authors front. Bewildered?

  21. wolfpackdawg 04/04/2011 at 2:01 PM #

    I wonder if Jim Harrick or Bruce Pearl are interested?

  22. beeeejay 04/04/2011 at 2:01 PM #

    I just want to know if we can get our money back from the search firm since we are paying to keep it quiet

  23. nav 04/04/2011 at 2:09 PM #

    Once again State loses the PR war. Damn you Jimmy V curse.

  24. BJD95 04/04/2011 at 2:17 PM #

    We can’t make VCU’s AD be quiet, can we?

    Perhaps we’ve been working on the big fish, and just now are close to final with him. That still makes the most sense to me.

    The die is cast. When it’s over, we will know whether DY played her hand correctly.

  25. BJD95 04/04/2011 at 2:20 PM #

    Anything in the media or twitter-verse is absolute garbage. Quit freaking yourselves out. We will know soon enough whether the doomsday prophecies are true. I still completely think they are not.

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