Time Heals All Knee Jerks

Raise your hand if, like me, you gave a loud “What the hell?” when Mark Gottfried was announced as the new Wolfpack men’s basketball coach nearly a year ago. I admit it – at this time a year ago, I was spending hours on the internet trolling for the scoop on who State would hire. Barnes didn’t want the job, Miller didn’t want the job, Smart didn’t want the job. When I heard the name Gottfried, my first knee-jerk reaction was that NC State had flubbed yet another basketball hire. I mean, this guy wasn’t even employed as a coach when we landed him!

Here we sit a year later and with the benefit of hindsight, it is clear that Mark Gottfried was the right choice to bring our beloved men’s basketball program back from the dead. I’m not saying that the man is the second coming of Everett Case, only time will tell that. But the clear improvement in the Wolfpack players between this year and last year can’t be ignored. This guy can coach and teach basketball.

The fact that so many of us were scratching our heads over Gottfried’s hire is another example of what I wrote (but then failed to actually practice) during the coaching search, Ya Gotta Know What Ya Don’t Know. If only I followed my own advice when I wrote;

There are a gazillion factors in hiring a major college basketball coach. And the great majority of those factors are things that the average fan doesn’t know by judging a win-loss record or watching games on television. We are making strong judgments based largely on perception.

Instead, I jerked my knee banging it so hard when I read that the choice was Gottfried. It turns out that the sky wasn’t falling and the Athletic Director Debbie Yow did actually know what she was doing in hiring Gottfried. Was he the first choice? No, but he was the right choice and clearly Yow had the professional expertise to make the right call. This is an expertise that I and certainly most other Wolfpack fans don’t have.

And those so-called “name” coaches we all wanted? Check out our StateFans Nation Forums for an update on coaches named Barnes, Miller and Turgeon who are now scheduling their tee times rather than basketball practice.

My knee has healed nicely, thanks for asking!

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.

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60 Responses to Time Heals All Knee Jerks

  1. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 03/13/2012 at 6:48 PM #

    “We got Gott on the cheap (particularly compared to how much MD overpaid for Turg, how much we supposedly offered Smart and how much Gregg Marshall supposedly wanted), so we should have had money left over to hire a good staff.”

    ADVEN— This was a big key and why I think Yow is a great AD. I don’t think she did a great job on the search but the ending was more than anyone could of wanted. A hungry young coach with a ton of success. A guy in his mid 40’s with 294 wins.

    The money thing is important. Gott said he told Yow he wanted to increase the strength of schedule. According to Gott, this required State to buy out of contracts with some teams. Yow also understand a sold out RBC (PNC?) Center brings in bigggggg bucks.

  2. 61Packer 03/13/2012 at 7:51 PM #

    All you need to know about Coach Gott is the players’ reaction video of State finally getting the NCAA call after waiting nearly an hour. Gott was right there with his players in joyful celebration.

    Lowe might’ve smiled and shook some hands had he been the coach, but it wouldn’t have been anything like yesterday. And Sendek wouldn’t even have been in the room.

    I am proud that Mark Gottfried is our basketball coach! And I’m pretty happy with that Yow woman too!

    And as far as end-game situations, we simply need a good point guard, which we’ll have eventually. One thing at a time!

  3. coach13 03/13/2012 at 8:07 PM #

    For me the reasons just keep mounting for why Gottfried is turning out to be a near perfect hire to date. Not just the obvious improvement of the team he inherited, the better game plan, or the players he’s landed for next year. We have IMO benefited greatly from his friendships and connections from his time with ESPN, and has gotten us some positive exposure we never would have gotten otherwise, and the timing is perfect.

  4. ADVENTUROO 03/13/2012 at 8:16 PM #

    tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc,

    I’m 100% with you. I lost my point in my first post. The fact that Yow had her back to the wall, but did have some “recources” and then did the evaulation, made a decision and then ran with it is what I am impressed about her.

    The email to the world was also, albeit a little “intriguing” at least ONE way to get the word out since the rumor mills were flying. I don’t know all the intracies of Gott and other schools. I really do think that she had had some conversations with Gott PRIOR and he might not have been her 1st or 2nd choice. She is a tough person and she rarely lets PC get in the way of showing her feelings. The letter was an attempt to give us some feedback.

    So far, the Yow and Gott additions have been some of the BEST things that have happened to State Athletics. I think that we have only just begun to see the positives from both.

  5. LRM 03/13/2012 at 9:12 PM #

    “I’d like to ask our very own LRM to again describe the scene of when he found out our next coach was going to be Mark Gottfried.

    Classic.”

    Here you go buddy: “By the time Mark Gottfried was hired, I was indifferent, borderline lethargic.

    I was working in Puerto Rico that week, with no 3G and very limited Wi-Fi, and I’d already begun my self-imposed month-long hiatus – like I do every spring – away from all things N.C. State, which is entirely necessary to preserve my sanity. Every April I wonder how that kid from the foothills ended up a lifelong State fan and the only answer that ever seems to make sense is indeed quite simple: it wasn’t a choice, it’s inherent. So every May I find my way back.

    I’ll forever remember my response on that Tuesday afternoon in April, when I got my buddy’s text [from the aforementioned codebrown] that we’d hired Gottfried, which mercifully ended another grueling coaching search that it’s unfair to call mishandled, but entirely fair to call disappointing: “Don’t even joke about that, can you imagine how screwed we are if that’s true?””

    Fast forward to now: Let’s just say he’s grown on me, and it’s finally nice to be wrong (for a change).

    (Originally here: http://www.statefansnation.com/index.php/archives/2011/10/19/lrm-on-mark-gottfried/)

  6. blpack 03/13/2012 at 10:22 PM #

    Coach Gott has had a remarkable first season. So much to be looking forward to in the future. We’ll see how it goes, but it seems things are going to be different this time.

  7. howlie 03/14/2012 at 6:38 AM #

    “We’re BACK!”

    “Hold on–now hold on, Debbie. It’s going to take a little time…”

  8. McCallum 03/14/2012 at 6:51 AM #

    Three to six years down the road gents not one year.

    Peace out

    McCallum

  9. wufpup76 03/14/2012 at 8:25 PM #

    I said ‘WTF?’ … I was absolutely dead wrong.

  10. ryebread 03/15/2012 at 11:38 AM #

    McCallum is correct. We’ve been played by fool’s gold a couple of times recently with coaching hires.

    We’ll see where we stand a few years down the road. I personally hope it turns out well, but there are no guarantees.

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