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Look, even though I’m NOT giving Keatts much of a chance (which I freely admit), I certainly DO hope to be proven wrong. But I do think this is another case of bad process leading to bad result.
Heard one of the reasons DY did not like Wade so much, and it definitely falls into the category of the unsavory aspects of her persona/leadership style. No, I will NOT repeat it, because I am not personally confident in the sourcing…but it makes logical sense. And it likely just reinforced what she preferred to do anyway – path of least resistance.
You can find this elsewhere on the wolven interwebs if so inclined.
What I will ask is that people consider my track record. I had a similar, very public freakout when we hired Mark Gottfried. I let myself be talked off the ledge there, but my first instinct was right. I was the first guy off the Amato bandwagon, and I told you so on the SFN front page, and signed my name to it (when it was not popular to do so, and gave you details, but not all of them).
Anybody with a pulse and eyeballs could see the Lowe thing, I shall claim no credit for that. And I was wholly in favour of the TOB experiment, so you can hold that against me. Hey, we developed two awesome QBs that we can watch on Sunday in RW and The Giraffe! Viva the Dreaded Giraffe Sprint!!
Like Rick says, if you became a Top 25 by talent alone, then Sid and Gott would have done it with ease. Recruiting has never, ever been a problem here…which is again, why I scratch my head at DY/WM being dazzled by a recruiter-type instead of a proven tactician/motivator.
Even with all the self-imposed restrictions, LES didn’t recruit THAT poorly. And some of the biggest misses (Jason Sasser, cough cough) were self-inflicted wounds.
Both the amount AND length of the contract were extremely ill-advised. And nobody is looking to hire him away from us, that is pure bay at the moon lunacy.
Also, did you know the daytime bartendrix at PR looks much like Zoe Baird from House of Cards?? Me likey.
I pushed and prodded for more info, and here’s what I think (80% confidence level, combo of intel, gut, and Occam’s Razor):
I believe that had: (i) NC State adequately addressed Arch’s concerns about the athletic department OR (ii) Indiana not opened up, THEN we had a better than 50/50 shot to make him our coach.
I also believe that DY made sure she signed Keatts before Dayton tipped off to make sure she never had to speak to Arch. That wasn’t coincidence.
Yes, I do blame her for signing Keatts without talking to others. It was a classic selfish “dick move” – made Big Pig happy (and her retirement parade tour easier by rational deduction), and kept there from being any possible “no” in the wind.
What it did NOT do is make sure we explored all possible ceiling opportunities for NC State long-term. But that didn’t exactly line up with DY’s motivations, now, did it? Basic human nature. Not being proactive, NC State didn’t see or consider it. Penny wise and pound foolish, they saved $1.5M in not firing Yow, but committed $15M guaranteed to a completely unproven Keatts.
That’s my case, in a nutshell.
I mean, he can’t be thinking the fans will be gentler at IU than State. Half the fans there have turned on Arch ALREADY. They cray-cray. But Arch is supremely confident, and doesn’t worry about shit like that.
To the extent Sendek (we can use his name again, now that we’ve slipped a rung, the prohibition seems silly) is in Papa Miller’s ear, I have no idea. But Arch is his own man.
We just have to respect his choice. Damned shame IU couldn’t manage a lousy NCAAT season and maybe we close the deal. Given our recent history, dunno why I’d be optimistic, but I was…
I think it IS a reference to Yow, and I would be careful in thinking Papa Miller speaks for Arch. He took the Dayton job without telling him, and he very well could have been conducting his business this time around without him being very much in the loop.
What you VERY EASILY COULD HAVE is just an irritated father throwing shade back after a whispering campaign about Arch being “scared” once we made our panic hire. That would piss most folks off. And it’s really pretty narrowly focused – like Rick, I take it to mean Yow/the athletics department.
I think Arch LIKELY had some concerns about the athletics department, but very well might have still taken our job had IU not come open. But we will never know.
No need to keep beating this into the ground. I just wanted to congratulate a good man/alumnus, and wish him well on the national stage. At least his side wears red, has a history of f-cking over the Holes (1984 Sweet 16), and fits better as the new Shadow Pack than Coach Cal’s bunch did. 😀
Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson would both be stoked!!
Hopefully. But flawed process usually means flawed result (as it did with MG), and I just can’t abide by it. Tuning out is my only option for self-preservation. Maybe in a few years the clouds will lift, but ain’t counting on it.
Most ADs wouldn’t interview a low-major coach who JUST HAPPENS to be a major donor’s buddy and stop there. Ours did. Take from that what you will. YMMV.
At some level, I view it as NC State functionally choosing Debbie Yow over Arch Miller*. Pure insanity. It was all very foreseeable.
* It’s still possible that Indiana opening up would have screwed us over even if we had made a change in the athletic department with a strategic eye towards wooing him (or another top mid-major coach) in mind.
BUT…we would have gone to Plan B instead of C.
^^^ Them’s the concerns he had re the athletic department. Too bad we didn’t address them proactively. Seems like some people said that would be an issue and should be addressed immediately after the 2015-16 season.
^ It’s projection. We want to deflect any possible criticisms, failures, and/or self-reflection on NC State, and pin it all on “the other” instead. Feels good, right? It’s like eating junk food and being told it will make you lose weight.
If/when one stops to think about it, one sees that it’s the road to madness. But the powers that be rely on you NOT thinking, because it will HURT. Just keep riding the “feel good” wave.
Popping in from exile solely to comment on this. Very happy that Arch gets recognized as the top coach on the market this cycle, and all the national writers I’ve seen have agreed this is a home run hire.
Let this lay to rest some of the worst slanders of Arch, especially that he’s “scared” – Bloomington is a place where your feet will be held to the fire. They see across the state line what glories UK recaptured when John Calipari (hey, the OTHER one that got away) came to town, and they expect at least that.
Arch ain’t scared. He believes in himself, that he will win titles. You have to get past the Blues to do that, no matter where you are.
Arch ain’t disloyal. If you polled 100 coaches, 100 would take the Indiana job over NC State. 99 wouldn’t even consider NC State a plausible alternative. The 1 who would is/was Arch Miller, but we had no proactive strategy to sell him on the job, nor address the concerns he (somewhat speculatively may have) had about the athletic department.
I wish him all the best. After all, he can become a major thorn in the side of programs we hate now. And he’s a good man.
Really truly, I have enjoyed writing here, but what NC State has allowed itself to become is just unbearable to me, and I don’t have it in me anymore. Take care, imaginary internet friends.
We don’t know that Miller was even engaged. He’s still
Playing. Yow jumped the second someone was available.path of least resistance, donor buddy too. Makes her last 2 years easy. TOTES looking out for US, you see.
I’m just way too angry, guys. I want to keep fighting the good fight with logic and such, but it’s mean to interrupt the “sugar high” that people will want to enjoy from the initial press conferences, etc. And it will just make me angrier and more depressed over the opportunity that NC State has lost, and how BADLY the powers that be have failed ALL OF YOU.
So…I shall go away. At least for awhile, perhaps for good. State athletics died today, so I hardly see the point of poking at the corpse. Enough words have been typed.
Marshall is just a nut job wanting raises
I really am not concerned with personality so long as the man wins. And that Marshall does.
That’s something that doesn’t go together, and never will again in my lifetime. NC State and wins.
I sure wish I could have all my money and time back.
It means Marshall just wanted a raise.
And Archie wasn’t coming no matter how many chickens BJD sacrificed
You TALK to the man, like he pledged he would when his season ended. You don’t panic and hire this random “just a guy” – he can wait, or who gives a shit if he doesn’t?
She did it for personal and (donor) political expediency. It’s chickenshit. Like the decision to retain her once MG’s wheels started flying off.
Face it boys.. we’re less than mediocre basketball school these days. Nothing about this makes any sense. Yow absolutely rushed this search in an overcompensation of her last basketball search. It was totally bungled.
This entirely.
This happens when a weak AD – who is NOT vested in the longterm – needs to make sure she doesn’t get in a jam. NC State needed to go all out for the BEST coach possible, and she was just like “oh no, not THAT again” and picked the easiest option.
It’s more the administration’s fault for letting her make the decision. From this point forward, giving NC State a plum nickel makes YOU part of the problem. Although actually…it doesn’t really matter. Throw your $$ away if you want. But what’s dead is dead, and ain’t coming back.
I have no interest in how Keatts flails around or when he’s fired. We’ve blown it, and we’re done.
Yow is WORSE than Fowlup. I have no idea how we will manage to find someone even worse than her, but I’m sure we will be committed to trying.
Nothing matters except who the Down East money has seen on the Rubber Chicken circuit and eaten hush puppies with. This is what happens when you have a weak AD.
I am officially done with NC State basketball. DONE.
Same. I don’t even have the energy to flame this on the front page anymore. It’s just a garbage hire by a garbage AD that was kept on by a garbage, callow administration.
State won’t get another dollar from me until the day I die. And NC State athletics is officially dead today.
NC State isn’t in a tougher neighborhood than any other ACC job. No matter where you are geographically, you still play UNC and Duke once or twice, and maybe in the tournament.
And even the loss probably helps your RPI. A win skyrockets it.
Both my kids (high school sophomore girls, seen maybe 15 mins of hoops this season between ’em) both picked that one, even.
Fortunately, I didn’t have this pegged as super-upsetty.
You have to convince the top names on the list, like Arch. It’s the biggest, toughest decision of a lifetime for him.
