A quick suggestion for NC State’s new Basketball Coach — hire yourself your OWN media relations/marketing person to help run things for you; because if you continue to leave things up to the same folks who have been running things for you then you are going to always be behind the 8-ball.
Wednesday’s NC State media day was just another glaring example of how little strategic thought is invested in important items such as media relations and brand management — Sidney’s brand. Ned Barnett was so flabbergasted by the flub that he wrote an entire piece on it in the News & Observer.
When he coached in the NBA, Sidney Lowe would get so consumed by some losses that on his way home he would miss his exit and be 20 miles past before he realized it. On Tuesday, N.C. State’s new coach was so consumed by trying to win he missed his entrance.
State held its men’s basketball media day Tuesday, and the focus should have been on who will be playing and how Lowe will be coaching. Instead, it was all about who won’t be playing — Andrew Brackman — and how Lowe will coach around the 6-foot-11 gap the power forward’s absence leaves in State’s already depleted lineup.
All that distraction could have been avoided by issuing a statement last week that Brackman has chosen to play baseball instead of basketball.
Brackman’s decision is obviously no surprise to anyone who visits SFN. (Link) So, why wasn’t someone from the media relations department on top of this from the start? Why wasn’t someone taking point and advising Coach Lowe on how to manage through the Brackman announcement in a manner that deflected the least amount of spotlight from the glow of Lowe’s first media day?
Ironically, Tuesday’s events away from Media Day also provided some support for this suggestion that Lowe hire someone to help him manage his brand and focus on marketing when Chris Wright chose Georgetown over NC State. Wright made his official visit to State on the weekend of the App State football game. Do yourself a favor and click on this link and read “Missed Opportunities”.
We continue to contend that NC State missed a HUGE opportunity to welcome/feature Coach Lowe during the App State football game in front of 60,000 Wolfpackers. Since nobody at State was astute enough to take advantage of the opportunity to show Coach Lowe love in front of Wright, nobody will ever know the impact that such an event would have had on Chris Wright’s comfort with the situation at NC State. But, we do konw that Chris Wright is familiar with Fox 50’s nightly television line-up and that he may be more inclined to use Alltel while he is waiting in line to buy some House Autry Mills.
