Flashback Friday: ‘Sidney Lowe Should Be Sendek’s Choice’

A very loyal reader sent us a note to remind us of this old entry that we had penned on May 4th, 2005.

At that point in time, Larry Hunter had just left Herb Sendek’s staff and fans were discussing alternatives for a potential replacement. In the entry, we propose one name to fill the void – Sidney Lowe.

Click here to see – Why Sidney Lowe should be Sendek’s choice.

We hope that innovative thought and conversatioin like THIS is why you read SFN!!

The following is a quick summary of some of the comments made almost EXACTLY ONE YEAR PRIOR to Coach Lowe’s coronation as the HEAD COACH at NC State. Please don’t let the summary replace the act of clicking on this link to go back and read the entire piece.

Now that I’ve had some time to think about this…I am convinced the IDEAL candidate for the current open position on the staff is Sidney Lowe.

I’ve heard some rumblings that Lowe may be interested in the position, but I admittedly do not feel as confident in these sources as many. Regardless of Lowe’s current level interest, I think that it would be a huge mistake not to aggressively reach out to the one time Wolfpacker for the current job.

Lowe is the IDEAL candidate for the current opening because he adds the most strength to most parts of Sendek’s program that are the weakest. He seems to be a perfect complement across many parts of the program — the most important of which would be adding some NBA luster to Sendek’s resume that is woefully short on professional-level success.

Outside of Nate McMillan, Sidney Lowe is as NBA-centric as anyone directly related to the NC State program…

Sidney is a natural link to NC State’s championship tradition, he is loved by Wolfpackers and has a reputation in basketball circles as a likeable personality with an easy-going demeanor. If one of the most popular players who ever donned a uniform for the venerable Morgan Wooten AND Jim Valvano can’t build relationships with key high school coaches and top talent, then I’m not sure anyone can.

Maybe you are (unfortunately) like so many around the once proud NC State program that only want a “competitive program” that is “really good” (but not necessarily competitive in our own state). Or, maybe some subjective criteria like “improvement” is more your style. If the program continues to evolve toward these supposed goals, then it will be fun to see what obscure assistant who re-inforces Sendek?s already low national profile is hired to help bring some hidden gem of a prospect to Raleigh from Turkmanistan.

If not, and NC State finally shifts gears toward legitimately attempting to compete with top national competition, then we will see Sidney Lowe (or someone that offers a similar kind of resume) sitting next to Larry Harris and contributing to the re-emergence of the Wolfpack program.

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50 Responses to Flashback Friday: ‘Sidney Lowe Should Be Sendek’s Choice’

  1. Mr O 05/18/2007 at 11:39 AM #

    This is when Harris was promoted and Archie was added as a full-time assistant…right?

    If Lowe did come back as an assistant, then it would be interesting to know what would have happened and who would be our head coach today. Lowe probably would have been a more obvious candidate if Sendek had still left NC State for ASU assuming Lowe’s impact while at NC State as an assistant was positive. Maybe Fowler’s two month search would have lasted about two weeks like most other searches and ended quickly with Sidney Lowe? Who knows?

  2. packbackr04 05/18/2007 at 12:01 PM #

    herb who? i dunno, i dunno who youre talking about.

  3. Lunatic Fringe 05/18/2007 at 12:09 PM #

    “If not, and NC State finally shifts gears toward legitimately attempting to compete with top national competition, then we will see Sidney Lowe (or someone that offers a similar kind of resume) sitting next to Larry Harris and contributing to the re-emergence of the Wolfpack program.”

    ^^Carnac-like…

    Carnac the Magnificant:
    http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/2/21/Carnac.jpg

  4. vtpackfan 05/18/2007 at 12:24 PM #

    There was one version of Wolfpack family then, and it included the likes of Archie Miller and not the likes of Sidney Lowe.

    I’m not going to accuse the previous regime of being idiots. If Sendek goes off in three to five years and has a streak of bringing ASU to five consecutive NCAA’s then we will be vindicated as a very talented and imaginitive head coach. I really don’t care. I hope we meet up with him in the tourney and deal with it that way.

  5. vtpackfan 05/18/2007 at 12:26 PM #

    I menat that “he will be vindicated”, as everyone knows you can never fully vindicate a lunatic.

  6. vtpackfan 05/18/2007 at 12:35 PM #

    Speaking of recruitment and Turkmanistan, saw that Catalin Baciu from Romania by way of Veritas Christian School near Asheville just signed with Clemson. I’m kind of glad in a way that we are not going any more Euro then we have to at this point. Holding out hope for Big Lew to get healthy and grab a few minutes here and there.

  7. BoKnowsNCS71 05/18/2007 at 12:36 PM #

    True SFN — This is why I read SFN. When Larry left, I had this sinking feeling because we had just lost our real “coach” — as for the other guy — I shall not speak of him nor throw salt in my/our wounds.

  8. SuperStuff 05/18/2007 at 12:42 PM #

    Larry Hunter is 14th in most wins in the NCAA. When he arrived we started winning games and going to the NCAA tournament. I thought Herb had promoted the audio/video guy to the staff after Larry left and bumped everyone else up.

  9. CedarGroveWolf 05/18/2007 at 12:47 PM #

    “I’m kind of glad in a way that we are not going any more Euro then we have to at this point.”

    I wouldn’t mind having other players like EA & IE on the team. Can always use smart, good shooting, good passing players.

  10. CedarGroveWolf 05/18/2007 at 12:48 PM #

    “When he arrived we started winning games and going to the NCAA tournament.”

    We also got some guy named Hodge at the same time.

  11. lush 05/18/2007 at 1:11 PM #

    “Can always use smart, good shooting, good passing players.”

    this is true, every great team needs quality guys to back up the starters.

    but your obviously not going to win games versus good competition with slow and undersized players….. who are smart, good shooters and good passers.

  12. RedTerror29 05/18/2007 at 1:16 PM #

    Herb was smart – he already knew who would replace him!

    From the comments on the original post:

    “todd Says:

    May 6th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
    I think Lowe would be a great addition to the staff we need someone I consider high profile but Herb is not going to hire his replacement.”

  13. Mr O 05/18/2007 at 1:20 PM #

    I hope like hell we go after players as good as Engin Atsur.

  14. PapaJohn 05/18/2007 at 1:24 PM #

    1. I too wondered if Larry H was the architect of our success while he was there. I’d love to have dinner with him some time to get the behind the scenes story of that administration. At the time I was hoping he’d somehow take over.
    2. Yes, this is why SFN is the best. I completely missed the ‘Lowe as a possible asst coach’ story. That is an amazing post. However, I can’t see Sid actually doing it if he was making in the neighborhood of a million a year as an AC in the NBA. We couldn’t afford him.

    Thank heavens it worked out how it did!

  15. PapaJohn 05/18/2007 at 1:26 PM #

    ^ the bold was accidental

  16. CedarGroveWolf 05/18/2007 at 1:37 PM #

    I would think EA & IE(pre-injury) would have started for most D1 teams.

  17. redfred2 05/18/2007 at 1:40 PM #

    Cedar, I actually agree with you on EA & IE, and I definitely don’t have a problem with Euro-ballers myself. I especially like the “Euro-Canadian” who’s playing in the NBA right now. I am going to try not to get into any debates, unless someone contradicts any little thing I say of course, 😉 but Etimov was fundamentally sound when he first arrived. Maybe not that athletic, but he presented enough problems with his passing game to throw defenders off and pick and choose his own scoring opportunities. Unfortunately, with Simmons put in that center(?) position, and left to make those quick passing decisions out front, Etimov faded away and his skills diminished and weren’t capitalized on in his later seasons. I guess the same was true for both Etimov and Atsur, all they needed was a little more help. I’m glad both played at NCSU, and I’d love to have many more just like them in the future. But hopefully, if we’re lucky enough to have future recruits with such talents, they would be the glue, and they wouldn’t be expected to carry the team as was the case in the past.

    In the word’s of Chuck Amato, “We have to achieve some balance.”

  18. TNCSU 05/18/2007 at 2:16 PM #

    Word on the street is that Big Lew is actually doing pretty well. I think we didn’t go after Bacui that hard because of that fact – we don’t need two 7 footers -esp. with Hickson and McCauley. I think we’ll be looking at a SF for 2008 to go with Mays and Williams. I’ve heard Big Lew is a presence on D and has a nice little lefty jump hook.

  19. lush 05/18/2007 at 2:18 PM #

    ok ok, maybe i am being to hard on these guys.

    it is not IE’s fault that he played CENTER for the majority of his time here. that was herbs fault. why in gods name would a slow as dirt 6’7″ with a small forward skill set gaurd the opposing teams center?

    atsur was a great player for us, but today’s game requires speed, especially at the point, that atsur unfortuneatly did not have and it killed us on the defensive side of the ball vs. pretty much every other acc team

  20. CedarGloveWulf 05/18/2007 at 2:24 PM #

    Herb had weaknesses?

    That’s just slanderous.

  21. packbackr04 05/18/2007 at 2:26 PM #

    So does anyone know anything about Jarret Mann or Miles Plumlee for the class of 08?

  22. TNCSU 05/18/2007 at 2:29 PM #

    I think Mann was originally committed to Stanford, but has opened it back up – – Plumlee I don’t know about. I think we’re also looking at D. Jones from Hickson’s H.S. in Ga. He looks like a Courtney Fells type player – long and athletic.

  23. CedarGroveWolf 05/18/2007 at 2:34 PM #

    “I think we’ll be looking at a SF for 2008 to go with Mays and Williams”

    right now there are no openings in the ’08 class. good to hear about Lew.

  24. CedarGroveWolf 05/18/2007 at 2:35 PM #

    “it is not IE’s fault that he played CENTER for the majority of his time here. ”

    I thought Powell, Collins & Ced played center? IE played the 4.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. StateFans Nation » Blog Archive » Flashback Friday: ‘Sidney Lowe Should Be Sendek’s Choice’ - 05/18/2007

    […] At that point in time, Larry Hunter had just left Herb Sendek’s staff and fans were discussing alternatives for a potential replacement. In the entry, we propose one name to fill the void – Sidney Lowe. […]

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