The Wolfpack’s loss in the RBC Center on Sunday at the hands of a West Virginia basketball program that has wandered aimlessly through the college basketball landscape since the days of Jerry West was another painful pill offerred up by a coach and program that simply cannot establish itself as better than mediocre in non-conference competition.
Herb Sendek’s nine year run of out of conference woes are well chronicled. But, the loss to third year coach, John Beilein’s Mountaineers underscored another interesting statistic for those that care enough to compare.
(Sidebar: Forgive me for my curiosity — but, how is that a guy named John Beilein can turn West friggin Virginia into a ranked team in just over 2 seasons and NC State fans were forced to accept Herb Sendek’s failures for more than half a decade? By the time that you read this, Belien’s Mountaineer program will have been ranked in the Top 25 almost as many weeks in his 3rd season than Herb Sendek’s Wolfpack were ranked in the Top 25 for the cumulative of his first eight seasons!!!! Sorry…..that is a topic for another day….)
West Virignia’s win at NC State was their second consecutive win over a ranked opponent in less than a week; the Mountaineers defeated George Washington just 4 days earlier. That said:
* West Virginia has won 2 basketball games on the home court of ranked, non-conference opponents in the span of FIVE DAYS. NC State has managed to win 2 basketball games on the home court of ranked, non-conference opponents in the span of NINE YEARS.
* John Beilein at West Virginia has won 3 OOC games away from home against ranked opponents in 2.5 years and Herb Sendek has won 3 OOC games away from home against ranked opponents in 8.5 years.
As ludicrous as the last decade of NC State basketball has been….I must tell you that I never thought that I would scratch my head and wish that we could be like West friggin Virginia.
