Note: The following essay was provided to Statefans’ by a long time Wolfpack fan. We appreciate the opportunity to publish the perspective.
What I Think REALLY Happened Nine Years Ago
By Sammy Kent
I’ve related this story before, in conversations and on message boards, but it has taken on a clearer meaning for me as I’ve pondered it and considered the situation of our basketball program at NC State.
In the late spring of 1996, the Capitol Area Wolfpack Club or Alumni Association, I forget which, held its annual picnic for the DC/MD/VA residents somewhere in the Centreville area of northern Virginia. There were between fifty and a hundred Wolfpackers there. We were all very excited at the prospect of genuine North Carolina barbecue and the chance to speak with new assistant basketball coach Sean Miller.
When the time came for Coach Miller to speak to the group he very graciously introduced himself, spoke highly of the University and the administration, gave praise to the players, fans and boosters, and talked a little about Coach Sendek, the rest of the staff, and their first full (1997-98) recruiting class which included Miller’s brother Archie. He told how much they looked forward to coaching the Pack and seeing us all at the games. All very vanilla, but very nice, nonetheless. We were all enthused about getting behind the new regime. When he finished, he asked if anyone had any questions or comments.
I waited a few seconds for anyone else to talk, but when no one did right away I spoke up. I said, “Yes, coach. Two words. National Championship.” Someone to the right of me said “Right.” Sean Miller looked at me and at the smiling, nodding heads sitting before him with a totally blank look for about two seconds. Then he said in a stunned monotone, “Wow, you guys are serious!” It seemed to take him a full ten seconds to regain his composure, and recite off some standard shibboleths about doing everything possible to have a winning program.
Right then and there I was terribly uneasy about what we had brought to Raleigh. It seemed then and seems now that ANY coach that came to NC State, the heart of the ACC, winner of multiple conference and national championships, would be prepared to IMMEDIATELY declare that “Yes, our goal is to win the ACC Championship, and the national championship. We know all about the history of NC State basketball, and we intend to add to that litany of greatness.” However, it was obvious that the coaching staff had not a single thought among themselves about actually delivering the “serious” (and undoubtedly lofty in their minds) accomplishments these particular Washington area fans seemed to be expecting.
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that ANY new ACC coach, even at Clemson or FSU, would be thrilled to have a fanbase that wants him to succeed at the highest level. After all, that’s really what championships come down to: if the program is winning titles, the coach is making his mark as one of the best. Wouldn’t any coach want that? Wouldn’t any coach be happy to have such rabid support for attaining that goal? What made this coach and his staff different? What was it that made the idea of competing for and actually winning the national championship so foreign?
Here’s what I think happened. Because of the lingering stigma of probation and the obvious contempt held by Chancellor Larry Monteith toward former coach Jim Valvano, I believe a concerted effort was made by the administration to place an unrealistic premium on the ideal of a “clean” program without regard to on-court results. I believe now that Monteith and Athletics Director Todd Turner went out of their way to assure Herb Sendek that while wins and losses might figure somewhat in the job evaluation equation, his first overwhelming duty was to make sure the academic and ethical integrity of the basketball program was so spotless that no remote hint of impropriety could ever be raised against it. I believe Turner and Monteith gave Sendek all the assurance in the world that as long as NC State stayed out of trouble, he would be all right with the administration and the University system. I think he was given the firm impression that they did not expect NC State to compete with Carolina and Duke year in and year out, game in and game out, and that as long as he scored the occasional victory against them and won enough other games to get State into the NCAAs most years, he would be just fine. Anything above that would be gravy, but if it doesn’t happen, don’t worry too much about it.
Why do I think that? Because I can fathom no other explanation for why Herb Sendek has apparently felt no urgency from his employer to win championships, build a program that emulates or exceeds Carolina’s or Duke’s, or make sustained NCAA Tournament runs. I can think of no other reason why Sean Miller was so flabbergasted to learn that what the Boss Coach heard from his bosses was so different from what the fans themselves were saying about THEIR expectations for the program and the new coach. I can think of no other reason why the utter failure in eight years to win a conference championship, advance beyond the round of 32, or build a program that can consistently finish in the top echelon of the ACC regular season is rewarded with contract extensions, rollovers, and public votes of confidence. I can think of no other reason why, when he has been handed every conceivable advantage in fan passion, facilities, and tradition, this coach continues to behave as if he is doing the fans and University a favor by simply maintaining a team at all, and a clean one at that, apparently against all odds.
As far as Herb Sendek is concerned, he is doing his job just as efficiently and completely as his employer first told him he should. The only urgency Herb feels to reach those goals comes entirely from the fans. However, as then, he needn’t worry now about the fans’ expectations. There has been no change of attitude from Todd Turner to Les Robinson to Lee Fowler in the AD’s office, and the only Chancellor NC State has had in fifteen years that placed a premium on athletic excellence as a vital portion of the school’s overall mission was pushed out of her job. Herb’s current supervisor has made it clear both publicly and privately that he considers those who think the coach should be replaced a tiny minority of about fifty people that he calls the lunatic fringe.
So this is the problem: Herb Sendek’s job performance is based almost entirely on keeping the program’s nose clean, and moving players toward graduation. Wins and losses, championship banners, restoring the name of NC State University to a place among college basketball’s elite–none of those things is terribly important to the people who evaluate Herb Sendek. In fact, in their minds, pursuing those things very much at all places in jeopardy the clean program and its academic integrity. I suspect very strongly that Mssrs. Turner and Monteith poisoned the well with the oft-repeated lie that NC State is so inherently disadvantaged vis-a-vis UNC-CH and Duke, that only by cheating could NC State attract and keep the players necessary to effectively and consistently compete against them. (Though I doubt they used that explicit word “cheating”, the implication was almost certainly there.) That lie has tragically been swallowed by many of our own fans who apparently believe that replacing Herb Sendek would guarantee the death of NC State’s integrity. Sadly, it is not just the Mike Gminskis and Matt Dohertys of the world who defend Sendek and excuse his record as if he is the only honest man NC State can find.
As others have so eloquently noted, running a clean program and maintaining academic integrity is something any coach is supposed to do. While failure to do so is certainly grounds for dismissal, doing it is hardly a standard for measuring total job performance. Certainly an employee in business or industry is expected to show up for work on time each day, but that cannot be the sole or even the primary criterion for judging that person’s efficacy on the job. In few walks of life could someone maintain their employment while producing mediocre results solely on the basis that he reports on time each day. Short of outright unethical collusion, the only other answer would be that the standard for acceptable results is ridiculously low.
Such is the case with Herb Sendek. He has been overly rewarded for simply doing what any coach should (run a clean program) and, in the minds of his superiors, adequately rewarded for meeting a performance standard that was plainly laid out for him by his employer nine years ago. Many fans are of the opinion that the standard is ridiculously low, and have been voicing their discontent with Sendek for the better part of five years. Others have believed that the standard was always higher, and that this coach would reach it eventually because it was expected of him by the administration. Unfortunately, what the fans have heard from the administration is but lip service to the “ideal” of a championship program. It is becoming increasingly obvious, even to those who have defended Herb Sendek’s continued tenure at NC State, that the administration has no intention of pursuing, aggressively or otherwise, a championship caliber basketball program. Hence, the exponential rise in the number of discontented voices among the Wolfpack fan base this season, as more and more realize that no on-court failure, no matter how catastrophic, will ever jeopardize Herb Sendek’s standing with Lee Fowler.
So now we must decide: in the throes of a disappointing season that began with high hopes for many, does Herb Sendek deserve another year at NC State? For those who wish to begin anew with a fresh face, this season forebodes a maddening and sickening prospect; because if Sendek is able to stay in his job another year, it will be almost impossible to justify firing him at any other point in the future. Next year it will be amost impossible to not get another pass. With the loss of Julius Hodge, State is bound to be picked by the media to finish near the bottom of the league. So, either the ACC record will improve by a game or two—it could hardly be much worse—or a below .500 league record will be justified by the loss of Hodge—even more so if Ilian Evtimov changes his mind and departs Raleigh after his graduation for professional ball in Europe. Justified, also, by the glowing 6-2 non-conference slate earned against such heavyweights as Prarie View A&M and that powerhouse to the east, ECU. Either way, another pass for Sendek. Just forget about anything resembling a 12-4 or even 10-6 record and victories over Carolina, Duke, and Wake Forest. That simply won’t happen. Even Ev Case would have trouble pulling that rabbit out of his hat next season, and Herb Sendek is surely no Everett Case. We will all be singing yet another chorus of “Wait Till Next Year”, and going over all these matters again, and again most likely to no avail.
But all the explanations (what some would call excuses) for any subpar season, either in 2006 or 2056 or any year in between, are simply smoke and mirrors to hide the real reason that Herb Sendek will always get a pass. That Sunday afternoon in 1996 makes it all too plain to me now: Herb Sendek is not expected to make NC State a national competitor, and he never was expected or hired to make NC State a national competitor. So far the only people he’s disappointed are the ones who naively thought he was.
