I thought that the stars might have been aligned for the Wolfpack on Tuesday night, but the Pack couldn’t pull through with a win for the home crowd (again). Carolina beat State by ten tonight. Why should Sendek’s Birthday be any different from the rest of his nine years.
NC State dropped to 15-11 overall and just 5-8 in the Atlantic Coast conference after shooting a scorching 46% from the 3-point arc and 91+% from the free throw line. Barring a run of three straight wins to close out the season, NC State will probably have to win the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament to qualify for Herb Sendek’s 4th NCAA Tournament in nine years of coaching at NC State.
* Herb Sendek is now 5-15 overall vs UNC-CH
* Herb Sendek is now 2-7 home vs UNC-CH
* Herb Sendek is now 2-4 in the RBC vs UNC-CH
* Herb Sendek is now 1-13 overall against Carolina coaches not named Matt Doherty
* Herb Sendek is now 0-6 in Ralegh against Carolina coaches not named Matt Doherty
Yo, Brando
Yo, Tim Brando. After your experience this past weekend, one would think that you would give our crowd some love.
Personnel Issues
= > Andrew Brackman looked incredible in the second half; he had 8 points in a 2 to 3 minute span. What a joy to watch the few minutes of playing time that he got. Perhaps next game he will learn his lesson and not play so well so that when he gets mysteriously benched and forgotten fans won’t second guess Mr. Carnegie Mellon. God I hope the ghosts of Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano weren’t watching tonight.
For you young folks who don’t know what I meant by those comments…and for Lee Fowler who doesn’t recognize anything that happened at NC State prior to the start of the 2001-2002 season…Norm Sloan was famous for riding would have ridden the likes of Julius Hodge and Andrew Brackman until
= > Was that Tony “The Answer” Bethel that I saw out there tonight? And Julius “POY” Hodge? And Ilian “Philip Rivers” Evtimov? And Cameron “Was Playing Great Before his Injury” Bennerman? So, other than the 10th player off the bench (Levi Watkins), we can all agree that we were healthy enough to field a team? Wait…did we have a flu epidemic that we are going subtley learn about sometime in the coming days?
= > Carolina is able to come to our house and beat a completely-healthy version of Herb Sendek’s ninth installment of Wolfpack Basketball (or 4th installment if you live in Lee Fowler time) WITHOUT their leading scorer and potential ACC Player of the Year? Wow. Congrats to the winners.
Tarheels Support Sendek
As if his love for Buddha wasn’t enough to endear Herb Sendek deeper in the hearts of Carolina fans, it sounds like some Tarheels were seen in the RBC Center wearing light-blue “We Support Sendek” T-Shirts.
Wolfpack fans are talking about it here.
Big Four Chasm Widens
* Herb Sendek is 15-46 against Big Four competition in his nine years at NC State.
* Herb Sendek is 9-16 against Big Four competition in the only four years at State that Lee Fowler can remember.
* Herb Sendek is 7-37 against Big Four coaches who have not been fired or pushed out of their jobs in the last nine years.
* Herb Sendek is 5-14 against Big Four coaches who have not been fired or pushed out of their jobs in the only four years that Lee Fowler can remember.
* In 27 different opportunities, Sendek has compiled a winning record against a Big Four opponent in a season only 4 times. The coaches that were responsible for 3 of those 4 winning seasons were fired or forced out of their jobs. Sendek swept Skip Prosser in 2003-2004 season.
* Herb Sendek has never compiled a winning record against all three Big Four teams in a single season. He has managed to break-even on two occassions to earn a .500 record. This helped to offset the 2000-2001 season when he went winless against the Big Four for only the third time in the history of NC State Basketball. With one game remaining against Wake Forest remaining this year, Sendek could go winless against Tobacco Road for only the fourth time in the history of NC State Basketball. (But luckily, the first time this happened won’t count because Lee Fowler said it wouldn’t).
* In 9 years of coaching at NC State (or four years if you are Lee Fowler), Herb Sendek has compiled a winning record against a single Big Four coach. That coach was fired after four consecutive losses to Sendek and a 3-year year tenure that included the following achievements for the fired coach:
– winning ACC and National Coach of the Year honors
– more weeks ranked at #1 in the country in a single season than Sendek has been ranked in the Top 20 in nine years.
– more weeks ranked in the Top 10 than Sendek has been ranked in the Top 25 in nine seasons
– achieving final RPI rankings of #4, #119, and #52 in 3 years. Herb Sendek has achieved an RPI ranking better than #52 in only two of nine seasons at NC State.
– a 13-win season in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Sendek has never won more than 11 games in the ACC and has compiled a losing ACC record in 5 of 9 years (will be 6 of 9 with one more loss this season).
