If you don’t have a subscription to the ACC Sports Journal, then you may want to consider getting one. For only a few bucks a month you can get a lot of value.
This weekend, however was not one of those days where you got a lot of value. On Saturday the ACCSJ became just like anyone else on the East Coast that brandishes a microphone within a 50 mile radius of…oh yes…you guessed it…the MOST interviewed Athletics Director in the history of all college athletics. The big man himself. The self-proclaimed “Coach” (who hasn’t coached in almost 20 years and has never coached at NC State) – Lee Fowler.
In, “Pack AD Among Sendek’s Biggest Supporters” (sound familiar?), Fowler offers some kind of an excuse or rationalization for what seems to be every thing that has gone wrong in the world since Jesus Christ was hammered to the cross. No wonder our Athletics Department has won fewer ACC Titles in Fowler’s five years than in any other 5 years of NC State history…there is some kind of a subjective measurement and excuse for everything.
But have no fear, as you read the article you will learn that now that “Coach Fowler” has turned his attention to some problems (like transfers), NC State is going to be a better place. Thanks for saving us from ourselves, Lee.
Saturday’s article is almost a carbon copy of this month’s version Lee’s rounds with all of the media as well as many of the points from yesteryear:
— Herb Sendek is a great guy and everyone thinks he is a great coach.
— No mention of any kind of performance measurements for any of our programs (today there wasn’t even a mention of the old nebulous standard, “we aim to be competitive”
— But plenty of mention of excuses like injuries and sickness that have impaired our ability to reach the performance measurements that have really never been set.
— Of course, Lee Fowler “knows basketball” because he was the product of lucky sperm was a 6’7+ white kid coming out of the sticks of Tennessee. Vanderbilt had to fill out their roster somehow…so whalla!!! Instant John Wooden in carnate.
— Lee Fowler also “knows basketball” because he coached at Memphis State until 1986.
— As with all articles in the North Carolina media…there is no mention of Fowler’s presence as a coach within one of the dirtiest programs in the history of college basketball; also no mention that the Memphis State Final Four appearance technically never happened since it has been stripped from the record books.
So, the ACCASJ offered nothing you didn’t already know this weekend. In the end, I guess the most earth shattering news from Fowler’s comments is that the infamous “internet 50” has now become 100:
“Basically, anything I say, they say opposite,” said Fowler of the most vocal Sendek critics among the fanbase. “So I can’t explain it away. I just know that he’s done a great job with the kids, he’s a very good coach, he gets no credit when we win and he gets all the blame when we lose. So every time I open my mouth about it, I get 100 – well, not 100 – e-mails about it.”
As with all of the hundreds of other interviews that Fowler has given…I find a lot on which I would like to comment. I think today that I will refer back to Fowler’s comments in the Charlotte Observer on February 22, 2005, when Ken Tysaic wrote:
“Fowler won’t comment on whether Sendek, who has four seasons remaining on his contract, will return next season. He says he will evaluate Sendek at the end of the season, as he does with all of N.C. State’s coaches.
ROTFLOL!!!
Yep. I sure see how Lee won’t make any comments!!! LOL!!!
Great job on waiting until the end of the season to evaluate coaches!!! He is literally one of the first people that I have ever seen “not comment” and then do 5 or 6 interviews to comment about the topic that he supposedly isn’t commenting on and is “waiting until the end of the season”.
Well, at least he gave a feeble attempt at taking my advice.