Author’s Note: This entry was written around May of 2005 and was never submitted on the site. The entry was unfinished until some quick edits today and has been sitting in my drafts box since mid-2005. Over the next few weeks I plan on highlighting some macro-topics on the site – performance, expectations, rivalries, etc – I thought that throwing this up would be somewhat appropriate. Additionally, I didn’t want to lose all the work that I had done.
In April/May 2005, the Technician‘s Ian Jester wrote an article “Updating the Pack Almanac” for the 2004-2005 Athletic Year.
The premise of the article was to rank the Top Ten events in NC State Athletics for the 2004-2005 year. The result of the article leaves me thoroughly unimpressed.
Don’t get me wrong, Jester’s work was very good; his Top Ten list of major events in NC State Athletics is pretty accurate. Therein lines the problem – the ACCURACY of Jester’s list creates almost NOTHING about which to get excited or have any real pride about. For yet another year, Lee Fowler’s athletics department delivered no “peak” or signature performance in an entire Athletics Season (How many sports do we play?)
Oh wait. Correction time. It seems that I have forgotten that Mr. Wuf won “Mascot Madness.” How could that have slipped my mind?
Unfortunately, another “blah athletics year” in Raleigh doesn’t leave me as “sad” as I wish that it did. Certainly not as sad as it once did. My diminished passion and motivation to see tangible, on the field/court success is highly consistent with the feeling of many Wolfpackers of my generation – we have been beaten down with mediocrity. We have been beaten down by an athletics program that has generally been asleep at the wheel for so long that nobody really notices anymore, partly because they can’t muster the energy to care as much anymore.
Every year that I get older is another year of a new generation that has no idea what winning can feel like or how to achieve it. Another year further away from a time when NC State’s Athletics Department actually spoke in terms of championships for many sports and didn’t shy away from rivalries and challenging national programs. Another year that the young and impressionable crowd is told by people that didn’t move to Raleigh until the year 2000 that it is more than acceptable
not to have the same standards as our peers since there is no way that NC State should expect to compare ourselves to the programs of our rivals despite the fact that history shows that we
Summary List
Just how bad was the 2004-2005 year that produced a Director’s Cup ranking of #51 in the country? Go check out the specifics of the list for yourself. Instead of providing you Jester’s comments, I am going to supplement his comments by summarizing the list from a different perspective.
(10) A GYMNASTICS victory in Chapel Hill makes the list. Since our entire athletics program won so few match-ups against Carolina, then you have to highlight something.
(9) A boring, 53-51 road basketball victory on the road against a middling ACC team that many Wolfpackers deemed the biggest disappointment in the country. The opponent played us without two of their contributors (who later helped the team advance to the ACC Championship by beating Carolina) and represented the first game back for the team’s top player who had been injured for 6 weeks.
(8) The injury to one of our women’s basketball players that led to a 60-58 loss to Middle Tennessee in the NCAA Tournament. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but other than one season, our women’s program has not advanced to the Sweet 16 in approximately 15 years?
(7) A TIE!!! That’s right…our men’s soccer team TIED the #2 team in the country (at home). WHOO HOO!!!!
(6) A 100-yard touchdown run…by an OPPOSING PLAYER!! Of course, in a loss.
(5) Men’s Cross Country ACC Championship. It’s a title. I’ll take it. I don’t care that it is in one of the most obsolete sports in any program. Somebody has got to win it. We can put the trophy’s right beside Mr. Wuf’s Mascot Madness title.
(4) Not even an event that has happened yet. Heck…not even a real event. Two pitchers on a baseball team who evidentally are pretty good. One is closing in on the ACC saves record. The baseball team is 30-12 overall based on a non-conference schedule created by Herb Sendek and laden with names like Deleware State, Campbell, ECU, Sand Diego State, The Citadel, William & Mary, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Wilmington, Davidson, Lehigh, and Elon. Our conference record is only 11-10. (Of course, this was all written prior to the end of the season when the baseball team showed some life)
(3) Cancer and a loss. That’s right…”Pink bracelets were the fashion Jan. 14, signifying support for missing coach Kay Yow in her battle with a reoccurrence of cancer.” Of course, this is a horrible, horrible situation. So, therefore it fits the theme of our Top 10 moments of this year perfectly. Cancer, and losing to our rival (at home) in basketball. Perfectly par for Lee Fowler’s Athletics Department and a perfect fit at #3.
(2) Deaths at Carter-Finley. Again, another horrible, tragic event. Again, our athletics department provided so few positive events for us to be excited about that one of the most prominent events in our year were murders.
(1) The Sweet 16.
Of course, the Sweet 16. Note that it was not the entire basketball season that saw the Pack finish in 7th place in the ACC with a losing record and needing the benefits of a schedule that played Duke only once, 2 extra wins in the BCA Classic in Raleigh, and Chris Paul being suspended in the ACC Tournament to allow State to squeak into the NCAA Tournament as the lowest rated at-large team in the dance (#65).
Note that it wasn’t the Elite 8 after we squandered a great opportunity by blowing a big lead in the 2nd half of our Sweet 16 game vs Wisconsin – the 4th year in a row that State led in 2nd half of an NCAA Tournament loss.
Saying the “Sweet 16” effectively means that we won two games – one vs Charlotte and one vs UConn. Of course, the UConn win and trip to the Sweet 16 was nice. But, it was ONE win that was four rounds away from the Championship game. (Shhhh…don’t say words like Championship in Raleigh). In the end, two wins in three days against a single Top 25 opponent was the HIGHLIGHT of NC State’s ENTIRE Athletics season for 2004-2005.
And nobody seemed to think that this wasn’t so great?
