Worst Loss of the Sendek Era?

General Headscratchers NCS Basketball161

I think so. It was disgusting to watch this overachieving Carolina team come in and outwork us like that. They wanted each loose ball, each rebound 1000 times worse than we did. To his credit, Sendek didn’t try putting any lipstick on the pig, admitting that we were outcoached, outplayed, out-everything. And that pretty much sums it up. It was humiliating, and it will take more than a 12-win ACC season to make up for it. And I really don’t want to see the “0 for Roy” streak extended in the ACC semis.

What will make up for it? An Elite Eight or an ACCT title. Anything less, and this season will leave a very bitter taste in my mouth.

More thoughts in the morning. I need some freaking sleep.

TWO LAST THOUGHTS: The game got so out of hand that Quinton Thomas got significant minutes. Quinton f’ing Thomas! And they extended the lead with him in the game. Also, my last fuse was lit when we refused to speed up the offense or press on defense down 18 points with 5 minutes to play. But when Roy sent in the blue team in the last minute, we pressed ’em with our regulars! Way to show some real stones there, Coach!

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

General Headscratchers NCS Basketball

161 Responses to Worst Loss of the Sendek Era?

  1. Cardiac95 02/23/2006 at 10:25 AM #

    Alot of people want to write-off Herb’s performances against duke & unc as something that’s to be expected…..that no other active coach could do better…..that we can still have a great team with great accomplishments despite our paultry record against them.

    Here’s the problem with that logic…in order to be a great team & have those great accomplishments, like say an ACC Tournament Title, guess who you’re going to have to beat?……You guessed it….duke or unc or BOTH!!!

    So the Herb Enthusiasts will then point out that you won’t necessarily have to beat one of those two to make a run to the Elite 8….and they’d be right. The problem there is that you’ll probably have to beat a team or two JUST LIKE THEM to reach the Elite 8!!! Somewhere during such a run, we’ll inevitably have to beat a Top 10 Team. So someone remind me….what is Herb Sendek’s record vs. Top 10 teams?

    There’s a fun factoid waiting to happen…..Is Sendek’s record vs. unc/duke better or worse than his record vs. the Top 10?

  2. Rick 02/23/2006 at 10:31 AM #

    “I’ve never been a Herb fan but you know, it’s really not his fault..I think he does the best HE can. The problem is there are too many influential State boosters who have been perfectly satisfied w/mediocre for too long.”

    I agree.

    We are what we are. I do not know why anyone gets upset anymore. IMO Herb has sucked all of the emotion out of NCSU bball.

  3. Mr O 02/23/2006 at 10:32 AM #

    WTNY: We haven’t lost two straight games all season long. Herb has a record of 13-9 in the ACC tourney and has made the the finals 33% of the time. Also, he is 3-1 in the NCAA first round. 1st round NCAA exit is what I would define as tanking and I don’t see that happening.

    Maryland lost to us in the ACC tournament semis the year they won the national title. Last night was as ugly a game as I can remember, but March isn’t even here yet.

  4. Sammy Kent 02/23/2006 at 10:39 AM #

    And oh yeah…..a scratch golfer doesn’t try to use all his clubs interchangeably, or put fourteen five-irons in his bag.

  5. WTNY 02/23/2006 at 10:42 AM #

    O — I know the “O” is supposed to stand for Objective but I do appreciate the Optimism today. However . . .

    “We haven’t lost two straight games all season long.” Well, until last night we hadn’t lost an ACC home game this season. I don’t think Carolina cared about that stat and neither will BC care about the former. Maybe we will bounce back but our effort, prep and motivation better improve from last night. I’m sure Skinner is drooling right now while he watches last night’s game tape.

    Reaching the ACCT finals is nice but dadgummit it’s time to take the next step! ACC Champs or Elite 8!

  6. topOtheorder 02/23/2006 at 10:42 AM #

    ^ 74,

    Thanks. I am still just as mad as I was at 1:30 last night, just more tired trying to operate at work today…Oh well, I guess you can’t have nightmares if you are too ticked off to sleep…Wait, that ballgame was a nightmare!!

  7. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 10:56 AM #

    In keeping with the golf club theme. Herb and company shanked the tee ball O.B. last night and proceeded to hit enough hosel rockets thereafter to run out of Titelist’s before finishing the round.

  8. Sam '92 02/23/2006 at 10:58 AM #

    It all comes down to whether we’re satisfied with mediocrity (I’m not).

    In a down year for the ACC as a whole, are we satisfied with being the third (or maybe fourth, check back in a couple of days) best team in the ACC, and in a strong year right in the middle.

    Herb’s recruiting is in the same place as the team, somewhere slightly north of the middle of the conference, and Herb is never to going to have teams that play with a whole lot of heart (this is measured by performance late in the second half against good teams in close games).

    Herb has taken us as far as he’s going to take us, and the only question is whether we’re going to accept these results.

  9. Clarksa 02/23/2006 at 11:03 AM #

    I haven’t read all the responses, but how can anyone honestly defend what happened last night? It reminded me of the football teams effort against Clemson this past year.

  10. Rick 02/23/2006 at 11:06 AM #

    “And oh yeah…..a scratch golfer doesn’t try to use all his clubs interchangeably, or put fourteen five-irons in his bag.”

    LOLLER

  11. Jim 02/23/2006 at 11:18 AM #

    I’m actually getting madder and madder the more I think about this.

  12. scott 02/23/2006 at 11:34 AM #

    Oh, it’s not so bad if you think in “daytight compartments” like Herb. That was last night & today’s a whole new day. With BC, the ACCT and NCAA still ahead, goshdarn, there’s plenty to look forward to! Yeah, right…we’ve heard this before. I can just picture Herb today saying, “I’m smart enough, I’m good enough, and doggonit people like me.”

  13. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 11:36 AM #

    ^^^Sam’92 you’ve put it correctly when you said Herb has taken us as far as he is capable and the only question is do we accept these results. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but LF, HS and CA are here for longer than any of us would like for them to be. Inertia set in quite a while back.

  14. JohnPack 02/23/2006 at 11:47 AM #

    I think the thing most fans fail to realize is that the athletes (Bulgaria, Turkey, NYC, etc..) dont have the same hatred and loathing for UNC that the alumni do. Having been involved in the athletic department I can say that for the most part, UNC or Duke is just another game to these kids. This game is simply more important to people on this board than it is to the athletes themselves.

    When V put us on probation and almost killed our program, he set in motion a period of down years that excluded any young kids from knowing the proud tradition our program had. It took so long to dig out of that hole, that our uphill battle became an uphill battle with a big sack of lead tied to our feet.

    Take a look in the mirror. These kids arent our age. These kids grew up before breakdancing. The only recollection of our former coach they have is his ESPY awards speech.

    Now put yourself in the players’ shoes. As an NCSU basketball athlete, what do you have to be proud of? What can you remember? The only thing our boys can look at are our 50 year old alumni (Thompson, Burleson, etc) sitting in the stands cheering (which is embarassing as hell to these kids…believe me).

    Go to a UNC game. They bring up Michael Jordan on the monitor, they even had Charles Barkley do an intro to one of their games. Who do we have? Whittenburg? Come on…that sends the wrong message. The best we can do is show a guy who hit a miracle shot to win a championship? We dont even get the proper respect for THAT year. These kids dont know that we were better than our seeding…they dont know about all the injuries that year that cost us wins. All they know is we won a game we shouldnt have won….as a cinderella. Well…noone grows up wanting to be cinderella. Everyone wants to be the giant.

    As for the scratch golfer thing…I am a scratch golfer. I think any coach that can get you to the tournament every year and win a few games should qualify as better than a scratch. Herb may not be Ernie Els, but maybe he is Colin Montgomerie and maybe he thinks winning against UNC or Duke is like winning on US soil?? 🙂

  15. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 12:21 PM #

    ^This is why we are lost as a program. It’s Valvano’s fault. We have europeans as players. DT and TB are over 50. Whittenburg is some chump!
    I could go on forever with this but most intelligent readers here know better.
    Please rid us of these I’m ok your ok mamby pamby wusses.

  16. Zahadum 02/23/2006 at 12:21 PM #

    Interesting idea, JohnPack, but I’m afraid it just doesn’t wash. I could see Engin and Illian feeling that way as freshmen, but they’re to bright not to have figured it out by now. And it doesn’t apply at all for Ced and Cam, both in state boys.

    But yes, they should have been embarassed as hell, because both Burleson and Corchiani were making more defensive effort from the stands last night than they were on the court.

  17. JohnPack 02/23/2006 at 12:55 PM #

    Class of ’74…

    Seeing that you evidently graduated the same year I was born, I would say I have a slightly more centered “feel” for the idealogy of our current players. Also factor in that I spent five years working in the program with the actual athletes.

    I didnt say it was OK for this mentality, I just said it was there.

    Believe me, the only regret any of those players have today is that there is another hard day of practice coming. Some might undoubtedly have some shame in their own personal play but this generation of players worries more about individual performance than team performance. There is an occasional guy who is “old school” but not many.

    And as for Ced and Cam, didnt they actually appear to care the most last night? Was that coincidence?

    The word around the athletic department (from the athletes) regarding Burleson and Thompson is as follows: they try to stick their face in front of any camera that will show them. They take camera time away from the actual players who deserve it NOW and cant stop living in the past.

    Not my words, its theirs.

  18. WTNY 02/23/2006 at 1:08 PM #

    JohnPack — Tell those athletes that to be glad that they didn’t get national TV camera time last night. The program only embarrassed the region, thankfully after the kids went to bed so they didn’t have to witness the horror show.

    DT and company earned their camera time. Tell the players to earn theirs.

  19. Trout 02/23/2006 at 1:09 PM #

    ^ Wow. Perhaps if the current players played a bit more like Thompson and Burleson, the camera time would be on them more, and not on legends in the stands.

  20. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 1:27 PM #

    JohnPack.
    For the sake of argument I’ll take you at your word.

    If any of those guys honestly feel that way then I could care less about what happens to them for the remainder of this or any other season. They did not build this program and they darn sure couldn’t be the ambassadors that DT or TB have been for our program. Furthermore it would explain alot of why we have been as unsuccessful as we have been if they are that myopic and self centered. Again I hope you are wrong but if you are correct it reveals a very troubling situation in our program.

  21. JohnPack 02/23/2006 at 1:29 PM #

    So none of this era we are in can be blamed on V?

    Think of it this way.

    JJ Redick grew up wanting to be a Dookie
    Ray Felton grew up wanting to be a Heel
    Tywon Lawson grew up wanting to be a Heel
    Shelden Williams grew up wanting to be a Dookie
    Tyler Hansbrough has been a Heel fan since 5th grade
    etc, etc, etc…

    Now…when all these guys were kids, where was NC State? Lulling through the last few years of the V era and through the years of probation and Les Robinson. You think that doesnt hurt us now? If you dont, you arent thinking clearly. These kids dont enter 11th grade with no preset schools they like and all of a sudden decide where to go based on who is good now. They are like all of us, the have childhood teams they pulled for and the fact is that when they were kids, State was just plain awful.

    Takes time folks. Barring a lightning strike, most schools dont turn things around overnight. We are making progress. It isnt as fast as any of us would like, but its still progress.

  22. scott 02/23/2006 at 1:29 PM #

    Perhaps if we had a coach who could re-establish and maintain a program with new legends, we wouldn’t have to focus so much on the old ones. Precious little of Herb’s 10 years has been worth remembering.

  23. Sam '92 02/23/2006 at 1:33 PM #

    Blame Valvano? i don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or puke

  24. BJD95 02/23/2006 at 1:33 PM #

    So, the question arises – why did Carolina’s players care? They aren’t all NC natives, either.

  25. scott 02/23/2006 at 1:41 PM #

    JohnPack, most of the players today don’t remember much about V or Les. Most of what they know about V is that he ran all over the court looking for somebody to hug in ’83. What they do know very well is that Herb’s program has always been 3rd rate…well behind UNC & Duke and not competitively nationally. Blaming Sendek’s failures on V and Les is absolutely ludicrous! By your method of blame, we should attribute Norm Sloan’s failures (?) on the probations State endured in the Case era…oh yeah, he recruited a national championship team.

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