Wolfpackers Jumping Off Ship

General NCS Basketball Quotes of Note132

What a day!!!

Lee Fowler’s annual version of “I support Sendek” has unleashed a fire storm out here in the real world where workers are held to standards and decisions are based on merit and not only on personal infatuations of big farmers or career climbing Jethros.

I haven’t been in the office since this morning (have to work towards my annual production goals, you see) so I haven’t had the opportunity to read any message board posts outside of these comments…but, I can’t count the number of personal emails and telephone messages of disgust that I have just picked up.

The message that Lee Fowler and Chancellor Oblinger are sending from NC State is crystal clear – NC State accepts failure to succeed at levels that are comparable to other institutions and NC State underscores this lack of ambition through its long term record of management decisions.

From what I can tell, the NC State Community is responding to this message in pretty big numbers. Many Wolfpackers that I know are simply giving up and walking away.

But, I have an additional observation about this situation that I had never considered much prior to the last few days. The interesting part of my experience in recent weeks (and particularly over the last 48 hours) is NOT that former great Wolfpacers have reached their breaking point and are apathetically walking away from their support of NC State…but it is THE TYPE OF PEOPLE that are giving up and walking away.

Since State’s Basketball season has ended, I have interacted (in person, on phone, on email) with the following set of Wolfpackers:
* 4 CEOs of companies with revenues in excess of $50 million
* 2 CFOs of nice-sized companies
* a partner at a major accounting firm
* 2 accountants of Big Five firms
* 3 employees of NC State University
* 4 attorneys from 3 different (highly-recognizable) law firms
* a judge
* 5 bankers employed by 2 of the 4 largest banks in America
* 2 consultants
* 1 political consultant
* 1 real estate developer
* 1 finance executive for a Fortune 100 company

These former Wolfpackers all shared what I considered to be interesting traits:
* Each is considered to be very successful by modern standards of the business world
* Each is beyond disgusted with NC State
* Each is between the age of 30 and 50

Of course, it is just a observation based on my personal interactions, but the fact that each of these successful individuals are between the age of 30 and 50 years old struck me as interesting. I wouldn’t think that it bodes well for the future of NC State University for so much young and successful talent to feel so disenfranchised and frustrated with the University. But, what do I know?

In twenty years NC State will be wondering why it has a huge leadership gap within its alumni community and why its alumni support the University at a rate disproportionately less than other schools (that is..if anyone at NC State would ever dare use defined, measureable, and comparable data as a benchmark for behavior). Perhaps at that point the members of the current Board of Directors, the Chancellor, Wendell Murphy, Lee Fowler, and Herb Sendek will step in and save the future of the University. Well…maybe the 2 or 3 of them that are still alive at that time. Because, I know an awful lot of talented folks that have little interest in being a part of it now…and, I fear forever.

I will leave you quotes from the last voice mail message that I received today from the CFO of a major business headquartered in the Triangle:

“I will be reducing my Wolfpack Club donation to the minimum for my lifetime rights. #&%@ it. It is time for me to grow away from NC State. I will still pull for them. But I will not care anymore.

Sadly, ^this is highly consistent with dozens of other interactions that I have personally had recently. Good Luck, NC State.

General NCS Basketball Quotes of Note

132 Responses to Wolfpackers Jumping Off Ship

  1. RAW 03/22/2006 at 3:06 PM #

    Ouch!

  2. Rick 03/22/2006 at 3:17 PM #

    DCM,
    What a load of dung. That is a defeatest attitude and the reason we are in the situation we are in.
    Only ONE coach in our history has done worse than Sendek.

    Jeff,
    I wanted to write about Fowler’s latest remarks but could not bring myself to do it. I see why Fowler is in the academic world, because no one in the real world would ever put up with his incompetance. I will not support NCSU in any way until Herb is gone.

  3. st0rmin 03/22/2006 at 3:18 PM #

    DCM, name one coach at NCSU (other than Les Robinson) who achieved less than Herb. As for coaches, can I ask a question? If a team only went to 2 NCAAs, but 2 Sweet 16s is that better than State?

  4. Jason 03/22/2006 at 3:28 PM #

    I echo the sentiments of your voicemail. I will never step foot in that building again as long as that man is still at the helm.

  5. Matt E. 03/22/2006 at 3:29 PM #

    So will they all jump back on the ship if we win something? Is this the start of bandwagon wolfpack fans who only want to cheer for a championship team?

    This is not an attack, just my first reaction to reading this.

  6. DCM 03/22/2006 at 3:30 PM #

    Of course they will jump back on. They all did last year after the UConn win. They only jumped off at the end of the year this year. This is nothing new. This goes on at almost every single school. Every single year.

  7. newswolf 03/22/2006 at 3:32 PM #

    ^I guess that is why we had overwhelming attendance this year for home games.

    I agree, our style of play does mirror a High School

  8. ThePack 03/22/2006 at 3:45 PM #

    My problem with Sendek isn’t at all about recruiting as it is player development. He clearly never really developed what were highly regarded players such as Damien Wilkins, Adam Harrington, Josh Powell, Scooter Sherrill, etc. I believe the lack of development and the system we play either hindered their development or in a few of those cases helped these players decide to leave the program.

    Hodge may be the only player of significance for State that ever seemed to improve in my eyes. Josh Powell is in the NBA now but thats because of what he was able to do overseas. Hodge is in the NBDL.

    Herb has not been able to produce any real NBA talent. Thats the problem. He clearly doesn’t seem to be able to develop and grow the talented players he does get.

  9. TampaPack 03/22/2006 at 3:50 PM #

    ^ Bingo. That’s the problem. Kids that are NBA quality are going to see that and consider that heavily against us. Herb has no one that played here for any amount of time that made it in the NBA and his best hope is in the NBDL. Just like football, the kids want to go where will take them to the next level. Right now, unfortunately that isn’t us. There is no reason it couldn’t be, well there is one (Sendek) or two (Fowler)…

  10. Only One 03/22/2006 at 3:51 PM #

    Of course Herbie Himmler developed those players. Once they left State (ie. powell and wilkins) they eventually went pro. That’s what State has become under the “leadership” (smirk) of the incompetent twins- a Juco proving ground for folks to use before they move onto bigger and better.

  11. jesse 03/22/2006 at 3:55 PM #

    thepack, damien wilkens couldn’t shoot the ball into the ocean, josh powell left way too early, scooter sherrill? adam harrington? who cares.

  12. ThePack 03/22/2006 at 3:57 PM #

    We all should care, all were highly regarded talent that we were not able to develop. If we can’t do that, how can we ever expect to compete against Skip Prosser or Gary Williams, much less K and Roy

  13. Only One 03/22/2006 at 3:58 PM #

    I agree that denigrating wilkens, sherril, adam, and josh is appropriate since they were not all that good. However, that being the case, they should NOT have been touted as “next years great recruiting class”.

  14. Rick 03/22/2006 at 4:01 PM #

    “Of course they will jump back on. They all did last year after the UConn win. They only jumped off at the end of the year this year. This is nothing new. This goes on at almost every single school. Every single year.”

    This guy is delusional and obvously has not been reading this blog very long or could be plain ignorant but I will give him the benefit of the doubt.

  15. jesse 03/22/2006 at 4:01 PM #

    only one, i agree totally these guys were hyped up to get pack fans excited. for the hype i blame the media not herb

  16. Mike 03/22/2006 at 4:01 PM #

    For those of you saying we have just started complaining, go bakc and read the posts from all year long, even when we were winning. We were winning a few games, but most of us saw the weaknesses, saw the inevitable ending to the season. You can only hide flaws for so long before they jump out to bite.

    Many on this site have been predicting this to happen. I am fairly new to this site, stumbled on it during football season. However, I see a lot more new names here at the end of the year that I have not seen before. The consistent names I see have been consistent in their views all season long, winning or losing.

    One thing that I find humorous is inconsistency in beliefs and ideals. Why is the animal rights activists are also evolutionists? One is free to believe what they want to believe, but be consistent. If I beleive in evolution, survival of the fittest, the strong will survive, then I also cannot beleive in animal rights activism that we, mankind, is hurting the animals. Why? Man is the stronger and we will survive. Crazy analogy I know, but the majority of the posters here have been consistent in their beliefs, not fair weather fans. The authors and regualr posters have been consistent. Right or wrong, they are entitled to believe what they want, as long as they are consistent, which they are. No one is jumping off the ship now – most of us have already been swimming, looking for our lifeboat, just being vocal as we seek the lifeboat. Gulp gulp gulp gulp……….we cana only tread so long before we go down.

  17. Mike 03/22/2006 at 4:06 PM #

    We all tlak about talent. incoming talent. Sherrill was McD AA as were Harrington and Wilkins. We all know many McD AA’s never develop, but why is it only the ones that come to State dont develop?

  18. ThePack 03/22/2006 at 4:06 PM #

    I just believe, until Herb proves me wrong, that improving and developing the players you do have is almost as vital as recruiting itself. When he is able to get his players to improve during their stints here is when he will begin to beat UNC and Duke and do better in the NCAA tournament.

  19. Matt E. 03/22/2006 at 4:07 PM #

    So what about all of coach K’s AA’s that arnt in the NBA? Was he not able to develope them either?

  20. ThePack 03/22/2006 at 4:09 PM #

    Sure, they never developed but my question is to you is why worry about what happens elsewhere? We have to concentrate on the kids we do get, if we play it off as… well coach k has kids that don’t ever develop (namely Shav) then we will never get anywhere.

  21. Mike 03/22/2006 at 4:12 PM #

    Last time I checked…..how many Herb players are in the NBA? How many Dukies are in the NBA? ThePack makes a great point, developing is just as important as recruiting. My point is we do no developing of talent.

    Another tribute to coach K is the teams he has been able to build, yet the guys have not as much success in the NBA as they did in college. Pretty strong testimony to the development they get in Durham, then regress at the next level.

  22. BJD95 03/22/2006 at 4:15 PM #

    This is getting a little off track. The point is – NC State is alienating people it cannot afford to alienate (long term), even if the Oblinger/Fowler decision has greatly excited the Sendek inner circle (in which several large donors reside).

  23. DavidThompsonforcoach 03/22/2006 at 4:17 PM #

    I hate it it turned out this way. Herb has balls to stay at a place that so many people hate him. What a wierdo. Next season will be worse guys…wait and see.

  24. Matt E. 03/22/2006 at 4:20 PM #

    Mike,

    We shouldnt worry about what happens elsewhere. We should just worry about our players and the ones we have in the NBA. We should only worry about how many ACC/NCAA Championships we have and not how many other people have. We shouldnt worry about the sucess other people have we should just worry about our success or lack there of. We should only worry about NC State.

  25. wopacker1980 03/22/2006 at 4:26 PM #

    I have been telling folks that the people who have a say are those who A) buy tickets, B) fund scholarships.

    If Amato (I know, I know, a topic for another day) did not have the personality that he has, the money for facilities and scholarships would be drying up faster than sub Sahara.

    Funny, when they built the RBC all we heard was “if we had a new facility we could compete…”

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