Lavin Turns Down NC State (Update 4:50 pm)

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Headline on ESPN.com

“Lavin will stay in broadcasting; turns down NC State”

StateFansNation comments on Monday:

If NC State really did offer the job to Lavin, then the offer should have been pulled the moment The Sporting News reported it on Friday night. Everyone knows that the leak came from Lavin’s side. Why are we even speaking to someone that did this to us? Why is all of this coming out on Monday? Did nobody work this weekend? Was the weather at Fowler’s lake house too nice to worry with the coaching search and trying to nail down these terms and conditions?

On Sunday AND Monday we suggested that, in addition to pulling the offer from Lavin, NC State should have immediately issued a press statement dis-crediting the story and pronouncing that it was completely false and Steve Lavin has never had an offer from NC State.

Q: What did Lee Fowler do, instead?

A: Fowler continued to let his personal friend (Lavin) fester for a full week and publicly embarass NC State LEE FOWLER (again) in the national media.

What did we tell you on Monday about the report that Lavin was “close to accepting the job except for some specific terms and conditions”?

We are a little fearful that this information is a set-up for NC State to save face in a scenario where Lavin turns down the job. If the afternoon rumor that Lavin is NOT the guy holds up, then the NC State spin-machine will most definitely be looking to blame something outside of their control as the reason why the deal didn’t work with Lavin. It would never cross their mind – or anyone at NC State’s – that they just f’d up by chasing the wrong guy, for the wrong reasons, in the wrong way.

Any coach would accept the NC State job contingent on coming to agreement on “certain terms and conditions”!! In principal why wouldn’t Lee Fowler privately pull the offer from Lavin immediately upon Lavin breaking the agreement not to share information in the press about the job?

This could be a case where the deal is done with John Beilein and Steve Lavin is backing away from the process. If true, it is good news. But, it is also unacceptable that NC State is in this public position with a broadcaster that isn’t even a basketball coach on Wednesday, April 26th when Lee Fowler knew of Arizona State’s interest in Herb Sendek over thirty days ago. The telephones up at Fowler’s Lake house, where he has spent more time than in Raleigh in recent weeks, must have a hard time connecting to the rest of the world.

We don’t care if the real truth is that NC State chose John Beilein over Steve Lavin. Don’t know, and don’t care. That is inconsequential to the fact that Fowler unnecessarily put NC State in another comprimising public position in this search.

Please don’t misread any of our comments into frustration about missing on Steve Lavin. SFN was obviously struggling with the Lavin candidacy since its origin. (Need we take you all the way back to April 7th?) We are relieved by the outcome related to Lavin, although disappointed in the execution of how the results came to light. In fact, Lee Fowler’s simple interest in Lavin just puts another nail in Jed’s coffin at NC State.

NC State’s search can end successfully (Beilein) without having been executed competently. The two can be relatively exclusive of each other.

But, leaders get paid to make good decisions; and Lee FOWLER’s decisions are what created this public “third strike” through gross incompetence of (1) originally choosing to pursue someone as unqualified as Steve Lavin, and (2) continuing to talk to Lavin despite the obvious and significant risks once Lavin leaked the confirmation of our talks to the media. There is nobody, nowhere, no way to blame for this fiasco other than Fowler for allowing it to unravel in this manner.

Additionally, how was this allowed to go on for at least a frigging week? What the hell did Lavin need to think about? work on? get through? Why has NC State allowed Lavin (or anyone) to mull over a job for a friggin week? Either you want it, or you don’t. Jay Bilas alluded to Fowler’s poor execution across many facets of the search in his interview with 610 WFNZ on Tuesday morning, and this Lavin situation is the specific example of all of Bilas’ points – lack of strategy, tardiness, moving too slowly, not valuing/marketing the job effectively.

SFN is excited about the prospects of John Beilein coaching at NC State – more excited than we think many would have expected of us. We hope that the Lavin situation means that Beilein is locked up and ready to roll. We should know very, very soon.

In the meantime, we’ll share a picture that came our way last week via email from a friggin Rhode Island undergraduate to memorialize the national perception of Lee Fowler’s coaching search:

CoachingPic

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General Media NCS Basketball

133 Responses to Lavin Turns Down NC State (Update 4:50 pm)

  1. WTNY 04/26/2006 at 5:43 PM #

    It appears that Lavin was not offered — Lavin is now trying to save face given that discussions showed he wasn’t going to get the job.

    SFN – The thought that Lavin was not offered provides more reason for NC State to have ripped the TSN report to shreds in the public AND to stop talking to him five days ago. We didn’t.

  2. BladenWolf 04/26/2006 at 5:43 PM #

    [waves]
    You can spout the “Doyel cliches” all you want. Herb Sendek left State because of his pitiful record against conference rivals Dook UNX and Fake Forest. Go look at the record. This blaming the fans business is starting to tick me off. Yes we are passionate about our basketball program. What is wrong with that? Yes we are accustomed to winning and being at least competitive with our conference foes next door. What’s wrong with that? The fact is, Herb knew what his record was and he knew coming to NC State that there were (legitimate) expectations. After ten years he could not get it done and could not stand the heat in the kitchen.
    Moreover, we made great strides but they fell short when Herb plateaued out and could not get us to the next level. Hey… that happens in coaching. 49 coaching vacancies this year. I think instead of blaming the rabid fan base, you should take a closer look at the records he had against opponents we were effectively competing against before he came. Just to throw you a bone, Herb never beat a UNC team led by Williams. His record against K’s teams weren’t much better. Stop blaming the messanger and take the time to look at the message (record).

  3. beowolf 04/26/2006 at 5:46 PM #

    GAWolf, the equation for Herb’s success was ALWAYS *x+1* — where x is the current year.

  4. beowolf 04/26/2006 at 5:48 PM #

    Fowler. He knows basketball, ‘member?

  5. newt 04/26/2006 at 5:50 PM #

    It’s good to see SFN’s optimism about B-line. Now, if that doesn’t pan out and we have to settle for someone lower on the list …

  6. Staffworker 04/26/2006 at 5:52 PM #

    This was posted on the message board at PP…….

    “WFNZ Radio during the Primetime with the Packman Radio sportsflash segment is reporting that reports out of Raleigh indicate John Beilein has accepted the NC State position.”

  7. newt 04/26/2006 at 5:52 PM #

    I fully expect when introducing the new coach for Fowler to say that the man accepting the job is the only one to have received an offer.

  8. BladenWolf 04/26/2006 at 5:53 PM #

    Ol’ Jed needs to go. If I hear OUR OWN Athletic Director refer to the fans, the fans that financially support his tired looking ass by the way, as lunatics… I think I’ll drive out to the lakehouse myself and bring closure to this ugly situation. This has gone from embarrassing, to humiliating, to ugly, to completely unacceptable.

    As I posted the other day; Oblinger… do the right thing and fire Jed immediately. Get a head-hunting firm and let’s get a quality coach. Enough of this bafoonery.

  9. GAWolf 04/26/2006 at 6:00 PM #

    Two quick things before I quit taking up these guys’ bandwidth for the day:

    1) Thanks SFN for not using emoticons. I cringe everytime I see someone make a legitimate point on PP only to follow it up with some sort of lame smiley face punching a donkey or something.

    2) At what lake is Fowler supposedly spending his time? Gaston?

    3) Beowolf: How many x+1’s do you think Beilein is entitled? It could be argued that the day he walks in the house he’s going to have what equates to “his” type of talent. I say x is

  10. [waves] 04/26/2006 at 6:02 PM #

    I respect the “10 years is ‘nough” sentiment. But how many more for a new coach? 3,5,7? I feel that Herb had a better chance of winning next year than a new coach, any new coach. Just my opinion.

    Good Luck to the new coach… whoever it is!

  11. WestCoast 04/26/2006 at 6:03 PM #

    Only three people really know what the hell is going on at “The Lake House.” Fowler, Murphy and Oblinger. I’m sure all this Lavin, etc. BS will be answered soon enough by LF.

  12. Girlfriend in a Coma 04/26/2006 at 6:34 PM #

    I hope we land Bee-line so I can see Cardiff in a Gorilla suit outside of Fowler’s office.

  13. whitefang 04/26/2006 at 6:48 PM #

    There is NO way to give Fowler “the benefit of the doubt” after the public turn-down by Lavin. If he didn’t have enough sense to realize the possible the PR consequences that could happen after Lavin went public with the coaching “offer”, then he is way too out of touch (or dare I say too stupid) to be our AD. The ability to anticipate the media perception and the abiltity put the right PR spin on State’s athletic moves are a big part of the friggin’ AD job description.
    Surely, unless there is some unbelievable great surprise getting ready to happen concerning this coaching hire, his days in Raleigh are numbered.

  14. WendellPackster 04/26/2006 at 6:49 PM #

    Sergeant Hans Schultz…I love it!

  15. packfan80 04/26/2006 at 6:53 PM #

    ………..and now we may not even have Bline 🙁

  16. packfan80 04/26/2006 at 6:59 PM #

    Fox Sports is reporting the deal may not happen…..
    Here we go again…….this is absolutely disgusting.

  17. BladenWolf 04/26/2006 at 7:11 PM #

    Now that the A list has given us the cold shoulder and the B list candidates have basically drifted away…

    Here comes the C list candidates. Way to go Lee!!! Way to go!!! You make us all soooooo proud.

  18. packfan80 04/26/2006 at 7:17 PM #

    C list? I wouldnt give lee the benefit of the doubt that there is a C list

  19. WolfHunt 04/26/2006 at 7:22 PM #

    At this rate, Whitt may turn us down….

  20. packfan80 04/26/2006 at 7:25 PM #

    If this is true, Bline isnt coaching State, for whatever reason….this is a sad sad sad day for all NC State fans…

  21. 1981packer 04/26/2006 at 7:27 PM #

    I hope Oblinger has a “g” (get gone) list for AD Fowler after this showing …. still hope he can put this “nose-dive” out

  22. Dan 04/26/2006 at 7:27 PM #

    Well, if it wasnt for Barnes and Cal, I would dismiss the FoxSports article right off, but I’m starting to look around for a really high bridge so I can throw a Tar Heel off of it.

  23. StateRed44 04/26/2006 at 7:31 PM #

    The last time I felt like this I was hoping Les could land Stackhouse and Donald Williams to keep us alive through the probation. I knew that if those 2 NCSU “locks” turned us down we’d be in for a tough couple of years….well, it turned into 10 years.

    If B-line is not the coach, I fear there is no backup, the egg will be on our face, and we’ll be in for another couple of weeks without a head coach. Who knows where it will turn at that point…Lowery, Whitt, Marshall, Haith?????

    If it is one of those, I’d like to see a quick, quick hire. FIGURE IT OUT JED, or you’ll be sleeping on Sendek’s couch.

  24. Dan 04/26/2006 at 7:41 PM #

    If Fowler cant work out a deal because of a buyout that he knew about all along, then Fowler should be immediately removed from the search.

    There is no excuse for letting the buyout keep this deal from happening. Its been public knowledge since day one. This would be the worst mistake of the many mistakes Lee Fowler has made.

    I almost cant believe it on that basis. Then two words come to mind…Steve and Lavin.

  25. IrishPackFan 04/26/2006 at 7:41 PM #

    This is complete shite!! I’ve been giving Fowler the benefit of the doubt and this is what we get left with. This is NOT rocket science. This really isn’t any different than hiring a person to work the register at your local grocery store! Systematically go through a list to find the person that is best suited for your job opening! C’mon Fowler…just when I thought you couldn’t F’up any worse than you already have you publicly (AGAIN AND AGAIN) embarrass the Hell out of NCSU fans. NOW can we ask Yow to coach our men’s basketball team? Hell why don’t we let her coach both basketball teams?

    This is f’ing ridiculous.

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