Slow News Day

Undoubtedly, you noticed that we didn’t post any news yesterday afternoon. That’s because…there isn’t much to tell. This phenomenon is not limited to us – just take a look at this article from the N&O. It seems to be the primary focus of message board traffic this morning, and it tells you…basically nothing. If anything, it should make you feel much better about Chris Wright. Based on his mother’s comments, it seems like he definitely liked the whole NC State package – not just the coaching staff.

The only other new front is the Tubby Smith rumblings. As far rumors go, we can confirm (based on SFN’s own sources) that this is legitimate, and has been since Sunday. It’s still very unclear how deep and/or mutual this interest may be.

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.

Alums General Media NCS Basketball

116 Responses to Slow News Day

  1. class of '74 04/05/2006 at 11:36 AM #

    ^excellent point.. We are the stage for the right guy to be hall of fame material.

  2. cfpack03 04/05/2006 at 11:44 AM #

    Great article on Calipari on the ACC N&O blog.

    http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/index.php?title=the_more_things_change&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

    Calipari was offered the job before Herb back in 1996….

  3. Alpha Wolf 04/05/2006 at 11:45 AM #

    Whoever takes this job has the chance of a lifetime. If someone comes and takes this program to the “next level” — and it could well happen — they will be appointed to sainthood by one of the most passionate fanbases in all of college sports.

    Love or hate Sendek, he left a very well stocked cupboard and a program on two feet and not all fours the way he got it.

  4. Old13 04/05/2006 at 11:50 AM #

    Deleted b/c the referenced post was deleted – SFN

  5. ThePack 04/05/2006 at 11:54 AM #

    As long as the coach can stand up and tell the fans and his team that the Carolina game means more than just about any other ACC game will make me happy. Why hasn’t Billy Gillispie got more mention? He seemed to be an early favorite among many schools. He also is young, seems to be an up and comer. Unlike Sendek, he’s coming from a bigger conference with meaningful wins over Texas, etc.

  6. cfpack03 04/05/2006 at 12:06 PM #

    Haith Happy in Miami
    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/colleges/university_of_miami/14257557.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

    Sounds like the AD ghostwrote this article, but notice Haith didn’t say, ‘I have not been contacted by NC State.’ like he did for OU

  7. old13 04/05/2006 at 12:15 PM #

    RIGHT, Alpha Wolf!

  8. Cardiac95 04/05/2006 at 12:16 PM #

    Eerily quiet today…..

    A definitive NO from Barnes would take all of one phone call by his agent.

    Re-working his contract at Texas should have been in the works for AT LEAST 10 days now, which is when their season ended. How much longer should that realistically take?

    Negotiating a contract with NC State, which just started the entire process 3 days ago? Seems like that would be the lengthiest hurdle to cross.

    Which scenario best explains the silence?

  9. J-wolf 04/05/2006 at 12:20 PM #

    ^The scenario where Barnes is the distraction, while they work with someone else under the radar.

  10. RAW 04/05/2006 at 12:30 PM #

    ^The more people keep saying this, the more I believe it. Barnes has said for weeks that he wasn’t interested, I think he means it.

    I just wish I knew who they were going after! One poster said this is like waiting for christmas presents, I agree!!

    How soon after Les did Sendek get hired?

  11. choppack 04/05/2006 at 12:40 PM #

    “How soon after Les did Sendek get hired?”

    It took a long time. I think it was over 3 weeks. It was at least 2. We approached Sampson and Calapari – probably others and were turned down.

  12. JTO 04/05/2006 at 12:42 PM #

    I just heard we ran through all our options and Fowler finally got an acceptance from Quinn Snyder…sweet. JK

  13. J-wolf 04/05/2006 at 12:50 PM #

    ^ I missed the JK at the end of your post and it gave me a friggin’ heart-attack. Good one!

  14. JoeDog 04/05/2006 at 12:57 PM #

    Why is Mike Jarvis, Sr. not being mentioned as a candidate?

  15. jeff_c 04/05/2006 at 12:59 PM #

    Quinn would be hilarious! I loved watching that guy dance around and make face and hand gestures. We should at least offer him a job the Team Gimp. Leather mask, waving his hands around…I kill me

  16. CaptainCraptacular 04/05/2006 at 1:13 PM #

    ^^Why is Mike Jarvis, Sr. not being mentioned as a candidate?

    He got let go from St. Johns for not producing there, if I remember right. That and he had trouble recruiting the top talent from NYC.

    The following is from a post by Mike Glenn in the coments of his Rick Barnes story in the ACC sports journal:

    “* I don’t want to get into the details of why right now, and I hope this response doesn’t offend you, but if I made a list of my “100 Favorite Coaches” who I think would be good fits for the NCSU job, Mike Jarvis would not be on the list. Frankly, he might not be in the top 500.”

  17. Chief93 04/05/2006 at 2:04 PM #

    Hell, if we’re just throwing out crazy names, how about Master P? NBA connections, young, lots of management and business experience, and doesn’t need the money–he’s already worth about half a billion.
    ๐Ÿ™‚

  18. Chief93 04/05/2006 at 2:05 PM #

    ^ ….Not much of a dancer, though, apparently; so Mean Gene would be on his own.

  19. moklett 04/05/2006 at 2:08 PM #

    An article from Dallas Fort-Worth’s paper re: Barnes’ contract:
    http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/colleges/14267836.htm

  20. DavidThompson 04/05/2006 at 2:18 PM #

    ^ STILL NOT A DEFINATE NO…LOL

  21. ThePack 04/05/2006 at 2:20 PM #

    What do you all think of Billy Gillispie? From what I’ve seen, he could very well be a good choice as well

  22. Packgal 04/05/2006 at 2:42 PM #

    Slow???? I’ve seen faster snails!

  23. Nate Johnson 04/05/2006 at 3:28 PM #

    ^ What do you all think of Billy Gillispie? From what Iรขโ‚ฌโ„ขve seen, he could very well be a good choice as well

    I’m a huge fan of Billy Gillispie, and while I think he has done some excellent work at A&M, I’m not sure he’s quite the right fit for State right now. Gillispie has proven to be a turnaround master, making gold out of lead and turning long-dormant programs into winners. That said, there are a couple of concerns with getting him to State:

    1) He’s a Texan. As I’ve said here before — and Jeff can back me up on this, I’m sure — those outside of Texas can’t understand how big a deal that is here. Additionally, he won’t necessarily have this worshipful attitude toward the ACC that a Barnes or Calipari might have.

    2) A&M has caught a bit of basketball fever, with their home attendence setting one-game and whole-season records with some regularity now.

    3) A&M just extended Gillispie a $1M bonus, contingent on his staying in College Station for the next six years. That’s in addition to his $930k annual compensation package. Now, I know State would offer significantly more than that, but it’s a pretty good living for a college town in east Texas.

    Additionally, I’m concerned that, in the short term, his recruiting ability isn’t what a program like State is going to want or need… and not for the usual reasons. Sure, he has to recruit in the shadow of Barnes and Knight (in Texas), along with the likes of Self and, until recently, Sampson in the conference, but that’s not where he’s made his money, so to speak. Look over the roster of players at A&M this season… nearly all — save three — of his roster is from Texas, and the three out of state players (one from IL, one from Ontario, and a JuCo transfer from Lithuania) aren’t exactly McDonald’s All-Americans.

    The issue is that most, if not all, of Coach Gillispie’s recruiting networking so far has been in Texas. Before he was at UTEP, he spent years in the high school basketball world in Texas, developing relationships here. Certainly, Texas produces a lot of good athletes, but his recruiting stage has been limited to just Texas, where he not only has to compete with with the firm of Barnes, Knight, et al., but also with the real king here: football.

    That said, he will very likely be a big name coach at a big name school in a few years. Whether that happens at A&M or whether he’s plucked by someone is still anyone’s guess. The fit is right — A&M and State are essentially mirror images of each other (although A&M is about twice as big) and there hasn’t been yet a whiff of any kind of impropriety whatsoever with Coach Gillispie. I’m not convinced the timing’s right, though. Gillispie probably needs another year or two to develop his recruiting presence on the national stage before he’d be the ideal candidate.

    (And my fiancee would hate me if my alma mater stole her basketball coach… but that’s a post for another day. ๐Ÿ˜‰

  24. BladenWolf 04/05/2006 at 3:44 PM #

    I wouldn’t laugh about Quinn Snyder being asked to be the next NC State coach. Once the “big names” have postured and received contract revisions, the Pack will be left to make the offer to someone like Snyder. When have we ever gone after, much less landed, a big name coach. Reality check.

  25. JTO 04/05/2006 at 3:47 PM #

    I really can’t take any more days like this. I need some answers on the biggies or else I’ll never get any work done.

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