Weekend Basketball Talk

Basketball Recruiting General NCS Basketball19

Sidney Lowe
David Glenn discusses Sidney Lowe’s diploma and NCAA compliance test in a new blog entry linked here.

Barring any unexpected glitches with his college degree, Lowe now will turn his primary attention to passing the NCAA-mandated rules test, which all college recruiters (head coaches and assistants) must take and pass every spring or summer in order to recruit during the following season.

The NCAA exam, which consists of 40 true-false and multiple-choice questions about three (recruiting, eligibility, financial aid) important compliance topics, is not designed to be difficult. It’s an open-book test, coaches have 80 minutes to provide the answers, and practice tests are available as preparation guides. A score of 80 percent (32 of 40) or better is a passing grade, and the exam can be taken on-line, with the results available immediately.

Glenn’s piece clears up a misconception about the frequency with which a coach can attempt the NCAA compliance test. Contrary to previous reports, a coach cannot just take the test multiple times at their own pace / leisure.

However, there is one huge incentive for coaches to take each attempt at the exam very seriously: Those who fail must wait 30 days to take it again. In Lowe’s case, that means he’ll have only one shot before his official NCSU starting date of July 1, and before the start of the crucial July evaluation period (including the high-profile shoe camps) on the national recruiting trail.

Until now, Coach Lowe could easily have taken the test and failed with no-one being the wiser. But, with the July 1st date approaching, that luxury will no longer be afforded to him. If Coach Lowe isn’t able to recruit off campus by July 1st, then it will be obvious to the world that he failed the test.

Don’t just look at the Glenn entry and then ignore the comments below his entry. (Well, ignore most of the comments). Glenn chimes into the comments with some answers to some questions that might be of interest to you.

Dan Werner
In other important NC State Basketball news, the Charlotte Observer is reporting that State’s highest rated and most coveted recruit (ranked #70 by Scout.com), Dan Werner, will be coming to Raleigh this weekend for time with Coach Lowe. (Click here for commentary on Werner)

N.C. State basketball signee Dan Werner will fly with his father on Sunday to Raleigh to meet with new coach Sidney Lowe while considering whether to honor his scholarship agreement with the Wolfpack.

Werner, a 6-foot-7 forward from Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, N.J., reopened his recruitment after former coach Herb Sendek left for Arizona State. CBA coach Ed Wicelinski said Werner has made official visits to Kentucky, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Florida and unofficial visits to St. Joseph’s, Rutgers and Seton Hall.

Werner’s presence in Raleigh for the next four years is made more important by the impact of his absence on State’s scholarship numbers that we discussed in this entry.

Doyel Cuts on State Again
We will save you the hassle of clicking on the link to Dickhead’s Ten for Tuesday.

This week is hardcore basketball, for basketball lovers only. Ten for Tuesday presents the 10 most fascinating staff developments — we’re talking about assistants, not head coaches — of the offseason.

5. N.C. State flip-flop: Ace recruiter Larry Harris followed boss Herb Sendek from North Carolina State to Arizona State. And then a few weeks later Harris returned to N.C. State, where he will work for new Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe. Lowe’s a lot more fun than Sendek. Sendek’s going to work a lot longer than Lowe, though. Just saying, Larry Harris. Just saying.

Related to NC State and Larry Davis:

3. Seton Hall’s ruse: The worst secret in college basketball is that new Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez will complete his staff with former St. John’s assistant Dermon Player. Why hasn’t Gonzalez gone ahead and hired Player? Because he needs Player to stay with his AAU program, the Metro Hawks, as long as possible. Some of the best players in the area are playing for the Hawks, which means unlimited access for a future Seton Hall assistant. Is this legal? Sure it is. Should it be legal? Of course not.

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19 Responses to Weekend Basketball Talk

  1. vtpackfan 06/10/2006 at 10:26 PM #

    I’m sorry that I tried to read the DG links thread. I hope he hires interns to read it because it’s such a farce. “I’m an NC State Alum and an educator, and I’m ashamed…”, wasn’t he the professer I mean professor a month or two ago. Anyways, not to sound overly pessimistic but atleat Werner got the message that the Davis thing didn’t go over to well. He and his old man will go through the motions, they’ll be the akward silence before the handshakes and good lucks are passed. Some courtesty, thats all State asked of them. Strange that most of those schools that Werner is visiting resemble nothing of the offense that Sendek sold him on. ND and St. Joes like to chuck it up with the best of them, and they have played some exciting NIT games recently.

  2. Jeremy Hyatt 06/11/2006 at 12:09 AM #

    wow him Sidney, we could use this kid.

  3. StateFans 06/11/2006 at 8:51 AM #

    The fact that Werner is looking at other good schools (that don’t run the Princeton offense) like UF and UK indicates how much he “blew up” last season in HS. Werner, unlike some players, doesn’t “need” the offense to succeed.

  4. Wulfpack 06/11/2006 at 9:18 AM #

    “My disadvantage (on the NCAA rules test) is that I’ve been away from the college game for the last 20 years,” Lowe said. “We didn’t have rules like this in the NBA.”

    I’m nervous. Sid will be fine on the test (given that you only need an 80%), but how will he run this program? It’s very clear has a lot to learn.

  5. tractor57 06/11/2006 at 9:48 AM #

    I have lots of confidence in Sid and the staff that is in place. All in all probably the best fit after a very bad scene with the coaching search. Of course, it will take some time but who thinks he will have 10 years like the previous.

  6. Jeff 06/11/2006 at 10:50 AM #

    I am the opposite of Wulfpack. I’m more concerned about Sidney passing the test than I am his running the program. I think that running the program will be easier because of his strong staff (except for Quentin Jackson).

  7. redfred2 06/11/2006 at 1:10 PM #

    There was a sports writer who said this was a terrible job, he was way off in his basis and stated all the wrong reasons. In reality, he was more correct than we care to admit, all things at present taken into consideration.

    Sidney Lowe will have to drag along a bunch of kicking and screaming, worthless and in over their heads, administrators every step of the way, while trying to restore this basketball program back from a total train wreck. That may be an impossible handicap that no other coach in any sport has seemed to overcome yet. The question now is whether he is confident enough in his own talent, and that of his staff, to ignore their mundane minds and go on about his business without letting them stand in his way.

    “will (he) have 10 years like the previous.”? Put it this way, no one is going to fire anybody, as previously witnessed, for just following their poor examples.

  8. tractor57 06/11/2006 at 6:02 PM #

    Maybe I’m not as much of a realist as you are redfred but you do make some good points about the administration. There is no doubt that Lowe has a challenge ahead and I do hope (as I’m sure you do) that he can be successful.

  9. vtpackfan 06/11/2006 at 6:54 PM #

    “I’m more concerned about Sidney passing the test than I am his running the program.”
    The test will not be a problem for Sid. I agree that the PR fallout that would result from Sidney being ineligible July 1 would not be pretty. But it won’t happen; a T/F open book exam, that you can download and practice as much as you want, and Towe and Strickland have passed it numerous times and will give him all the good advise needed to make up for whatever Fowler has planned as a crash course (most likely crushed No-Doz in some Gentlemens Jack).

  10. redfred2 06/11/2006 at 11:54 PM #

    ^tractor57

    I AM HOPING that a good dose of Sidney Lowe’s, and Monte Towe’s, winning attitudes and nat’l championship expriences will rub off on all the athletic departments, along with the dullards they will call their bosses, and that we will have a real basketball program to cheer about once again. Maybe I should be more analytical about it, but I am excited as hell and don’t have any reservations about Coach Lowe and staff. I am only concerned as to whose attitude will win out a few years down the road, his and his staff’s, or the loser’s mentality of the current administration.

  11. Wulfpack 06/12/2006 at 8:35 AM #

    Just a question, what winning ways have this staff been personally responsible for since the title run (don’t say the Pistons, they were already well established when Sid came along)? Don’t get me wrong, their championships will be huge selling points. But the law of the land these days seems to be ‘what have you done for me lately’. I am cautiously optimistic, but know that success isn’t going to come without some roadblocks, and clear-cut learning experiences, along the way.

  12. tractor57 06/12/2006 at 9:18 AM #

    Redfred, like you I am excited about wolfpack bb (for me, the first time in years). I hope the staff does well and that the admin sort of “stays out of the way”.

  13. choppack1 06/12/2006 at 9:37 AM #

    One of my biggest concerns w/ Sidney will be the emphasis he places on academics and the free time for the players. In the NBA, the main goal was to keep the high profile players off the police blotter – but even if they were arrested, most outside of the starting 5 are disposable.

    If you haven’t noticed, a football coach w/ extensive NFL experience, but very little college experience down the road has had almost an entire starting roster get in trouble w/ the law. Clearly, you have to give these kids something to do to manage their “down-time” and keep them eligible (a challenge they don’t really face at the schools down the road.)

    I want to emphasize that I’m not worried about Sidney from a morals point of view, but this is just a unique management qualification for a college b’ball coach.

  14. Wolf-n-Atl 06/12/2006 at 11:02 AM #

    I think the staff will be able to keep the players out of trouble and focused on what needs to be done. I don’t expect a Chan Gailey snafu. We have 2 ex-head coaches and an assistant who has been at State and knows what needs to be done.

  15. choppack1 06/12/2006 at 11:11 AM #

    Wolf-n-Atl – Good point. But remember, these things have to be important to the head guy.

  16. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 06/12/2006 at 1:30 PM #

    “Just a question, what winning ways have this staff been personally responsible for since the title run…”

    We know the Arizona State coach didn’t have any ‘winning ways’. I’ll take the unknown over the past known anytime.

  17. redfred2 06/12/2006 at 5:28 PM #

    tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc, His lifelong childhood hero “Mighty Mouselike,” has forsaken him for a whole different set of blindly loyal fans at ASU, and he just can’t let any good thoughts enter his mind YET! Give him a break, he’ll come around.

    I may be dumber than dumb for having total confidence in Sidney Lowe and Co., afterall he doesn’t have any college coaching exprience whatsoever to base it on, but I am no dumber than those who doubt every aspect without one single college basketball coaching fact to base their premature negativity on.

  18. redfred2 06/14/2006 at 12:13 AM #

    I am sorry to drag it here but the Simmons thread closed while I was at work, and before I could respond.

    Wulf- YOU ARE RIGHT, Herb Sendek immediately improved the program, that happened about eight years ago. Again, YOU ARE RIGHT.

    It took him all of two years to reach his highless level of competence in the ACC. Herb may be a great guy to sit down and talk basketball with, and he may know more about X’s and O’s than anybody on the planet, but he lacks imagination and can’t make even the simpliest of adjustments to his thoughts while coaching the game.

    Please don’t start turning things around by saying that Herb didn’t have the talent to compete. HE RECRUITED the players HE CHOOSE and was self-limiting in that effort also, simply by his own coaching style, and what he had put on the court earlier. There is no one else to blame for that. Saying that he didn’t have a chance to better compete in recruiting because he was at NC State and behind both Duke and Carolina, is just another in a long line of excuses. As I have said before, he WAS NOT recruiting in the name of NC State University, or the ACC, and couldn’t have cared less about either. He recruited in the name of Herb Sendek and a style of play. The recent exodus is all the proof you should need of that.

    Saying Herb did a good job is your perogative, many of us have higher standards as basis for a coach’s talents. All that most of need to see are young players (Cedric Simmons, Cameron Bennerman, Julius Hodge, and on and on) improving and making the most of their short time on the college basketball court. Seeing someone hold them back for unknown and selfish reasons does not sit well the majority of folks. If you were stoked about beating sub standard teams and consider the annual battle for third place in the ACC as success, then you are a lucky man, and more easily contented than most folks who have any interest in athletics.

    I am sick of talking about Herb, he wasn’t in it for the good of the university because he couldn’t understand anything about the past, or what has been. He didn’t know how to “sale” anything NC State to young kids because he didn’t think it was important enough to mention. That is was why he couldn’t recruit against other great ACC programs who always pushed their great historys. He didn’t care to know about NC State, that is the reason Herb failed with fans, and on the court. That is all irregardless of what kind of basketball coach he was.

    He may have never scarred the integrity with his mousey public persona, but he was more times than not just barely approaching good, never for even one night, close to great. I can’t sit back while people still try to defend him for his whole decade at NCSU just because he improved the program shortly after he arrived.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. StateFans Nation » Blog Archive » Katz Blogs Lowe/Pack - 01/02/2007

    […] We highlighted some of what was going on with Gonzalez/Seton Hall in this previous SFN entry. 3. Seton Hall’s ruse: The worst secret in college basketball is that new Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez will complete his staff with former St. John’s assistant Dermon Player. Why hasn’t Gonzalez gone ahead and hired Player? Because he needs Player to stay with his AAU program, the Metro Hawks, as long as possible. Some of the best players in the area are playing for the Hawks, which means unlimited access for a future Seton Hall assistant. Is this legal? Sure it is. Should it be legal? Of course not. […]

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