The broken record continues at State…
…that is Arizona State now!
Last week Sports Illustrated ran an (old favorite) article titled “Playing Catch-up” that focused on Herb Sendek’s current situation at Arizona State.
(Two Notes: (1) We know about the “Dare to Believe” video and we promise that we will have more on it in the future. (2) We know that Herb Sendek is no longer the coach at NC State and don’t need you to tell us about it. But Jim Valvano, Lou Holtz, Dick Sheridan, Mike O’Cain, Norm Chow, Buddy Green, Noel Mazzone, Jim Donnan, Norm Sloan, Everett Case, Buzz Peterson and Les Robinson don’t work at NC State any more either and we still highlight interesting news about them whenever it is relevant. So, please don’t waste time sharing with us what you think/feel about the ‘appropriateness’ of any of our entries. If you have questions about our policies you can click this link for general policies and click this link for Comments policy
We just can’t get over the ucanniness of the consistency of the horribly down-trodden positions that poor old Herb always seems to find himself as compared to other coaches. Equally consistent to how tough Herb always seems to have it is the fact that undefined future is always amazingly (and undefinably) bright!
“He’s trying to build a dynasty,” point guard Antwi Atuahene said.
^Wow! When did he start aiming for the moon? Good luck getting him to ever say that in public.
Sendek cancelled/postponed ASU’s media day this year because he was too busy for it; the need to visit a prospective recruit outweighed the free publicity and attention that media day would bring the program. To be honest – the odds are very high that – in the Phoenix market – the need to visit a prospective recruit really DID outweigh the amount of attention that Arizona State’s Basketball program would attract during media day.
Before Sendek’s ASU program lost its top two scorer’s from last year, we truly expected the Sun Devils to be vastly improved by Sendek’s style, discipline, scheduling strategy and x-and-o coaching ability. Jeff previously indicated on an ASU Message Board that he expected a nice overall record that would put the Sun Devils on the periphery of some people’s NCAA Bubble that would burst but ultimately earn teh Sun Devils an NIT bid. This would have been a huge stride for Sun Devils program (11-19 last year) and was an obvious indicator of our respect for Coach Sendek’s ability to make an immediate impact on a program’s existing talent.
But, the Sun Devils DID lose their two top scorers. And…isn’t the unexpected attrition of key players to unexpected situations a decade-long trend that plagued Sendek in Raleigh? Aren’t those “woe is me / hard luck” situations EXACTLY a part of the chasm that divided the “wait til next year” crowd that only once in a decade was able to rest easy in March for a guaranteed NCAA Tournament bid?
In other news items of note, Dick Vitale chimed in with some comments on Herb Sendek and Jeff Capel over at ESPN a few weeks ago.
You really have to love the consistency in Vitale’s perspective on Sendek – “Give him (undefined and unlimited) time!” and all will be well. Additionally, Vitale’s selectivity of what is important to highlight in Sendek’s record is also consistent.
Sendek led his NC State teams to five 20-win seasons in the past seven years.
Of course, we all remember that Sendek coached for ten years in Raleigh; not just the “past seven”. But, give Vitale credit for being consistent in harping on the total number of wins without mention of the embarassing out of conference schedules that Sendek used to build those 20-win seasons.
STOP IT!…we are going to stop it…we could get sucked into the same old pattern of defending NC State with facts and numbers for almost every comment that Vitale made…but, we are going to stop. Vitale states that he
firmly believe Sendek was never appreciated by the fans.
and nothing that we say is going to change that…even when Vitale’s OWN COMMENTS indicate that he thinks that NC State needed more energy on the sidelines and that he thinks that Sidney Lowe is a “flat-out winner”. He talks so much that he can’t keep his stories consitent.
รขโฌลN.C. State has to look for someone who has charisma, someone who can get that energy back. [Former coach] Herb Sendek was a terrific X-and-O guy and did a good job doing what he was supposed to do, but State needs someone who can get that enthusiasm back to the way it used to be.”
In the long run, he will have his team prepared and ready to play. Sendek is a solid X and O guy, and it will take a little time to build the program.
Why are we even worrying about this? We all know that we don’t take advice from Dick!
