Did you ever think that you would see and NC State website proclaiming “Thank God for the N&O!”
“The Wolfpack plays its first preseason exhibition game under coach Sidney Lowe and it could be a test. Northern State, a Division II school in Aberdeen, S.D., finished 27-6 last season and returns three starters. The Wolves, from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, played their first exhibition Wednesday at Vanderbilt, losing 98-94 as 6-foot-6 junior Levi Hamilton scored 19 points.�
Basketball is approaching, and if it wasn’t for the N&O you may not have known a damn thing about NC State’s exhibition basketball game tonight. You certainly wouldn’t know it if you use the front page GoPack.com for your Wolfpack news. But, SFN has confirmed that the information is true; the Sidney Lowe era does takes another step towards beginning in earnest tonight when NC State plays host to Northern State University in an exhibition game.
GoPack.com doesn’t have a mention of the game anywhere on its front page today. Nowhere. Addtionally:
* The game is not even included in the “Events Calendar” on the front page of the site.
* There is no preview article for the game anywhere on the site.
* The Calendar of Events on the Men’s Basketball subpage does at least mention of the game’s existence.
* Unfortunately, the title of the “Calendar of Events” on the BASKETBALL page says “BASEBALL EVENTS CALENDAR” (Sometimes it hurts to laugh this much)
You would think that the folks over at NC State would exert a little extra effort to detail after the Athletics Department failed to capitalize on promotional opportunities associated with the hiring of Coach Lowe in front of key recruits and most recently severely limited the number of fans who could attend the Red & White Game. But, that conclusion would be far too kind for this crew. (Link to a past entry that will also provide some key links)
If it were anyone else we’d call the omission something like “unbelievable”; but we are accustomed to such oversights at GoPack. This is the kind of “value” that you get when an entity has a monopolistic hold on a market with no chance for competition as what was created when the Athletics Department’s exclusive agreement with Wolfpack Sports Marketing & GoPack.com was ‘interestingly’ extended with no public bid process a few years ago (and simultaneously when “Coach” Lee Fowler was given his own television show by Wolfpack Sports Marketing).
If you want to gear up a little for tonight’s game then Section Six has the quick primer that you need. Additionally, the Charlote Observer has a tiny Q&A with Coach Lowe.
We leave you today by re-emphasizing the suggestion that we made to Coach Lowe a few weeks go. This kind of f*&#-up (along with the Red/White Game) will continue to happen until the Basketball Program realizes that they have to look out for themselves constantly. The MEN’S Basketball program, that is.
Updated 2:15pm
OOPS!!!
Please forgive us for forgetting one other major piece of criticsm that is related to this entire cluster #&^@. We forgot to mention that tonight’s men’s exhibition game – Sidney Lowe’s first ever – has been scheduled for the same night as the major day of Homecoming activities in Raleigh.
At first glance, this would look like a brilliant move to maximize the opportunity for fans to get to experience Homecoming events AND the basketball game except the basketball game has been scheduled to conflict with the end of the Homecoming parade and then the Pack Howl pep rally and concert going on in Reynolds.
