If you’re a longsuffering NC State fan, you will never forget the dark days, and you will certainly long remember the national dogpile on the “delusional Wolfpack fans” for running the poor Herb Sendek (who never beat Roy Williams despite being favored in 4 out of his 6 games against him) out of town. Criminy, it had reached a stage of almost religious mysticism to the sports reporting set; one got the distinct impression that every sports reporter, talk show host and hack journalist couldn’t get to sleep at night without uttering the phrase But the delusional NC State fans have got to realize that the next coach can’t expect to compete against Roy Williams and Coach K!
It got so bad that SFN got tired of the one-script wonders and started a thread devoted to “Chronicling the Criticism” — an impossible job, because the critics were legion. But they gathered some humdingers of self-assured, condescending claptrap aimed at Wolfpack Nation. Such as:
• “[Hiring Sidney Lowe was]a page out of the N.C. State football playbook. Walk loudly and carry a twig. What you have here is a trade-off that most State fans will welcome. The straight-laced, soft-spoken coach that wins more than he loses firmly in the shadow of his neighbors for the tough-talking State alum that isn’t scared to yell at Coach K or Skip Prosser to fire up his team. Style over substance never works over the long haul.” — Randy Capps, Shelby Starr
• “Until Saturday, N.C. State’s search was going beautifully. The Wolfpack hadn’t done anything smart like hire one of the ACC-ready head coaches in their own state, but they hadn’t done anything irreparably stupid, either. Like hiring Sidney Lowe.” — Gregg “Still Seeking John Simonds” Doyell
• “Whether it’s Sidney Lowe, Rick Barnes or John Calipari, it doesn’t really matter. There’s no way N.C. State will be able to topple the powers-that-be on Tobacco Road.” — Jeff Goodman, MSNBC
• “Given this sorry state of affairs, I’m guessing there are a lot of disappointed N.C. State fans, such as the one who goes by the handle gsu101 and posted the following message on an Internet message board two weeks ago. The message is addressed ‘To all Herb Haters’ and it reads: ‘You guys are now getting a reality check. There is no coach that can propel us past UNC and Duke, at least not right now, but Herb kept pushing the program along in the right direction. He was a classy guy, and a great coach. And his reward [was] ONLY CONSTANT CRITICISM AND SNOTTINESS FROM YOU FOLKS! Consider what is happening to State now as a fitting punishment, you ungrateful people.’ Can I get an amen?” — Seth Davis, SI
I’m not even going to try to take a snippet from Spam Central a la “The ACCBasketblog”; just read the paragraph upon paragraph of pure vitriol they provided.
I’ll end by quoting one of my all-time favorite writers. That handsome devil said the following:
Sidney Lowe won an ACC championship, and NCAA championship, and his team beat UNC with Michael Jordan and Sam Perkins without their leading scorer, Dereck Whittenburg.
DO YOU THINK ANYONE’S GOING TO TELL HIM WE CAN’T EXPECT TO COMPETE AGAINST UNC AND DUKE?
I would add, however, that this comment came before Coach Lowe hired an assistant coach who also won ACC and NCAA titles at NC State (Monte Towe) and another assistant who won an ACC title at NC State by beating a previously unbeaten-in-the-ACC UNC team (Quention Jackson).
Anyway, regardless of what all those jokers said back then, I just talked to my friend Scoreboard, and he says they’re all wrong. (Go here to read SFN’s coverage of Coach Lowe’s first victory against “we can’t expect to compete against” Roy Williams in his first try.)
Update: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention those sportswriters who “get it”; the ones who stood by the beleaguered Pack fans and bucked the trend among their peers. Such as:
• Tom Suiter
• Mike DeCourcy
• Caulton Tudor
• John Delong
