Vitale: Lowe One of Next Generation of “Great Coaches”

General NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe83

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Though the Wolfpack has been on a roller coaster during this season, Sidney Lowe has gotten generally great reviews from the press. Dick Vitale heaped some praise today on Coach Lowe in his USA Today column:

[Who] is ready to make a name big time? Some names to keep in mind: Karl Hobbs, George Washington; Mark Turgeon, Wichita State; Jim Christian, Kent State; Chris Lowery, Southern Illinois; John Pelphrey, South Alabama; Jeff Capel, Oklahoma; Sidney Lowe, North Carolina State; and Todd Lickliter, Butler.

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General NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe

83 Responses to Vitale: Lowe One of Next Generation of “Great Coaches”

  1. BoKnowsNCS71 02/22/2007 at 10:20 PM #

    Vitale nailed this one. Sid will be one of the greatest.

  2. Frank 02/22/2007 at 10:27 PM #

    Sidney Lowe has already exceeded expectations for a first year coach in the ACC. I believe he will be the greatest NC State coach ever. I realize that is saying a lot, but I believe it.

    Get well quick, Sid.

  3. beowolf 02/22/2007 at 11:12 PM #

    I love unbridled optimism.

    Bridled, I’ll say Sid has impressed me with his play-calling, game management, defensive play-calling, passion, and recruiting. That and punking UNC on his first time up.

  4. jamieinkorea 02/22/2007 at 11:36 PM #

    I think Coach Lowe is going to be around for a while, and I think he will impress everyone along the way.

    I just hope that he can keep the student atheletes from selling their seats and shoes and stealing stereos… 😉

  5. xphoenix87 02/23/2007 at 2:25 AM #

    I’m reserving judgement for a while. I like a lot of stuff I’ve seen this year and I love Lowe’s passion, but one year isn’t anything to base am opinion on, especially a year with so little to work with as this one. Lets see how things go over the next few years before we crown him the next great ACC coach.

  6. tractor57 02/23/2007 at 8:16 AM #

    Nice to see Lowe getting some love after all the negative things that were said in the press last spring.
    As for Vitale – I take his comments with a large grain of salt – yes he loves college basketball but on a given day he will say anything and then say the opposite next week.
    I’m not ready to make Lowe “the King of all he can see” but he is off to a great start and I’m sure he will be successful – maybe “King” in a couple of years 🙂

  7. graywolf 02/23/2007 at 8:30 AM #

    We heard the same from Vitale in regards to Sendek. We all know that Sendek was a moderate success( I’m trying to be nice).
    As stated above I take things that Vitale says not with a grain of salt but with the Bonneville Salt Flats quantity of salt.

    At this point, I am very optimistic that Coach Lowe and staff can truely coach and recruit. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the future. I also remember how thrilled we all were to get an alumnus called Amato and where that led. My gut feeling is that Sidney Lowe loves NC State and is in this for the long haul where as Amato was in for Amato and Amato only.

    I believe that Coach Lowe and staff are good recruiters. It is my hope that with the enthusiasm that has been generated that it will entice other good players/kids to play at NC State.

    Go Pakc

  8. graywolf 02/23/2007 at 8:34 AM #

    We heard the same from Vitale in regards to Sendek. We all know that Sendek was a moderate success( I’m trying to be nice).
    As stated above I take things that Vitale says not with a grain of salt but with the Bonneville Salt Flats quantity of salt.

    At this point, I am very optimistic that Coach Lowe and staff can truely coach and recruit. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in the future. I also remember how thrilled we all were to get an alumnus called Amato and where that led. My gut feeling is that Sidney Lowe loves NC State and is in this for the long haul where as Amato was in for Amato and Amato only.

    I believe that Coach Lowe and staff are good recruiters. It is my hope that with the enthusiasm that has been generated that it will entice other good players/kids to play at NC State.

    Go Pack

  9. Dr. BadgerPack 02/23/2007 at 8:37 AM #

    What bodes well for Sidney is that one would guess he will not be a coach who plateau’s in terms of ability. He should continue to grow as a coach and recruiter and adjust as the other ACC squads develop and adapt. To speak in sports cliche, Sidney is a “student of the game” and shouldn’t fall into any limiting patterns in the future (opinion based on observed ability to adapt to in-game situations).

  10. buttPACKer 02/23/2007 at 8:45 AM #

    Frank,

    i agree. . . fifty years from now, Coach Lowe will be remembered as the Messiah of NC State basketball!

    ya’ll can mark that down as my official prediction. . .

  11. Mr O 02/23/2007 at 9:00 AM #

    At this point, there is no need to get ahead of ourselves. There is certainly hope, but getting back to the NCAAs quickly is important IMO. If we can make that step next season, then we will be in very good position after only two years of Lowe’s tenure.

    We really need to get one more win. I would really like to see us have a shot in post-season play.

  12. highonlowe 02/23/2007 at 9:25 AM #

    What is significant here is not whether Vitale’s words are gospel, its that NC State and Sid got some positive national exposure. We ACC fans are already aware, but this will help to inform the rest of the nation of the promising coach Sidney Lowe and the return of NC State basketball relevance.

  13. highonlowe 02/23/2007 at 9:26 AM #

    ^A little help on the close tag please. thanks

  14. Girlfriend in a Coma 02/23/2007 at 9:33 AM #

    Does anyone take Vitale seriously?

  15. GAWolf 02/23/2007 at 9:34 AM #

    We as fans have become some used to seeing our teams enjoy so little success that beating Carolina once… at home mind you… makes us deem our new coach the BEST NC STATE COACH EVER. That’s not really fair to us as fans, to the team this year and those in the near future, and it’s damn sure not fair to Sidney. Will he become the BEST NC STATE COACH EVER? Perhaps. Is it fair to crown him that now thus not leaving him any room for error along the way to whatever it is he accomplishes here? Heck no.

    The scary thing to me is that our football team has TONS more talent than our basketball team did this year when compared to their respective foes around the league. I think… and I emphasize “think”… that Obie is going to enjoy quite a bit of success in his first year here. I’m pretty confident he’ll do more from a W and L perspective than Sidney has been able to accomplish this year… strictly because he has MUCH more to work with. I sort of fear the monster that O’Brien’s first campaign will create that he’ll later have to possibly battle to maintain some sense of sanity among the fans.

    I’ve long since said that as State fans we’re sometimes our worst enemy.

  16. choppack1 02/23/2007 at 9:36 AM #

    “What bodes well for Sidney is that one would guess he will not be a coach who plateau’s in terms of ability.”

    Well, we really don’t know that. Sidney’s been coaching for a long time.

    I’ve been very impressed w/ our offensive sets. It’s worked so well that I fear that either everyone will be using this stuff in the next couple of years or that someone will figure it out in short order.

    I went into this year thinking that w/ our starting 5 – Atsur, Fells, Grant, Costner and McCauley, we’d be able to surprise some folks. I didn’t think we were as bad as people were saying. The injury – which still keeps Atsur from being 100% even now especially when it comes to conditioning – has pretty much wrecked a possibility of an NCAA tourney bid…though we can still win out and win a game or two in the tourney to land on the bubble.

    For us to be in this position says alot about Lowe and the kids. However, we need to keep in mind, NC State hasn’t had a coach in men’s basketball or football have a first season since Tom Reed.

    What does this mean? I think it means you reserve judgement – good or bad – until a coach gets his guys in here and has a chance to truly put a stamp on the program.

  17. Dr. BadgerPack 02/23/2007 at 9:48 AM #

    Choppack1-

    I think your fears of the opposition figuring things out can be somewhat tempered by the fact that a forte of Lowe’s offensive gameplanning is weakness exploitation.

    My statement about not plateauing wasn’t intended to be a statement of fact, more or less a guess based on his demonstrated willingness and ability to adjust things on the fly.

    It’s a damn shame Atsur was out. I agree the team could have had a tourney shot w/ him in there. With respect to judgement, of course you reserve “the final grade” until a few years have passed, but you can usually tell in what range an individual will fall based on the first exam (yeah, had to throw one of my teaching analogies in there).

  18. Big Worm 02/23/2007 at 9:49 AM #

    If you want to crown him, then crown his ass!11 😉

  19. lush 02/23/2007 at 10:04 AM #

    Is there a need to call out our fans for something that hasnt even happened yet GAWolf? What was the purpose of that post? To piss off and ruin the mood of optimistic and excited fans? Excuse us for finally haveing something to look forward to after 3 years of crappy football, and 10 years of crappy basketball.

  20. BJD95 02/23/2007 at 10:10 AM #

    Positive national publicity is always good. I am optimistic about Lowe. Don’t think he’s a miracle worker, but I like what I see so far (especially on offense).

  21. choppack1 02/23/2007 at 10:19 AM #

    “With respect to judgement, of course you reserve “the final grade” until a few years have passed, but you can usually tell in what range an individual will fall based on the first exam (yeah, had to throw one of my teaching analogies in there).”

    I don’t know – I’ve seen too many coaches who left Raleigh on down notes to believe that. Amato, Sendek and Les had good first years – especially when compared to the year before but none of these tenures was that satisfying. MOC went 6-2 his second year in the ACC. We know what happened thered.

    I’ve seen us play great this year – but I’ve also seen us play uninspired, when a better effort could have changed the scope of our season (think Duke, BC, Clemson and Miami.) Granted – 3 of those games were w/out Atsur – but you see my point. One of the things that I’ve learned from one of the writers on this site is that certain coaches can turnaround a program in one year.

    I’ve stated before that I believe Atsur’s injury kept us from having an NCAA tournament type year or being on the bubble – but still the bad efforts and past history tell me that just because you’re happy w/ a coach’s first year, it doesn’t mean that he’ll take you to the promised land.

  22. TNCSU 02/23/2007 at 10:24 AM #

    ^^^Excuse us for finally haveing something to look forward to after 3 years of crappy football, and 10 years of crappy basketball.

    I’d say more like 16 years of so-so basketball — the last 3 years have been okay, whereas the previous 13 were CRAPPY!

    I agree with BJD in that positive national publicity is good, and that comes from Winning with a quality program — and we are looking good so far, and if we get someone to step up at PG next year, we will be TOUGH!

  23. beowolf 02/23/2007 at 10:41 AM #

    i agree. . . fifty years from now, Coach Lowe will be remembered as the Messiah of NC State basketball!

    ya’ll can mark that down as my official prediction. . .

    I doubt fifty years from now I’m going to quote some guy named “buttPacker” … just sayin’ 😉

    ====

    As an NC State fan since 1981, I understand the worries of “getting too high on the coach too soon.” That’s why I’m proposing “bridled optimism” here.

    I think what we’ve seen from Coach Lowe is an ability to exploit team’s weaknesses, a willingness to switch up defenses, and a deftness at coaching through a game. Based on results this year, I think we can expect that with a deeper bench of the caliber talent Lowe’s first two recruiting classes seem to have, that we will have more games like VT and the first halves against UNX and GT, but that we will also have the occasional where-are-their-heads games like at Miami (these are still kids, after all, and even the best teams have these games). We will hopefully have the talent to mitigate against losing some of those latter games, unlike this year.

  24. ncsu96 02/23/2007 at 10:53 AM #

    I think we have great one…

    Don’t underestimate the ‘family’ atmosphere that Coach Lowe emphasizes, I think this is a huge part of recruiting success and building a program up.

    I think it’s worked out pretty well for UNC and Duke.

  25. CedarGroveWolf 02/23/2007 at 11:00 AM #

    “10 years of crappy basketball”

    didn’t think the last 5 years of going to the tourney, ACC tourney finals & a sweet 16 spot were “crappy”.

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