One Year Ago Today- Sendek Bolts for ASU

General NCS Basketball36

If you want to take a trip down memory lane. Go back and read the blog entries from April 2006. You will get a good laugh. SFN will gladly take gifts of “paper.”

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General NCS Basketball

36 Responses to One Year Ago Today- Sendek Bolts for ASU

  1. redfred2 04/02/2007 at 12:55 PM #

    “don’t know if that’s true.”

    Cedar, I know you don’t, but trust me just this once, I do.

    I do not know how old you are but, there was an NC State basketball program before Herb, before Les, before the sanctions, and before the administration became the roll over and die, whipping boy of the triangle.

    You folks who don’t know anything about that, don’t really care about it. We still do though, and we weren’t ready to scrap it all and start all over like those banners meant nothing and nothing ever happened before. Fifteen (+/-) years may your NC State basketball reality, but there was greatness before that time period.

  2. CedarGroveWolf 04/02/2007 at 1:11 PM #

    “I know you don’t, but trust me just this once, I do.”

    you KNOW Sid was the ONLY coach to restore the passion? What about Whitt?

    “I do not know how old you are”
    35

    “but there was greatness before that time period.” yes I know, thank you.

  3. Cedarblockhead 04/02/2007 at 1:14 PM #

    Without Herb we would still be bumbling along. But he turned us into a perennial champion and 5 TIME NCAA tournament participant (never before seen in NCSU days).

    We should all be grateful for the time he blessed us with.

  4. lush 04/02/2007 at 1:20 PM #

    cedar,

    so if you KNOW there was greatness before, then why are you so proud and accepting of Herbs mediocrity? do you not want to get back to greatness? are you even a state fan? you sound like a know it all unc or duke fan too me.

  5. CedarGroveWolf 04/02/2007 at 1:31 PM #

    “why are you so proud and accepting of Herbs mediocrity? ”

    never said this.

    “do you not want to get back to greatness?”

    of course

    “are you even a state fan?”

    um, yes & 1993 graduate

  6. lush 04/02/2007 at 1:36 PM #

    everyone who has a problem with herb has a problem with what he could not do, win against rivals and win championships, so all the other stuff you keep bringing up is mute. we all know that the program is in better shape now than it was when he got here. that is only one of the things he was hired to do. so give herb an A for getting us back on track and an F for not doing anything else. Overall a C, as in C you later, have fun in the desert.

  7. Jimmy V 04/02/2007 at 1:44 PM #

    There are some who were/are loyal to Herb to the death. That’s an admirable trait, but at some point, you have to be able to take a good, hard look at the leader of something that is so important to many, many people: Wolfpack basketball. Herb did not really do what the fans wanted him to do: win the ACC occasionally and beat Duke and UNC to some degree. The academics were already restored by the time Sendek got the program. Being “squeaky clean” is not something to get praise about. It’s expected. Herb and his loyal followers decided to put their heads in the ground about the feelings and expectations of so many State fans. You just can’t do that. Not if you’re Tubby Smith. Not if you’re Herb Sendek. Or whoever. You have to be willing to listen to what the people interested have to say and not tune them out. In Herb’s eyes and a few people, he did a great job. He did a good job, but we consistently got punked by Duke and Carolina. So Herb gets no A+ for his ten year performance. I would say B-. He did pretty well in coaching a program that was down when he got it to five NCAAs. That much I’ll concede. But for the Kennels, Wolf81s (the poster on PackPride. Whatever happened to him?), and the very few others of the Wolfpack Nation who seem to think Herb did a fine, fine job . . . Most diehard State fans, including myself, do not agree. So you’re in the very, very small minority. Some of the comments over the last five years have actually been very, very fair. The criticisms concerning scheduling, the offense, the transfers, the coachspeak, the lack of success vs. the Big 2. This is all factual stuff. Not meanspirited, hateful speech. I’ll grant you that there might be a few State fans who were meanspirited in their treatment of Herb. But the majority of us just had some criticisms that the PTB seemed to ignore. If it was up to Wendell Murphy and Lee Fowler, Sendek would still be here and they’d still be singing his praises. It was time. Herb knew his fan support wasn’t going to improve. He finally started to get it mentally that State fans were not happy about repeatedly losing to Duke and UNC. So he did the smart thing: He got out of Raleigh after 5 straight NCAAs bids while his stock as a coach was at its highest. Now he’s at a place with little basketball interest and no expectations: a place where he’ll fit in well. He didn’t fit here because he stubbornly refused to embrace the history and traditions, the ACC titles, the two national titles, the fans’ passion. He said, “I’m doing it my way.” And you just can’t do that. I wish nothing bad on Sendek at Arizona State, but he brought a lot of his problems on himself because of his attitude. He could have approached it differently and he did not. Lowe has a different approach and he understands the passion of the fans to compete with Duke and UNC. The fans want ACC titles and they want to contend for the national title. We never contended in ten years; Herb had his chances to show State fans what he could do. He was able to consistenly beat the Clemson, FSU, UVA, and GT in the ACC. But we’ve tasted it under Jim Valvano and we wanted a little more. All Herb had to do was win an ACC title every 4-5 years and beat Duke and UNC more.

    I don’t think Sendek did what he was hired to do: win ACC titles. Now if you’re talking about Todd Turner and his meager expectations . . . Yes. If you’re talking about the vast majority of State fans . . . No. He did improve the program, but he will be remember in ACC Basketball History as a middling coach. Better than the Bob Staaks and Bob Wades of the world and not close to Dean Smith and Coach K and also a cut below Jim Valvano, Norm Sloan, and Gary Williams.

  8. Rick 04/02/2007 at 2:10 PM #

    “so if you KNOW there was greatness before, then why are you so proud and accepting of Herbs mediocrity? ”

    What mediocracy? He led us to % NCAA TOURNAMENTs. FIVE

    Name another NCSU head coach to do it? He is in select company.

  9. Rick 04/02/2007 at 2:43 PM #

    That was sarcasm by the way

  10. redfred2 04/03/2007 at 1:31 PM #

    He’s gooooooone, whoooa I, we payed a dumbass to replace him…He’s goooooone…

  11. Jimmy V 04/03/2007 at 7:24 PM #

    CedarGroveWolf, did you have a hard time with State fans wanting Herb Sendek gone because he didn’t win a title? Not arguing with you because like I said, those who defend Herb are in a very, very small minority among NCSU fans. How, in your opinion, should State fans have treated Herb differently? If you say, “Should have given him more respect.” Fine. I might can see that. If you say, “Supported his offense, sorry scheduling, and accepted his philosophy concerning winning and losing.” You will be in small company saying something like that. It was all I could do to watch the Princeton offense, hear Herb’s weak reasoning on his scheduling (He gave this a few times on his radio show.), and listen to the Herbspeak during interviews and press conferences.

    It’s always interesting to hear what a diehard Herb Sendek supporter will say. I wish Kennel would come on here. I have nothing against him, but I think he’s been in hiding since Final Four weekend, 2006. I’d love to hear what ‘ol Bob Kennel has to say. His favorite coach ended up leaving. His chastisement of so many of us didn’t seem to do too well.

    I would love to hear another lecture from ‘ol Bob even though he was clearly wrong about “The Seeds of Greatness.”

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