“Winning is good, losing is bad,” Fowler said Wednesday morning in an interview on 99.9 FM The Fan. “We’ve been very frustrated this year. You have high expectations, and I think the fans did, and we have not lived up to them. That’s the huge frustration.”
Fowler said some Wolfpack players have been “probably a little more interested†in their own playing time and performances than in team objectives.
“Chemistry seemed to be a bit squirrelly through the year,†Fowler said.He added, “And so it’s just been a battle throughout the year.â€
But Fowler was encouraged by Saturday’s Duke game and is confident Coach Sidney Lowe can get the job done. Fowler brought in Lowe because Lowe knows what it takes to win a championship. “I understand that it’s all about winning and that’s what we live in everyday, and when you don’t win, it’s tough,” Fowler said. “But we also feel like we have the things in place to win in the future.”
UPDATE: Some helpful answers to questions posed in the comments:
Q: Can you elaborate on saying that Oblinger wants to get rid of Fowler? I really hope that’s true, but I always had the opposite impression, that current NC State leadership, Oblinger included, is less than committed to athletic excellence.
A: Your impression is 100% correct. The poster in question was pointing out how little desire Oblinger has to get rid of Jed.
Q: Why exactly is he going on radio now? Is this because he is feeling heat from the fanbase and needs to project the cause of a failure season on something other than him?
A: The compulsive need to hear himself speak (and have as many people as possible also hear him). He’s had that from the minute he got here.
Q: Did he give the interview from his house on Lake Gaston?
A: He usually makes it to the office on Wednesdays. Mondays and Fridays are a different story, perhaps.
Q: Will there ever be any accountability with his [Fowler’s] regime?
A: Are you kidding me? This is NC State. You can’t get in trouble for anything other than stepping on the toes of the Faculty Senate. Hell, if Chuck Amato hadn’t been offensively rude to a number of big donors and BOT members, we wouldn’t have even gotten rid of him!