Mark Phelps Hired at Drake

NCS Basketball45

Congratulations to former NC State assistant coach, Mark Phelps who was named as Keno Davis’ replacement at Drake today. (Link to article)

Talk about timely!? Just last week we ran this entry where Phelps was prominently featured.

Related to our aforelinked entry will be the interesting topic of who Herb Sendek hires to replace Phelps at Arizona State.

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45 Responses to Mark Phelps Hired at Drake

  1. ShootingGuard 04/22/2008 at 3:00 PM #

    “The Pac 10 had three teams in the top 50 in scoring defense. Two of those (WSU-3 and UCLA-10) were ranked in the top 10, and ASU at #33. By contrast, the ACC had no teams ranked in the top 50 in this category.”

    Yup, and Wazoo’s vaunted defense vs UNC looked very Sendekesque in its results—slow the game down to a snail’s pace and try to keep it close. Not sure if that is great defense or just boring basketball with a very slim chance of success …

    packgrad93,

    The truth is never a bit much, except for wusses. It is true that TOB’s reputation is what you would expect from a disciplined, military guy. One *might* even say he is “anal” (oh no!). It is also true that Herb was known as going completely overboard from a control standpoint in his early days and that assistants like Matta “did not like it at all” even if political correctness prevents us from melting things down into one word descriptions of our feelings such as “hate” that makes wusses cry at their computers sometimes. Of course, why talk to a former assistant, talk to a former player, or even read a message board when you can search and find published press that says exactly that…”EEYO HO!! Party at Miami, the old witch is dead!!”…I love how great stories and movies can use symbols in place of such terrible words and concepts such as “evil” and “hate” so we don’t have to worry about the boogie man and cry ourselves to sleep at night when the ones we love click their heels and whisk themselves away to Arizona or Kansas or somewhere…

  2. Wulfpack 04/22/2008 at 3:12 PM #

    Well Wazzou certainly faired a hell lot better than any other ACC team in that category against UNC. Held them to 68, their 2nd lowest output of the season. UNC averaged 88 so I’d say they did a pretty good job there. Their problem that game were that the threes just weren’t falling, and they had some careless TO’s that led to easy Tarheel points.

  3. packgrad93 04/22/2008 at 3:12 PM #

    “It is also true that Herb was known as going completely overboard from a control standpoint in his early days and that assistants like Matta “did not like it at all””

    a lot different than:

    “Many of Sendek’s early assistants, like Matta, absolutely hated the guy”

    “The truth is never a bit much, except for wusses”

    big words from behind a keyboard. LMAO!

  4. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 04/22/2008 at 3:21 PM #

    Let us not forget the great Herb Sendek is the reason State’s basketball program is in the shape it is in today. After years of the administration and AD supporting him, he turned his back on the Wolfpack and left the university, leaving us with a recruiting class that consisted of Dennis Horner. Thanks Herb.

    Congratulation Coach Phelps on making your escape before your passion for the game of basketball had been completely sucked out of you.

  5. Wulfpack 04/22/2008 at 3:24 PM #

    ^Wow. Just wow. Yea, Sidney has nothing at all to do with it — nothing.

  6. spudwebb 04/22/2008 at 3:42 PM #

    Now children, let’s just agree that Sendek did good work while he was here, chose to move on and is now happier in the desert.
    It’s like Groundhog Day on this blog every time the “S” word comes up. Personal attacks, semanticism, and nit pickery abound.

  7. ShootingGuard 04/22/2008 at 3:48 PM #

    “Their problem that game were that the threes just weren’t falling, and they had some careless TO’s that led to easy Tarheel points.”

    That sounds very familiar…

    Packgrad93,

    “big words from behind a keyboard. LMAO!”

    That pretty much sums up your mental capacity. You are a joke man…behind a keyboard, on a basketball court, doing simple accounting, watching Adam Simons shoot the 3, playing tiddly winks with Justin Flatt, or otherwise…or, at least, you would be funny if you were really a parody poster, but I fear that you are not…I am dumber for having any exchange with you…I will try to refrain from now on, but, don’t worry, I don’t “hate” you or Sendek…you are both the “greatest”…

  8. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 04/22/2008 at 4:20 PM #

    Packgrad93, I can’t speak for shooting but I would think the context was that the coaches absolutely hated WORKING FOR the guy. I don’t know about personally but he seems like an incredibly difficult person to be associated with.

    Sendek had so destroyed the NC State basketball program that no coach wanted to follow him. I wanted Whit to come to State because he has proven himself to be an excellent coach but we got Sid. Sid has had one decent season and one awful season but it is because he was left with a team of players that wouldn’t start on any top tier program in the ACC. Whether Sid is the man to rebuild the program remains to be seen but it is clear that the program sucks today because of the Sendekian era.

  9. ShootingGuard 04/22/2008 at 4:30 PM #

    “next time, think before typing something dumb like:

    “Many of Sendek’s early assistants, like Matta, absolutely hated the guy ”

    then you won’t have to go back & correct yourself.”

    Hey, jackass. There is no correcting what is true and verified directly with assistant coaches as well as players from Herb’s early teams. The only reason I used Matta’s name was that his feelings—and those of others—were printed publicly following Herb’s Miami departure. Whether you believe it or even want to believe it or not is your own problem. If you don’t like strong words like “hate” and prefer other kinder, friendlier words, so be it. Start HuggieTree.com and blog about “Buddha” to your heart’s content…

  10. choppack1 04/22/2008 at 5:01 PM #

    I think what you need to gather from Shooting Guard’s post is that some coaches – especially early, disliked working for Sendek. This isn’t surprising since he was a very young HC. You don’t become this by being a nice guy. And like many young guys who came into a job early, he was probably an ambitious little twit. (This doesn’t mean that all people who acheive success early are ambitious twits, just that some get to the top and it goes straight to their heads. Others don’t have this problem. Amato had this problem and he was pretty old!)

    I think w/ time – he improved in this endeavor. I think that the Sendek that Matta worked for, was probably very different than the Sendek Phelps worked for last year. For all of his faults, Sendek has done a decent job keeping his assistants around. Coaches have left – and it’s helped them to leave…Sean Miller and Thad Matta apparently benefitted from the move. Phelps – who has only worked for Sendek – may not be so lucky.

    I do think one day Archie will likely be an effective HC – like his brother. I think you’d learn a lot from Sendek in terms of preparation and organization. But I also think you’d learn alot by exposing yourself do a different style of HC before moving on (unless his strengths and shortcomings are so evident that this kind of experience isn’t necessary.)

  11. Ed89 04/22/2008 at 6:39 PM #

    Choppack,
    Thank you for the best post in the last day or so. I agree with your synopsis. I do think that Sid is going to right this ship — maybe it’s blind optimism, or the fact that in two years, he’s had 2 seniors on his teams – one of which I would not consider a team leader. Think about that one for a while….

  12. Wulfpack 04/22/2008 at 6:47 PM #

    ^Or recruited three of the sorriest guards in recent ACC memory…

  13. Ed89 04/22/2008 at 7:42 PM #

    ???? I’ll give you Johnson, but he has enough size to be a decent defender — again, basically he was Freshman. Javi, totally disagree, as I think he’s got alot of up-side and I like his “grit.”
    Farnold, got hurt and really didn’t get a chance to see his potential. Again, he’s basically played about 10 college games. So basically, Sid had three Freshman, and had to make due. If the cupboard hadn’t been left completely bare, we would have a little better indication. I can think of a list of guards from State that did not shine as Freshman that went on to great careers – Vinny Del Negro, for one. Both Sid and Whitt. Let’s wait until they are Juniors or Seniors before we pass judgement like “three of the sorriest guards in recent ACC memory.”

  14. Wulfpack 04/23/2008 at 6:01 AM #

    Degand and Johnson were sophomores my friend. Johnson never saw the floor at Tennessee and Degans at Iowa State. As for Javi’s “grit”, I didn’t see too much of that. His defense was not strong down the stretch. Time after time opposing guards penetrated at will and easily shot over him. He is a liability there. I will agree that Javi improved as the season wore on, but not nearly to the extent what we need out of our floor leader. He has an upside, but a long way to go at that.

    My point about the recruitment of these three guys is it seems our roster is backloaded with bad guards. We need someone to step up, and step up fast. I cannot give Javi kudos for leading a team to a dead last finish in the ACC — sorry. I saw a lot of bad attitude out of him and was ticked off when he freaking kicked the ball into the stands in the ACC Tournament. Long way to go…

  15. James 04/23/2008 at 6:33 AM #

    Packgrad93 = MebaneWolf from ACCBoards/StateFans.com days?

    You’re wasting your time arguing. Might as well bang your head against a wall. Good luck.

  16. Rick 04/23/2008 at 6:56 AM #

    packgrad will not be arguing anymore.
    I am sure he will resurface with another ID that will be easy to ferret out but I am sick of his arguing about Sendek.

  17. happypackdad 04/23/2008 at 8:15 AM #

    good for you Rick, that guy was a jackass.

  18. Ed89 04/23/2008 at 3:01 PM #

    ^^^Degand and Johnson were sophomores my friend. Johnson never saw the floor at Tennessee and Degans at Iowa State.

    I KNOW they were sophomores, but both saw VERY little (if any) action – that’s why I said they were “basically” Freshmen. Anyway, no, none of them was great and we need more talent, but I don’t think we can judge them this quickly. I guess we’ll see in a few years. Johnson, I will predict will never be a great ACC player, but Degand or Javi could turn out to be “above-average.”

  19. ShootingGuard 04/24/2008 at 11:25 AM #

    ^
    Thanks, Rick…

    Sorry for my ruining the blog with barbs with packgrad.

    We are not losing anything here when you have a guy whose personal love leads him to believe that his personal OPINION from Mebane without any direct contact to anyone somehow is the truth and trumps talking about every weekday at the gym for a year to a former Herb/Miami player and subsequent Miami booster…

  20. Rick 04/24/2008 at 12:36 PM #

    Shooting,
    No problem. I kept him around for giggles but when he is arguing his opinion against someone that has proven inside information, it is time to go.

    But he is like herpes. He will be back and no one will like him

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