ORLY? (Updated @ 1:20pm)

08-09 Basketball Sidney Lowe36

This sort of thing drives me crazy: unsubstantiated speculation that is 100% paradoxical to reality. From a (supposed) ‘professional journalist’:

orly.jpgFox/Goodman: 65 Things to Watch For This College Season

Three ACC coaches — Maryland’s Gary Williams, N.C. State’s Sidney Lowe and Florida State’s Leonard Hamilton — are feeling a little heat to win. My guess is at least one of them is history after the season. But which one?

You have to wonder where this is coming from…other than the mouth-breathing fulminations of fringe message board posters, that is.  I’ve not heard a single credible source say anything that might even lead me to believe that NC State head coach Sidney Lowe is feeling any heat this season.  Not a single one.

On top of that, Goodman, ostensibly a knowledgeable college sports scribe seems to ignore exactly who NC State’s AD is, and what his philosophy about coaching changes is.  As it is said about incumbents in Congress, the only way to lose your job if you work for Lee Fowler is to be caught with a dead body or a young boy.

In short, I feel pretty safe in saying Lowe’s job is as safe as Tom O’Brien’s, which is to say that it is a 99.9999999999% lock that both will helm their teams in 2009 and beyond.

SFN Note:
Allow me to remind you where Jeff Goodman stands on his opinions of NC State:

“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

I don’t know how it escapes so many people’s radar and conversations…but, Jeff Goodman was listed as an author a PackPride.com in the early years of the site. Sometimes he will blog some insightful information that you don’t get from some other national coverage – like last year’s preseason blog entry about Farnold Degand.

But, far too often Goodman goes the confrontational direction with WolfpackNation. It perplexes me how often he seeks to criticize NC State’s fans and try to drum up controversy in columns that he authors even in non-controversial times – like these absurd comments about Coach Lowe approaching a ‘hot seat’ in just his third season and with fantastic recruiting momentum building for the foreseable future.

I know that part of the source of this is his huge love and respect for Herb Sendek, but it doesn’t make the unprofessional behavior justifiable. How was this guy ever an author for an NC State website when he continuously proves that so many of his views about NC State are so grossly disconnected from reality?

08-09 Basketball Sidney Lowe

36 Responses to ORLY? (Updated @ 1:20pm)

  1. Wolf Dog 11/14/2008 at 7:28 PM #

    Lowe keeps recruiting like he did this year and I don’t think we got anything to worry about and we most likely not finished. We ranked 13th class so far. Lowe certianly can’t coach great talent worse than Hewitt down at Tech. Wonder why Hewitt not mentioned about feeling some heat?

    Hamilton at FSU does not surprise me, he seems to fall a little short every year and he has had some talent. Willaims gets more out of his squad than he has talent. His short comings in recruiting have surprised me. Kids these days don’t want tough love it seems.

    Off topic. Like it or not going into New Orleans and being a big name team on opening night in a new arena is a class act by Lowe and Monte Towe considering what that team, school, and city has been through.

    I think us having a tournament in Raleigh is a great idea. RBC Center and Bobcats two best places to play in Mid atlantic region. We should have a tournament. Norm Sloan Classic, Everette Case Classic, V Classic, David Thompson Classic, Fire and Ice Classic, Shackelford Amphibious Classic, Thurl Bailey Music Classic, Hodge Aussie Classic, Terry Gannon Broadcasting Classic, Clyde the Glide Globtrotter Classic, Randolph Rebounding Classic, etc. We have such a rich basketball tradition be great to display it.

  2. Alpha Wolf 11/14/2008 at 8:50 PM #

    I think us having a tournament in Raleigh is a great idea. RBC Center and Bobcats two best places to play in Mid atlantic region. We should have a tournament. Norm Sloan Classic, Everette Case Classic, V Classic, David Thompson Classic, Fire and Ice Classic, Shackelford Amphibious Classic, Thurl Bailey Music Classic, Hodge Aussie Classic, Terry Gannon Broadcasting Classic, Clyde the Glide Globtrotter Classic, Randolph Rebounding Classic, etc.

    Good idea. I’ll narrow it down to the RBC and call it The Dixie Classic.

    Sound good?

  3. phillypacker 11/14/2008 at 10:55 PM #

    It should be called the David Thompson Classic.

  4. Alpha Wolf 11/14/2008 at 10:59 PM #

    “The Dixie Classic was an annual college basketball tournament played from 1949-1961 in Reynolds Coliseum. The field consisted of the “Big Four” North Carolina schools: N.C. State (the host), Wake Forest, Duke, and UNC and four teams from across the country. N.C. State head coach Everett Case originated the idea of the Classic.

    “Throughout the 1950s, Reynolds Coliseum rocked with the biggest holiday basketball tournament in the country — the Dixie Classic.

    “The three-day event in late December was even more popular than the postseason ACC Tournament.”

    — AJ Carr

  5. wufpup76 11/14/2008 at 11:14 PM #

    I’ve never known Goodman to be insightful or knowledgable … That’s a matter of opinion, though

    The only thing I’ve ever known Goodman to be is a massive flaming tool as has been pointed out above

    If Hamilton struggles, he’s gone after this season more than likely … but to prove how smart he is and as a “just in case” precaution he throws a couple of more names out there that “could” be on the hot seat and/or “could” be fired if they struggle … Honestly, this is where this type of sh*t gets started and doesn’t die … It’s the flaming a**holes of the world like Goodman that get the rumor mill started – and guess who that helps?

    I curse the people who keep these guys employed … The smart a** answer would be to say that it’s the readers, but I don’t read his s*it

    And VMI beat Kentucky tonight … God bless college basketball!

  6. PoppaJohn 11/15/2008 at 8:35 AM #

    First, Goodman is an idiot. All in favor? The “ayes” have it, thank you.

    Second, I want Coach Lowe to be successful. What could be better than one of our own leading the program back to prominence? And with Monte beside him, it makes a great story. Too good to be true? I hope not.

    But, I do want him feeling the pressure right now. I don’t want him comfortable that last year can happen again. Last year was horrible, both on the part of players and coaches.
    Sure, I have advocated that he have plenty of time, just as any new coach should. He should get in four recruiting classes so he has his type players in his system. And perhaps since he is new in the college coaching ranks, he should get another year. But that should be it. And I don’t want to see just signs of progress, I want to see success and I think we should be specific about it. We want to be in the NCAA at least to the second weekend. We want to win the ACCT. We want reason to believe that we are a program in competition for the ACC title every year. And if not, stop the bleeding immediately.
    We took a chance on a coach that didn’t have success in the NBA and never coached in the NCAA only because he’s one of ours. I hope he’ll get it done. But if we don’t see it in five years, I say we treat him just like we would a stranger.

    We’ve had two good coaches in thirty years. I hope we have number three, but if not, let’s get on with the next one.

    Here’s hoping for that 14 win season that JV predicted.

  7. 61Packer 11/15/2008 at 9:23 AM #

    Sid in the hot seat? With Lee Fouler (sic) as the AD? Surely you jest! Sid could pull an 8-20 2009 season and still be well within Wolfpack administrators’ minimal mediocrity standards.

  8. redfred2 11/15/2008 at 9:29 AM #

    Goodman’s writing here is a direct reflection of a mindset that was owned by our former BB coach, the one he loved so well, as well as NC State’s own administration’s. Even more unfortunately, it is also a direct reflection of a growing number Wolfpack fans, those who have taken the bait and fallen right in line with the losers in charge.

    We now have a coach, who for MANY reasons, was behind the eight ball when he started. We’re just two years down the road, and yet we’re seeing a chance to bring in one of best BB recruiting classes EVER at NCSU. Whether this program suddenly erupts back into the prominence that it is fully capable of, and DESERVES, I think that Lowe’s ability to bring in talent will elevate the NC State into something more than just a middle of the road, eternal bubble hopeful, of a basketball program.

    It’s probably a fact that we could have found a head coach who was more ACC-ready right off the bat. Maybe we could have even won another game or two over the past two seasons? Either way, I’m more than happy to sit back, SOMEWHAT patiently, waiting it out, while giving this new influx of talent, as well as our new head coach, a chance to develop into something special.

  9. Greywolf 11/15/2008 at 10:00 AM #

    StateFans
    Nov 14th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
    I am expecting GreyWolf – or MebaneWolf – or Lee Fowler – to check in and tell us that Jeff Goodman is a great writer.

    Not only is he not a great writer, what he writes is not worthy of discussion apparently. What he wrote is “Three ACC coaches — *** — are feeling a little heat to win.” I’d say that “feeling a little heat to win.” is a fair assessment of Sid’s situation. Definitely not on the “Hot Seat” but a coach in his 3rd year at a major university who has not made the NCAAs is definitely feeling a little heat to win. Maybe not from the AD but likely from Sid himself.

  10. redfred2 11/15/2008 at 10:58 AM #

    I don’t quite know how to explain this, but the sense of entitlement that we witnessed in BB last season, seems to me to be a byproduct of past leadership within the BB program itself, as well as the overall outlook of NC State itself. It’s an outlook that is self-imposed, generated and promoted, by none other than NC State itself.

    It was like a few of the players were saying, “Hey, we stayed at NC State throughout a coaching change, we did better than expected in the ACCT and made a good showing in the NIT, we’ve never played ABOVE expectations before, so what do you want from us? We (the players) feel that we deserve your (the coaches) utmost respect, or we are going take our toys and go home”. It seemed as if, to me anyway, that the players had already achieved what they thought was worthy of praise, along with a guarantee of unlimited PT in the future, and no matter who came into the program or how the strategy changed to accommodate those new parts, they flat out refused to give the neccessary effort make it work.

    I say that it is a mentality that may, or may not, change this season, but that it will absolutely change when those players, who started under another coach, are no longer here. I am hoping that Sidney Lowe has already figured out that he was MUCH too eager to please when he signed on, and I trust that he will NOT be that way from here on out. That is, if he doesn’t fall prey to the inner circle that represent NC State as it is today.

  11. Pack1998 11/16/2008 at 7:03 PM #

    I don’t think any of the coaches mentioned by Goodman are on the hotseat:

    G. Williams – After winning a Nat’l Title they won’t get rid of him, and if they do it will be a graceful, graceful exit, e.g. move to AD.
    L. Hamilton – FSU has not had the meteoric success of say a Va Tech, but his teams are slowly improving and the expectations are/will always be extremely low as long as Football competes for ACC titles. NCAA this year and they are happy.
    S. Lowe – Goodman also forgets Sendek was horrible for 5 years straight, even getting worse after his first few years. One bad year for Lowe means nothing, he’ll be around next year even if the team is horrible, which they won’t be.

    If anyone is on the hot seat in the ACC I’d bet on . . . P. Hewitt at Ga Tech to be the first forced change. I’ve just never felt that the Ga Tech teams of recent years have ever reached their potential. But even P. Hewitt gets a “bye” for at least a year due to his recruiting.

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