Many In Wolfpack Nation Are Saying They’ve Had Enough

AD & Department Fans General NC State Administration NCS Basketball NCS Football Non-Revenue178

To say that Wolfpack Nation is seething mad tonight would be akin to calling the eruption of Mount St. Helen’s in 1980 a loud bang.

It simply doesn’t begin to cover it.  This is not about losing a game in the first round of the ACC Tournament, not even the fact that it is the second year in a row.  This is a loud yell of disgust directed towards what they perceive as over twenty years of collective incompentence not only in men’s basketball but across the board in the executive offices in Brown-Weiseger.

This time, “wait until next year” won’t work.

These are the things being said tonight:

“I’ll be on the phone with the Wolfpack Club tomorrow. If Lee Fowler is going to be around much longer, my 2009 “red white and you” payment just split in half. They will know why.”

and

“At this point, I do not think I will purchase tickets [for basketball] next year. This will be the first time in a long time.

“I’m tired of spending my money which by doing so just enables Lee to stay in the black and keep his job. I’m tired of “sell outs” and thousands upon thousands of empty seats.”

and

“If anyone can look at the performance of Fowler’s hires and defend him, then I would like to meet them and have a conversation. I’m sure the only way they’d be able to do it is with a discussion about being in the black and having such a low budget. That is a loser’s mentality.

perhaps the best summary is this one

We’ve had season tickets every year at the ESA/RBC. I was there when we beat Georgia to open the building. I was there when Brian Keeter couldn’t quite make the shots to score 100 on UNC in the magical 8-win season of theirs. Hell, I remember Mean Gene and Slappy, and the time we beat Duke when it showed.

The sad part? Those are my best memories of NC State basketball. I have that 20th Anniversary video of the ‘83 team, and thats it. I got my picture taken with David Thompson at a women’s game once. My dad was an undergrad in ‘74, and he was in Albuquerque that night in ‘83. For nearly 20 years now, I have sat and waited for my Wolfpack to step back in to this top tier of basketball that I have heard so much about.

I was born in 1989. Four months after the last ACC Title of any kind. Exactly a week after Personal Fouls came out. I know all about the history. I can imagine what it would be like to pull for a relevant team. Hell, my mom went to UNC. Trust me, I’m aware of what it’s like.

[…]

If we ever want to become what we were, and what we deserve to be, now is the time we have to do something. Lee Fowler cares about as much for the health of our athletics department as Dick Baddour does. We need someone in here who cares, and is willing to man up and treat this program with the dignity its earned. Lee Fowler has no right to pilot this ship.

[…]

There is only one thing about NC State that is what it should be, and that’s us. The fans. I don’t care how much the administration insults us or the media derides us. We pay for this program, and god damnit we love and care about this program. Lee Fowler didn’t sell out Carter-Finley 8 years in a row, we did. Lee Fowler didn’t make us average in the top-15 in basketball attendance under Herb, we did. And we, more than anyone else, deserve to be listened to.

Those are excerpts of comments here at Statefans Nation, and they are a perfect reflection of what I have heard from my own friends in person and on the phone following the game.

The situation is very simple and perfectly clear: these feelings are not reflections of “fifty lunatics in chat rooms” or message board commandos trying to stir things up for their own amusement.  These are a large number of responsible, reasonable adults with level heads –many are alumnae, Wolfpack Club donors and season ticket holders who have reached their breaking point.  They are all hard-core supporters of NC State and the Wolfpack teams.  They’ve suffered through thick and thin — and now they are saying that enough’s enough.

In an economic recession this deep, Lee Fowler is playing with fire if he seriously pisses off the rank and file donors to NC State athletics.  Yet another dismissive, vapid statement from him towards his fanbase would likely do just that. If even half of the current donors follow through on their threat to reduce donations or not buy tickets, then the Athletic Department has a very serious problem — and one it cannot ignore. If folks start abandoning their LTRs for basketball (where there is no binding contract to continue payments) and stop buying season tickets, they won’t be able to fill up Reynolds for men’s hoops much less the RBC.

That, obviously, would be a very huge problem for NC State University.  And one that comes at a very bad time, what with folks squeezing every nickel out of every dollar and many worrying about the safety of their jobs.  Not only that, new graduates are entering a job market with roughly a 10% unemployment rate — making many of them an unlikely source to fill the coffers any time soon. Money is tight everywhere and not many have much extra laying around to back a program that they perceive has a leader that they cannot believe in.

In short, Fowler needs to speak quickly, plainly and for a change, without condescension to his real employers: not the Board of Trustees, but the 20,000+ people who get out a checkbook every year and send in their hard-earned money to support the NC State Wolfpack.

AD & Department Fans General NC State Administration NCS Basketball NCS Football Non-Revenue

178 Responses to Many In Wolfpack Nation Are Saying They’ve Had Enough

  1. ryebread 03/13/2009 at 11:51 AM #

    Alpha: We can agree to disagree on player bashing, but I ask you what good your rant really does? McCauley and Fells are gone. There is absolutely nothing good about slamming them. It appears to me that Costner probably is as well, but the only thing that I can think of that this post is to try and help drive him away.

    As a leader on a site that focuses on NC State student athletics, I personally think it is in bad taste to attack the 18-22 year old students. If nothing else, I believe that this is the type of behavior that gets us the “lunatic fringe” name tag and takes away some of the credibility of this site.

    Also, I’d asked whether you personally played D1 sports and know the sacrifices that even the “slackers” make? I did not, but my GF did (and holds all of her school’s records in her sport). Due the past five years of dating her, I have a much better appreciation for what is involved and how much commitment this really takes. As a result, I’d never call any kid that plays a D1 sport, stays out of trouble and graduates with a real degree lazy.

  2. buttPACKer 03/13/2009 at 11:59 AM #

    ryebread,

    I don’t understand why you think it in poor taste to call out a SCHOLARSHIP player for standing around on the court with his thumb up his ass. How is this bashing? And, as well, are we supposed to pat them on the back for being unmotivated and lazy?

    Just wonderin’?

  3. UpstateSCWolfpack 03/13/2009 at 12:01 PM #

    Sean Miller
    SEAN MILLER
    SEAN MILLER!!!

  4. Garrett 03/13/2009 at 12:02 PM #

    wufpup,
    You’re not the only one disgusted with the refs in the first half. The two charge calls were bogus and i don’t think you mentioned hansjob’s ‘fast break’ near the beginning in which he took at least FOUR good steps w/out dribbling. VT is playing against 8 and looks like the better team.

  5. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:04 PM #

    For any watching the game, let’s see how long it takes Vassallo and Allen to pick up their 4th fouls, respectively.

  6. Alpha Wolf 03/13/2009 at 12:04 PM #

    ^ I lived football players as roomates, Rye, and am quite aware of their commitment. One of them played in the NFL post-graduation, and I also have a second-door neighbor who was a four year letterman and played in the NFL.

    So yeah, I am quite aware of what they go through.

    You forget that when they agree to put on the uniform that they also agree to take the praise and yes, the criticism that go with it.

    I will say this, again: it is eminently fair to call out a player for his on-court work ethic when it is entirely obvious that other players on the same team in the same game are working a lot harder than he is.

    And you can bet that those other players resent it. I heard too many times from the two I lived with how much they disrespected so-and-so because in their estimation that player was not pulling his weight and hurting the team overall.

    And I am only saying out loud what a lot of people are thinking.

  7. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:06 PM #

    ^True Garrett, I left out quite a few “no” calls.

    Rot in h*ll Swofford.

  8. SaccoV 03/13/2009 at 12:08 PM #

    Ryebread, Alpha, IMO, was not bashing those players for effort in any other manifestation than on the court. I have coached a current NC State athlete who is on scholarship now, and he made the NCAA tournament this year in his sport. I have also taught athletes when I was a graduate student at Clemson University. I know the struggle that athletes go through as most of my students in SC were football players. I can’t read any intent on anyone’s part on this blog to disparage the student-athletes in any thing other than their performance at game time. Again, as students we expect those 18-22 year olds to improve their thinking and reasoning skills and to mentally digest difficult topics and facts to prepare them for future endeavors. Can we not reasonably expect that those same students should be able to improve and give their best effort in a game that any of us would sacrifice much of ourselves just to be a part of? Fells, McCauley and Costner have received a great deal from NC State because they could play basketball. The least they could give is maximum effort while on the court.

  9. PackWolf7 03/13/2009 at 12:12 PM #

    Right now it’s halftime of the Holes/VT game. I’m watching today two REAL teams with coaching and heart. I just wanted to drop into the blog here and say DUMP LEE FOWLER AND DUMP SIDNEY LOWE AND MONTY TOWE, AND THEN FIND AN A.D. WHO CARES AND A COACH TO START SOMETHING SPECIAL AT N.C. STATE. I know that everyone in the hierarchy, including the Chancellor, do not give a rat’s ass about the BB program, so a strong message needs to be sent by the alums. Hell, the current students don’t know any better. They breathe Wolfpack mediocrity. I take that back. At this point we are not even mediocre. IT’S BEEN DECADES, FOLKS. WE NEED CHANGE. WHERE THE HELL IS PRIDE IN THE SCHOOL? IT SHOULD BE THERE IN THE CLASSROOM AND ON THE HARDWOOD AND TURF. FIRE LEE FOWLER AND SIDNEY, FOR STARTS, AND LETS GO FROM THERE. THE LONGER THESE MISFITS ARE THERE, THE LONGER WE WILL BE AGONIZED BY THEIR INCOMPETENCY. PIG FARMERS UNITE AND HOLD BACK YOUR MONEY FROM THE SCHOOL. MAYBE THAT WOULD SEND A MESSAGE. WE ARE THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE ACC.

  10. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:12 PM #

    Vassallo has been completely taken out of the game since that call in the first half.

    His shot is off (he was on fire) and now he is starting to press. Great job ACC refs, you have succeeded again.

  11. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:19 PM #

    OH. MY. GOD.

    Clear jumpball … 50 to the line.

  12. choppack1 03/13/2009 at 12:20 PM #

    Alpha – My thought on this matter is as follows:

    What’s worse – a player who dogs it or the coach who doesn’t punish the player who dogs it?

    I mean, what’s really the problem? If you’re the manager of guy who doesn’t work as hard as others and doesn’t produce what he should, but you reward it – and others see you reward it, how do you think that impacts the morale of those who work hard?

    Who is more responsible for the underachievement? The dogger or the person in the leadership role who looks the other way? To me, it’s pretty straightforward – it ain’t the person who dogs it, it’s the enabler.

  13. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:21 PM #

    Goodbye, Jeff Allen.

  14. Clarksa 03/13/2009 at 12:21 PM #

    Fart Goblin…I need a new keyboard now…

  15. Garrett 03/13/2009 at 12:23 PM #

    I will never cease to wonder why hansjob’s shot-puts referred to by analysts as ‘jumpers’

    And jeff allen is the victim of the Same Shit. Different Game. Hopefully with delaney can keep them in it.

  16. RSP123 03/13/2009 at 12:25 PM #

    Speaking of calls, what about the VaTech player who drives to the basket, makes the shot, gets clearly fouled by Hasblow but they give the foul to Zeller!

  17. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:25 PM #

    YES!

    Go Vassallo.

    Keep on shooting, Booby Frasor.

  18. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:26 PM #

    ^^That was a funny call, RSP! Zeller wasn’t anywhere near him.

  19. Wulfpack 03/13/2009 at 12:27 PM #

    These guys are getting free rides. They should get just as much flac when theyb fail as should the genius scraping by with Ds. This isn’t camp happey.

  20. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:30 PM #

    Goodbye, A.D. Vassallo.

    Meet your 2009 ACC tournament champions … they are being gifted this thing.

  21. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:31 PM #

    This is just getting sublimely ridiculous now.

  22. ppack3 03/13/2009 at 12:33 PM #

    WP-1995 – I thought the same thing when reading Alpha’s post. Costner = Pumpernickel = Fart Goblin! Oh my God. I needed that.
    For all of you that are ready to be done with Herb’s players, you’re going to have to wait at least one more year to get rid of the stereotypical 6-7 to 6-9 big man with three point range and ZERO post moves. Even if Costner leaves, Horner will still be our PF that can do little else than spot up for three (Oh, and hit every free throw except at the end of a game).

  23. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:34 PM #

    Hey! Baldheaded d-bag with the call.

    Miracles do happen!

  24. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:36 PM #

    Here come both Allen and Vassallo back in to foul out within 30 seconds …

  25. wufpup76 03/13/2009 at 12:39 PM #

    Great, we just lost the HD feed.

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