Women’s Basketball Coaching News (Update w/ Caulton Tudor’s thoughts)

Thanks to a link on another thread, WRAL is reporting that Stephanie Glance will not be promoted to head women’s basketball coach at NC State. I don’t really follow women’s basketball, but didn’t want the BB Byte thread to be taken over by this emotional topic.

UPDATE: Ronnie Brown, Kay’s brother, talked to WRAL and also provided a copy of the letter that Coach Yow sent Lee Fowler and Chancellor Oblinger.

Caulton Tudor weighs in on Saturday morning.

But there’s a wise old adage that the hands of the dead should not dictate the hands of the living. On this issue, there’s more to be taken into account than the last wish of the legendary Yow. Her request should be a primary consideration, of course. But even more than honoring Yow’s request, Fowler and his superiors owe it to her memory to hire the very best candidate the school can afford.

About VaWolf82

Engineer living in Central Va. and senior curmudgeon amongst SFN authors One wife, two kids, one dog, four vehicles on insurance, and four phones on cell plan...looking forward to empty nest status. Graduated 1982

General Kay Yow NCS Basketball Non-Revenue

132 Responses to Women’s Basketball Coaching News (Update w/ Caulton Tudor’s thoughts)

  1. Great Dane Guy 04/10/2009 at 8:38 AM #

    How the hell can you say one way or the other if this was a good or bad decision? You don’t know anything concrete yet about who Lee will hire. You folks are just reacting emotionally and piling on Lee. Wait and see if its deserved. If he hires some unknown assistant from Bumfuck Egypt University, then thats 1 thing. But, what if its a homerun? What if its a grand slam? (I know with Lee thats a long shot, but he still has a chance to knock it out of the park). Wait and see.

  2. WIFF 04/10/2009 at 8:41 AM #

    Along the same lines of the last few posts. I don’t really follow WBB but I do like to see us beat the blues every once in a while. The issue here is not about Glance. The issue is about NCSU getting a basketball coach. Yow has been gone for months now and in the last two weeks we’ve had an article that says we will hire a coach soon and an article about how Yow wanted her assistant to be coach. Both articles make our athletics department look like friggin idiots. How can top mens programs fire and hire coaches in a week and it’s taking us months to find a replacement our womens program. The only thing coming out of our department should be the announcement of our new coach and that should have been done months ago!

  3. newt 04/10/2009 at 8:46 AM #

    I don’t envy Jed’s position on this one.

    Let’s not make this overly complicated: Yow put in a good word for her top assistant. That’s not surprising or “big news,” and it has been a factor to consider in making this hire. Yow was a great person, she wasn’t omniscient.

    That said, any hire that isn’t clearly a step up from Glance is going to meet with some criticism.

    A well-prepared AD would have this deal sealed by now, and we would be talking about the outlook for the new coach instead of the hiring process.

    How’s women’s basketball recruiting going?

  4. choppack1 04/10/2009 at 8:49 AM #

    Newt – I’m actually giving those running this search the benefit of the doubt. I’m hoping the reason that we’re hearing all of this now is that the hire is just around the corner.

  5. Gene 04/10/2009 at 8:51 AM #

    So, had they kept on Glance – and she was a failure, they’d be blamed.

    It really depends on how long they let coach Glance stay as HC, if things weren’t working out. Give her a contract and let her know what is expected of her. If she isn’t able to deliver make the switch in a couple of years.

    PR wise, we need a great head coaching hire to wipe away the bad emotions of not going with Kay Yow’s hand picked successor.

  6. IMFletcherWolf 04/10/2009 at 8:51 AM #

    Some are saying this hire should have been announced a long time ago, but remember the season just ended a few weeks back. Any candidate would probably not want to talk about another job while their team is still playing.

    I’m no Fowler fan, but not hiring Glance is not a bad decision IMO. Now we’ll see who he does hire.

  7. BSIE80 04/10/2009 at 8:52 AM #

    As I stated before, Glance was hand picked and mentored by Yow. We shouldn’t even question it. She should be the coach without question.

    Lee is an idiot to go after someone else for this position. This really shows his lack of ability to lead. I don’t care if he could get the guy from UCon or Pat S from Tennessee to Raleigh.

    U have a coach that ran our program for 30+ years and u don’t value her advice- tells me that your an idiot.

  8. Greywolf 04/10/2009 at 8:53 AM #

    The letter was addressed to Chancellor Oblinger and LF. If Oblinger wanted Glance, all he had to do was say, “Lee, this is something we need to do.” and it would have been a done deal.
    `
    If you got a letter addressed to you and your boss, would you operate like you had autononmy in the matter? Neither would I. This matter has been discussed and the AD is carrying out the Chancellor’s desires in this matter.
    `
    We can lay it on Fowler’s feet, hope it turns out bad for NCSU to make Fowler look even worse, all we want but by doing so, we look like uninformed dolts ourselves. Are the alums at NCSU really such dumb-asses as to believe this is all LF’s doing because SFN members say it is? I don’t think so. Let’s not discredit ourselves with laying this on Fowler.
    `
    Thank goodness we don’t know what’s going on — as it should be.

  9. wufpup76 04/10/2009 at 8:54 AM #

    “How the hell can you say one way or the other if this was a good or bad decision? You don’t know anything concrete yet about who Lee will hire.”

    ^With all due respect, the “piling on” of Fowler has little to do with the actual selection. It has everything to do with how yet another search is handled.

    Searches normally don’t take “months” to complete. When searches do take months to complete, it’s inevitable that something like the Coach Yow letter will get out. Now there is stuff in the media that makes the University look bad, and keep in mind that it comes from family members of a woman who gave her all to N.C. State.

    Months-long searches. Looking foolish in the media. Being bad-mouthed by those in the coaching industry. Divided fanbase that is ridiculed by it’s own athletics department officials. The beat goes on.

    One could not write a better textbook of how to eff* up something like this.

    Even if Fowler & co. are somehow able to nab the “best coach ever”, all of the above will remain.

  10. nav 04/10/2009 at 8:54 AM #

    All I can say is that after 30 yrs of coaching wbb I feel Coach Yow had a better understanding of what was needed to be a successful coach than “Coach” Fowler.

  11. TheAliasTroll 04/10/2009 at 8:55 AM #

    Didn’t we just go to a sweet sixteen a couple years ago? Glance takes over for a bit and doesn’t get to a final four, while one of her and the PLAYERS best friend dies and a lot of you (including all knowing Fowler) come to the conclusion that she isn’t good enough to be the head coach?

    She hasn’t had time to establish the kind of program she wants to run and the players she was working with had just lost their coach. A 2-3 year contract for her is not going to bring the program down, and who knows she might well be an excellent head coach.

    Fowler basically alienated the majority of the NC State fan base. Not sure how much longer he’s going to be able to get away with stepping on so many peoples toes.

  12. LKNpackfan 04/10/2009 at 8:56 AM #

    Who do you think knows more about the state of the program – Kay Yow or Oblinger/Fowler?
    For the continuity of the program, and out of respect for an NC State hero, a WBB coaching legend of 32 years, and fight-against-cancer icon, Glance should have been tapped as successor in January.

  13. TOBtime 04/10/2009 at 9:15 AM #

    I’m telling you guys it’s HARPER at WCU. AS mentioned above, she was an awesome point guard for TN and has done a great job at WCU. To SEE her on the sideline would be, well, good to SEE.
    I still think Coach Glance should have been given 2 years ala Gut at UNC. Oh well, we’ll see what happens.

  14. TOBtime 04/10/2009 at 9:20 AM #

    Greywolf, you point out something very important here. If Oblinger said Glance stays, she stays. Maybe he stays OUT of the coaching searches and it is a reflection on foul-up how they are performed? Most successful people hire people good at certain things and let them do their jobs without micromanaging. They “stay out of the way”. Could it be this is the very reason we have seen the performance we have from foul-up? If someone doesn not tell him specifically what to do he is immobilized. TOB would be a good example. Lee was told to stay out of it and look at what we have now.

  15. ryebread 04/10/2009 at 9:21 AM #

    I’m not one for making excuses, but I will tell you that it has to be virtually impossible for Glance (and Yow) to recruit when other coaches are telling the recruits that NC State’s head coach might DIE on the job while they’re there (and that she’ll be absentee due to health issues unexpectedly and intermittently). This isn’t just a potential coaching change, but the potential death of a player’s mentor. No top flight recruit is going to sign up for that — period. Due to this reason alone, it is entirely understandable why we’ve struggled in the last couple of years.

    Kay was a legend and built our program from the ground up. Every single banner we have hanging in Reynolds is due to her. This was a clean program too — one that was built the right way and that should be emulated. It has a strong alumni network as well. This is the type of program you want to continue — even if it has slipped a little bit due to the obvious recruiting challenges.

    If Kay’s death bed wish (and previous wishes based on this letter) was for Glance to be her successor and she felt that she’d trained Glance for this role, then we should do it. If Glance fails in three years, then it’s fine to bring in someone else but she at least deserves the shot.

    This move effectively eliminates any support from all of the previous players and anyone else who has been involved in NC State basketball for the last 30 years. It’d be one thing if all of these people were saying Glance was a bad hire, but everything we’ve seen suggests the exact opposite and that she has lots of support.

    To put it in perspective, let’s imagine if Dean Smith had died on the job. Before his death he’d made his wishes known that Guthridge should get the job. If UNC snubbed him and went and hired some random mid major coach, do you think that the AD would actually make it out of town fast enough to avoid the lynch mob? That’s effectively what we have here, except the scenario involves women’s basketball (the third biggest program in our athletics department, not the first).

    I don’t care who Fowler hires. If he passes on Glance and in doing so shows that loyalty to NC State isn’t rewarded while he alienates all of the legacy people associated with the women’s program, then he should be immediately fired. That should be the last straw. Period.

  16. Greywolf 04/10/2009 at 9:22 AM #

    I keep having this nagging thought, “What does Ronnie Yow hope to accomplish by this?” My head is telling me that landing someone like Anne Donovan would be great for NCSU Wbb. My heart says go with Kay Yow’s wishes. Now I feel like I’m watching the Dole/Hagan political campaign. WTF? Does Ronnie Yow think this power play is going to force Oblinger to opt for Glance? I don’t know about the rest of you, but it would frost my gonads and distance me from Mr. Yow. Publicly embarrass the Chancellor into doing what my sister wanted? I don’t think so. But maybe Oblinger is a complete wuss and this is just what it takes to have Glance be the next NCSU Wbb HC. Maybe Ms. Glance is the one to take Wbb to the next level — mediocrity, a step up from bad. (Wbb currently tie for 8th in the ACC)
    Admittedly, there are extenuating circumstances for the women’s program current status, but I just don’t see Ms. Glance leading us out of the soup we are in.

  17. tvp1 04/10/2009 at 9:22 AM #

    I’m surprised, and perhaps even a bit encouraged, that Fowler didn’t just “press the easy button” as my brother put it and hire Glance.

    I’m not at all surprised that the search has dragged on for months and become a public spectacle.

  18. Greywolf 04/10/2009 at 9:34 AM #

    “If … then he should be immediately fired. That should be the last straw. Period.”
    How does this work? Oblinger gets the letter from Yow, and does nothing to fulfill on her wishes and fires LF for following suit? That would be a strategy to get your ass sued without a chance of a snowball in hell of winning. This procedure would result in a cost — both prestige-wise and financial — to NCSU. Oblinger is apathetic, not stupid.

  19. TheAliasTroll 04/10/2009 at 9:36 AM #

    It’s a shit storm by all accounts. Go to WRAL sports section and see what is the top sports story. Way to ef this coaching search up too, Fowler. Holy crap! It’s mind boggling how this man still has a job.

  20. choppack1 04/10/2009 at 9:57 AM #

    Geez – I really hate defending Fowler – but I’m also the same guy who was happy when Jerry Jones forced out Tom Laundry and brought in Jimmy Johnston.

    At the risk of being terribly politically incorrect, Yow’s basketball program had been overtaken by our rivals. She was the classic pioneer – lots of vision, good leadership and ambitious. But like lots of pioneers, she was overtaken by folks who were better at doing a job she helped define and create.

    The sad truth is that even before Yow’s health took a serious turn for the worse, there were some cracks in her program. As much as I find her an inspirational figure – I think it’s best for the university to quietly go elsewhere or we risk falling farther behind our rivals in the biggest sport for women’s college athletics.

  21. LKNpackfan 04/10/2009 at 9:58 AM #

    Since when do Oblinger/Fowler value potential wins and losses?
    Is Fowler trying to prove that he can competently conduct a coaching seach and land a big hire? If so, why now? Or are there some tensions here that the public doesn’t know about?

  22. leewolf 04/10/2009 at 10:19 AM #

    Someone on the WRAL comments section is alleging that Fowler did want to just hire Glance but Oblinger wanted him to conduct a real search in case they were passing up on more qualified candidates.

    Not sure whether to believe that or not but it seems to fit Fowler’s m.o.

    I think the fervor over this would have been a lot less if Glance’s status was not known until the new coach was announced. But that would be asking for too much from an athletic department under Fowler that cannot get their act together. What a shock.

  23. Wulfpack 04/10/2009 at 10:26 AM #

    My my my, how truly embarrassing is this? Folks, we know this, but here you have Exhibit Z of how to screw up an athletic department. We are a freaking joke of an athletic department.

  24. Cardiff Giant 04/10/2009 at 10:40 AM #

    Lee Fowler is such a bumbling fool. We have Sergeant Schultz running our athletic department, folks

  25. 61Packer 04/10/2009 at 11:03 AM #

    There were 16 pages of postings on WRAL about this topic, I read them all, and here are two of my favorite ones:

    “So sorry for Glance. But please please please whatever you folks at NCSU do, make sure you keep Lee Fowler.”- an ECU Pirates fan

    “Fowler has done so well with the men’s program- anyone notice the recent report about how NC State draws 5,000 less fans to the RBC Center than the Hurricanes? Fowler and his ilk have allowed the Wolfpack to be tenants in their own house.”

    leewolf noted another WRAL posting which said that Fouler wanted to hire Glance but Oblinger nixed it. That’s interesting. But as bad as I want Fouler out, a university that is laying off career employees during a recession while bumping Mary Easley’s salary nearly a hundred thousand dollars has far more pressing problems than what Jed will do next. The key is what the school will do when that 5,000 attendance differential (between a Tobacco Road basketball team and a hockey team) becomes 10,000 next season, and when LTR seats become as hard to sell as ACC Tourney tickets were this past month. It’s going to take a big reduction of the amount of $$$ that these bureaucrats are used to wallowing in before they’ll get the message of just how fed up Wolfpack Nation is with its athletics department, which resembles a dog and pony show more than it does a rational and professional group of adults.

Leave a Reply