NC State Basketball in the News

09-10 Basketball AD & Department Basketball Recruiting General Sidney Lowe70

Apparently there was a press conference yesterday, here is some coverage from WRAL:

–
Lowe looking to put his own stamp on the program:

This offseason, coaches like Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith told Lowe this was his season to put his own stamp on the Pack program. “No question about it,” said Lowe, who has yet to make the NCAA tournament as a coach. “They said, ‘This is where you can make your mark and change things.’ One of them said ‘change the culture.

–Link to expanded interview with Coach Lowe

With only one Sendek recruited player on next year’s roster (D. Horner who is now a senior and will have played all four years under Coach Lowe), Coach Lowe has completely rebuilt the roster. The roster has depth at every position, but it lacks experience and has very few, if any, proven ACC players. Only Tracy Smith showed all-ACC potential last year, so the Pack needs improvement at every single position in addition to needing several freshman ready to be major contributors off the bench. There is hope as Javier Gonzalez, Dennis Horner, and CJ Williams showed flashes of strong play last year. However, they still disappeared at times and none of the three have shown the ability to play consistently well at this level. Still, I like what they bring to the table in toughness and grit, so hopefully they will be able to fill their expanded roles with McCauley, Costner, and Fells all gone.

In terms of the freshman, Lowe compiled a top 15~ recruiting class that will bring talent, athleticism, size, and depth. Lorenzo Brown ( guard, top 40~), Richard Howell (forward, top 75~), G/F Scott Wood (guard/small forward, top 100~) and Deshawn Painter (forward/center, top 75~) were the most heralded players of the class and could all see major minutes this year. Lowe also added a seven footer in Jordan Vandenberg from Australia and a local small forward from Athens Drive Josh Davis. It was essential that Lowe land a strong, deep recruiting class and he delivered.

While next season will certainly be a challenge, the youth and talent on this year’s roster along with a commitment from Ryan Harrow for 2010 does give me hope. Being somewhat of an “old school” guy as far as basketball recruiting who hates “star rankings” and trusts Brick Oettinger more than anyone else, I was pleased to see Brick have Harrow at #47 overall with a comment that the ranking was too low in a recent ACC Sports Journal. Harrow has had a great summer on the AAU circuit and I was able to catch one of his games over Memorial Day in Reynolds Coliseum. He was bigger, faster and more athletic than I expected. Not to mention, he exceeded my already high expectations in terms of ball handling, shooting, scoring, etc…He is everything you want in a point guard and more.

Having only seen Harrow once, this may be a bit of a stretch to say at this point. But he reminded me a lot of how I felt about Julius Hodge in high school. Hodge was the perfect recruit for Herb Sendek at the time. He was going to make an immediate impact, could dominate the basketball, produce points to end one of our dreaded scoring droughts, and most importantly he wasn’t going to go pro after 1-2 years because of his naturally skinny frame. Hodge was an immediate program changer. Well, Harrow made the same impression the day I saw him in Reynolds. Different size obviously and different positions (though Hodge did handle the ball a lot), but Harrow can produce points in a variety of ways, he will make an immediate impact (J. Gonzalez will be a senior when Harrow is a freshman), and he has the same skinny frame that means he isn’t likely “one and done”.

Here is a link to Joe Giglio of the N&O with some information about the incoming recruiting class and some quotes from Coach Lowe:

Painter, a 6-9 power forward, orginally signed with Florida but was released from his LOI and chose the Wolfpack in May. Lowe called Painter’s decision a “great break.”

“It’s a great opportunity to get in on a player like that so late,” Lowe said.

As for the difference between Painter and Richard Howell, a fellow incoming freshman forward, Lowe said Painter was “longer and bouncier.”

“Richard can face up and shoot it a little better,” Lowe added.

– Joe Giglio interviewed Lee Fowler yesterday about the state of the program. This is a definite must read with some very interesting quotes from Lowe and Fowler:

He (Lowe) and Fowler are on the same page.

“The expectation is always to win, but you have to be realistic,” Lowe said. “You also have to have the right people in place and the right pieces. Sometimes time is a factor.”

Fowler said he hasn’t put any kind of timeline on Lowe, whose contract runs through the 2012-13 season. Fowler said both sides understand the expectations at a school that has won two national titles and shares a backyard with national powers North Carolina and Duke.

“We should finish in the top half of the league, at the minimum, and get to the tournament every year,” Fowler said. “I think with the great class he’s bringing in, we’re going to have a great chance to do that, if not this year, then in the near future.”

09-10 Basketball AD & Department Basketball Recruiting General Sidney Lowe

70 Responses to NC State Basketball in the News

  1. old13 06/19/2009 at 9:00 AM #

    I hope what he says about progress is true. But just why did Foulup have to speak – or even be there!

  2. DRW 06/19/2009 at 9:08 AM #

    There’s Fowler again, saying a coach DOES NOT have to make the tournament. Is there ever a make or break season in Fowler’s feeble mind?!!?

  3. WolfQuacker 06/19/2009 at 9:12 AM #

    “The main thing is to make progress.”

    So the idea is to set the bar low early, and any improvement (of which I have seen no consistent improvement under Lowe to date) guarantees his position as head bb coach of NCSU. What a call to greatness!

  4. Alpha Wolf 06/19/2009 at 9:20 AM #

    Define “progress” Lee.

    A goal. Any goal. Just let us know what it is.

  5. Daily Update 06/19/2009 at 9:21 AM #

    I recently looked at Oliver Purnell’s improvement track at Clemson. He struggled for three years, then in year 4 he won 25 games and made the NIT finals. Without a late season collapse (and maybe a game stolen from them in Chapel Hill?), they might have made the NCAA tournament.

    So in terms of improvement, hopefully we can see a similar type of season from this year’s team. Then we need to finish the 2010 recruiting class with 2 more top 75 players.

  6. VaWolf82 06/19/2009 at 9:58 AM #

    Define “progress” Lee.

    A goal. Any goal. Just let us know what it is.

    Two thoughts on this:

    He has never set a goal in public before, so I wouldn’t expect him to set one now.

    After the Amato experience, I’m guessing that Fowler hasn’t been told what sufficient progress” is.

  7. Thinkpack17 06/19/2009 at 10:09 AM #

    I like what was said about Javi, Dennis and CJ. Say what you want about their talent level, but you can’t question their toughness. Some ACC games can be won on toughness alone, ask Greg Paulus. Horner does need to get a little more mentally tough at the line though…I think JG made mention of that.

  8. packalum44 06/19/2009 at 10:10 AM #

    ^ We’re not Clemson.

    Going 7-9 in the ACC is an improvement from 6-10. That’s deserving of a spot bonus and a free weekend at The Lake!

  9. RegularExpression 06/19/2009 at 10:15 AM #

    Fowler also said:

    “We should finish in the top half of the league, at the minimum, and get to the tournament every year. I think with the great class he’s bringing in, we’re going to have a great chance to do that, if not this year, then in the near future.”

    No exact timetable, but those are fairly clear goals. Top 6 finish, NCAA tournament. Add in the occasional(every 4 years?) deep tourney run and those are probably in line with most Wolfpackers expectations.

  10. foz 06/19/2009 at 10:15 AM #

    Small point of interest – there was some speculation about Lowes future when Flip Saunders became new HC of Washington. Sid confirms that he had calls from the NBA guaging his interest in returning.

  11. Thinkpack17 06/19/2009 at 10:26 AM #

    “No exact timetable, but those are fairly clear goals. Top 6 finish, NCAA tournament. Add in the occasional(every 4 years?) deep tourney run and those are probably in line with most Wolfpackers expectations.”

    Don’t forget at least one win against Duke or Carolina every year…or maybe every other year. It’s urgent you don’t forget that part though…that cooked the last coach.

  12. sautz 06/19/2009 at 10:30 AM #

    “The main thing is to make progress.”
    So what if we don’t make progress this year, like winning 2 ACC games? What then, Lee? WTNY?

  13. BJD95 06/19/2009 at 10:48 AM #

    In the expanded interview (which ran in this morning’s paper), Fowler clearly does 2 things that should REALLY piss you off:

    1) States that his long-term goal for the program is to finish in the TOP F-ING HALF of the league.

    2) Confirms that there is absolutely NO TIMETABLE for reaching this meager goal.

    The man has learned absolutely nothing from the Sendek era. He doesn’t expect or even really seem to WANT us to perform any better than Sendek – to the contrary, he thinks the program’s ultimate long-term goal is just to get back to that level of “success.”

    It’s no surprise that this jackhole is singing his nonsense in the paper again, now that NC State is bereft of permanent leadership.

    And as much as I criticize Lowe, he’s really just along for the ride with Fowler (as noah so aptly said, just a symptom of the disease infecting our athletic department) – and who can blame him? Human beings act in their own rational self-interest. Lowe wants to keep drawing a nice paycheck from NC State for as long as he can. And who wouldn’t want a boss that has very low expectations and an unlimited timetable to meet them? As a “shareholder” though, I hate subsidizing this kind of garbage.

    That said, I do fault Lowe for essentially telling us not to expect much in the near term. Entering his fourth season, that’s a good way to take the wind out of the fanbase’s sails – especially a long-suffering one like ours.

    On a factual note, our 4 legitimate OOC games are now apparently set – at Marquette (likely NIT), at Arizona (hopeful NIT), vs. Florida (who knows, but lost best player), and vs. Northwestern (ZERO NCAAT appearances in school history).

  14. RegularExpression 06/19/2009 at 10:51 AM #

    Thinkpack,
    Yes, beating the blues is important. I think if we take care of the first two goals then beating UNC and Duke on occasion will take care of itself under Lowe. It didn’t happen under Herb, but we rarely beat ANY good teams. The mediocre ones we could handle, but the good to great would almost always beat us, and that’s why we had no ACC chanpionships and 1 sweet 16 appearance.

  15. RegularExpression 06/19/2009 at 11:06 AM #

    I hate to defend Fowler but he did say that a top half finish is the minimum goal. That means we should never finish lower than 6th, which is pretty reasonable. We are going to have rebuilding years where a 6th place finish is a reasonable expectation. However, we should always be rebuilding towards ACC title contention.

    The lack of a timeline is distressing but not unexpected as it gives him some wiggle room if things don’t go well in 2010.

  16. Thinkpack17 06/19/2009 at 11:14 AM #

    “That said, I do fault Lowe for essentially telling us not to expect much in the near term. Entering his fourth season, that’s a good way to take the wind out of the fanbase’s sails – especially a long-suffering one like ours.”

    I don’t know about that. I think everyone has their mind made up about what to expect this season, at least the educated fan. Him scaling back expectations doesn’t take any wind out of my sails. I’m sure if he would have got up there and talked about how awesome we are going to be it wouldn’t have put any wind in yours. At this point talking is just talking. Like you said yourself seeing is believing…nothing left to do now but play the games.

  17. BJD95 06/19/2009 at 11:26 AM #

    ^ There is a middle contingent of fans, who are neither as positive as you nor as negative as me about Lowe’s performance and likelihood to turn the program around. They need to hear something like “I think fans will be proud of the product we put on the court this season.” Doesn’t promise success, but also doesn’t lay the foundation for continued sucking.

  18. Wulfpack 06/19/2009 at 11:30 AM #

    NC State basketball is dead and has been for some time. Neither Fowler nor Lowe really seem to have a sense of urgency about the state of the program. Many Wolfpack fans I know are totally apathetic toward the bball program. That’s essentially what we’ve become. Hope for a nice tourney run once every 5 years while our rivals cuts the nets down one out of five.

  19. nycfan 06/19/2009 at 11:31 AM #

    Listening to about 17 minutes of that interview and reading the AD comments, what I seem to be hearing is that Lowe couldn’t be expected to win with some one else’s guys, that Lowe’s year four is more like year two (maybe I misunderstood Lowe on that), that this is the first time Lowe has his guys but all of them are too young to expect more than improvement from in the coming season.

    So, one way to look at that is that Lowe is building to year 5 (next season). But it also made me wonder (and this is the first time I’ve considered this) whether Lowe considered Costner/Fells/McCauley/Ferguson a collective loss and essentially wrote off last season at the outset, choosing to bring along guys at whatever pace as the foundation for year 4, testing then expanding a new offensive strategy around them, all in preparation for/anticipation of a break-out in year 5. [What is a “break out year” at that point? Presumably, not merely making the NCAA Tournament, but based on Fowler’s expectations, I guess he made it clear (assuming the “near future” is year 5: top half of the ACC, NCAA bid.]

    I know, just typing this it sounds preposterous, especially in light of the playing time that Coster et al got, but honestly if you reverse engineer what Lowe and Fowler are saying NOW, it sure sounds like last season was a lost cause before it ever started — I mean, the message seems to be that Lowe could not be expected to succeed until the left-over players were expunged from the system.

    In any event, it sounds like the bar for outcome has been set pretty low for this season (don’t expect a top 6/NCAA team, which doesn’t seem like such an outlandish goal but when I sit down to pick the conference I find it hard to pick State above 9th, even though it seems they could do better) — essentially the same type of record as in the past 2 years, I guess — but expectations are higher for the development of the new guys as a spring board for the following year.

  20. NCSU4ever 06/19/2009 at 11:41 AM #

    NYC you may be right

    I saw one interview with Lowe and I don’t have a link so I’ll have to paraphrase but he said, “Sometimes you need time, time for guys to graduate” So I think it is entirely possible Lowe had completely written off the possibility of having a decent program with Costner and Co. around, maybe too much damage was done to the teams morale during Hickson’s season to ever repair.

    I think this season with the general weakness of the ACC, State has the talent to compete with and beat any of the middle tier teams, if the desire and motivation are better than what we’ve seen the last couple of seasons.

  21. Thinkpack17 06/19/2009 at 11:41 AM #

    ^True True. But for those one the fence folks it’s better to under promise and over deliver than to pump them up only to have them crushed. Many people on this board admit to expecting the worst because it’s just easier. If you get pleasantly suprised then that’s great. Maybe Lowe is listening to you guys.

  22. bradleyb123 06/19/2009 at 11:43 AM #

    I don’t think anyone can set any realistic goals for such a young team when most of them have yet to set foot on the court of a college game. If this happened to be Sidney’s first year, and he had this same group of players, would people still be saying “Finish above .500 in the ACC, and make the NCAA tournament, or you’re out?”

    I doubt it.

    Just because it’s Sid’s fourth year doesn’t make it right to put unrealistic expectations on him or this team.

    I think they CAN do all that. But I don’t EXPECT it, not this year. Next year, after seeing them play together for a year, will be a better time to make any predictions or expectations. To do that now is akin to proud parents looking that their baby boy and saying, “He’s going to be a doctor one day!”

  23. BJD95 06/19/2009 at 11:51 AM #

    NYCfan – would you agree that NC State is pretty much the only major-level school who would accept an argument like that? And that it is completely ludicrous to simultaneously (i) blame the “old” players for not being able to do anything for three years; and (ii) give them the lion’s share of playing time? Seems to me that a coach has to either properly motivate and utilize the existing players, or cut bait.

    And if his first 2/3 seasons don’t count whatsoever, and he should be entitled to 5 or 6 years before he receives ANY level of scrutiny, then should he have received an intern’s wage for those seasons? Hey, I’ll agree to give him a 5th season if he will pay NC State back a full season’s salary. Otherwise, produce in Year Four or hit the bricks.

  24. NCSU4ever 06/19/2009 at 12:03 PM #

    BJD

    Who’s going to coach after they tell Lowe to hit the bricks.

    It was the Administrations inability to hire a coach in the first place that got Sidney in the position he is in today.

    Fire Lowe after this season Ryan Harrow doesn’t come here, possibly other guys transfer out, and then were stuck with at least 3 more years of 10th – 12th place finishes while the new coach rebuilds

  25. Daily Update 06/19/2009 at 12:07 PM #

    For Lowe and Fowler, you have to push whatever theory supports a positive review of the job both have done the last three years. That is why both are saying the things they are saying.

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