As a 2004 NC State graduate, there wasn’t really much to write home about when it came to sports. A few years of Philip, a Gator Bowl win, and a few really disappointing ACC Tournament Championship games… I moved to the midwest after college and was in a small bar watching Julius Hodge take on Connecticut all by himself. I was the only one who gave a damn, but I gave a damn worth twenty men. Only to see that same team pull a HWSNBN and lay a complete goose egg vs. an over matched Badger team.
The NC State Basketball coaching search was horribly executed and I could spend all day writing about this, but it’s been done a billion times. Fact is we landed Sid and I was none too happy about it. Then that magical run in the 2007 ACC Tournament. We manhandled the same Carolina team earlier that year and got beat handily at the Dean Dome. The game was close. We lost by a few (on an unnecessary Ty Lawson dunk) but I was downing some Kool Aid. Wolfpack Nation was. For the first time as a young Pack fan, I thought I may be a part of something special. Was it the jacket? Was Sid better than advertised? Maybe a little bit of both…
The abysmal 2008 and 2009 seasons had a lot of us scratching our head. The red jacket looked a little less shiny and Sid looked outmatched in almost every way. Add to that some team chemistry that is best described by mixing some oil and water and expecting magic to happen. Sid seemed lost. His heart may have been in the game, but his players’ hearts were elsewhere.
There was a lot of grumbling coming into the 09-10 season and with just reason. Tobacco Road is a tough place to win, but if you can’t, there’s a mid major job for you. Some wanted to give Sid at least next year to save some recruits and see what he could do with an ACC caliber point guard. Others said he didn’t deserve the chance and you never want to retain a coach for recruits and that that wasn’t a way to build long term success.
Simply put, I think we’re better than our record. We lost a few very close games to decent teams on miracle shots (yeah yeah, we got ours too, but that was in 1983). And it happened again tonight. On a shot that has about a 0.01% chance of going in, Nolan Smith knocks down a last second three to close out the 1st half and never even touched the ground. Of course. It’s automatic. Put on a non-red jersey and throw up some junk. It’ll go in. Minus a few of these, I think we have a very manageable record and a decent shot at the Dance.
It looks like Javi, Mays, and Degand have all matured. No, they’ve not been perfect, but the Javi/Degand combo seems to be working out. Tracy is playing beyond his years and holy crap Scott Wood? It’s been a while since I’ve seen a player drain shots like that… and the last time I did, we were up by 20 against Reddick and Duke… only to see that lead evaporate.
In years prior, NC State played conserva-ball. Get a gigantic lead and squander it. What I have seen this year is NC State mount some mighty comebacks and other times maintain a mighty lead. Tonights win against #7 Duke was a fantastically orchestrated 40-minute punishment of Duke. For this, you give the players the props and give the coaches the credit where credit is due.
This team and Sid’s teams of years past are night-and-day. Chemistry problems of yore? Gone. It does look ever more evident that the locker room in 07-08 and 08-09 was poisonous. Now coaches take blame for that. But we also must credit when it’s corrected.
So this rant all ends with faith in Lowe and hopes that the rally cap stays on. Sid bleeds NC State. I want him to succeed. I want to win. I want to hang a banner despite administration happily sitting back in the black and maintaining mediocrity. Now I may be completely wrong about this and I’ve been wrong before. But I want to win so badly that I have become delusional with blind hope. But not only does Sid get next year to save some recruits, but I think he deserves next year. There’s something to be said for being down and out and getting up and charging forward. Here’s to Sidney Lowe.
