P.S. – Basketball Team Lost Again

10-11 Basketball Sidney Lowe80

Not that it will surprise any of you, any more than it did the subdued crowd in Raleigh. The Hokies lead pretty much from start to finish, and close out a 77-69. Here’s the ESPN recap, if interested in a few of the sorry details.

Like most of you, I’m much more interested in coaching search news than in more game results. We plan to have profiles and discussion on some of the possible candidates in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

10-11 Basketball Sidney Lowe

80 Responses to P.S. – Basketball Team Lost Again

  1. Lock 02/03/2011 at 2:14 PM #

    Calm the Lowe hate a bit. He needs to be gone, no question. But remember that twice now he has done something few others have been able to do for our school.

    One, lead it to a national championship. Two, bite the bullet for the good of the school. He did one as a player, and one as a coach. But it’s obvious he’s not able to do both as a coach.

    Losses are gonna happen in the ACC. That’s just fact. A coach will go through growing pains playing on Tobacco Road. But when, after 5 years, your teams are still making the same fundamental mistakes they were making at the beginning, it’s a sign. No, it’s more than a sign, it’s a trend.

    As for all the Tubby Smith hype…wasn’t he the guy who got fired for sending in the goon who broke the other kid’s arm? Can we please go after someone who doesn’t have baggage?

    And god save us if anybody starts tossing around the K word.

  2. JSRy2k 02/03/2011 at 2:17 PM #

    Train(wreck) made its scheduled stop last night and remains on time.

    Ever since I’ve been a Wolfpacker (1998-) I’ve had a love-hate relationship w/ NCSU basketball. Now, I can’t even muster enough care to loathe us. It’s sick to root against your own, but I feel queasy and am ready for this chapter to be over.

    Sid, hats off to your recruiting. Too bad you couldn’t figure out the rest…

  3. Lock 02/03/2011 at 2:17 PM #

    Nope, guess it wasn’t Tubby Smith, apologies for my ignorance!

  4. hoopsjunkie 02/03/2011 at 2:20 PM #

    I have coached high school and college basketball for 20 years and been close to the Pack program since first working in Coach V’s camp in 1987……I have attended 75% of all of their home games since then….my observation as a former coach is that they were not prepared in Oct to be a team in Feb….I can count the number of charges this team has taken on one hand and that is pathetic….you can rant and rave, get technicals, change the lineup, jerk players out of the game to “get their attention”….BUT if you have not prepared them in the boot camp practices of Oct and then drill them everyday with your emphasis (defense, rebounding, half court offense)you will get what we see….inconsistent..start slow and fall short, start fast and fade…we have individuals who shine brightly at any given time but no TEAM who does what it takes to make those around them better…just my thoughts.

  5. Texpack 02/03/2011 at 2:37 PM #

    Last night’s game was just sad to watch. The reality of another attempt at rebuilding on the horizon has set in. The this will be the first attempt in 20 years headed by someone who really cares about NC State having a winning team. That is the only thing more positive about this attempt than the others.

  6. TOBtime 02/03/2011 at 2:49 PM #

    Cut the game back on (after watching the last 5 min of the first half debacle) with somewhere in the range of 11 minutes to go. In 2 minutes saw Smith miss a lay-up, Leslie miss a dunk and Lo Brown miss a shot after standing and dribbling for 6 seconds before moving 3 ft away for the shot. Oh, and I did see Scott Wood trying to play defense. I guess he has to do something with his time while he’s on the court. Cut the game off and won’t cut another one on this year.

  7. fullmoon1 02/03/2011 at 3:25 PM #

    Tuby was not the guy that told his kids to goon it up. That was Jon Cheney I think, besides Duke has built a dynasty on that premise.

  8. Prowling Woofie 02/03/2011 at 3:49 PM #

    Can the coaching search/hire be done outside the realm of academia control ? I think there are still remnants of the “Kill the Athletics Program” Gestapo on campus, and it would be a shame if they were allowed to poison another search/hire…

  9. DividedWeFall 02/03/2011 at 3:52 PM #

    ^El Lobo Loco! –> funny you mention the women’s team rating higher than the men’s… this year, the BIG Event 2011 is oriented around the Women’s game against UNC (in the past 13 years, it’s been a viewing party for the men’s game @ UNC)

    ALSO::: Why is am I seeing CJ Leslie air-ball a three pointer on one end of the court, then get posterized on the opposite end? Why, I ask you, WHY???

  10. PackPT 02/03/2011 at 4:05 PM #

    I was at the game last night. I like Sidney a lot, but barring a huge turnaround, its time for him to go. Any chance we can pry Sean Miller from UA?

  11. Rick 02/03/2011 at 4:08 PM #

    “Two, bite the bullet for the good of the school.”

    How is leading us to the worst record in the ACC for the past 5 years “good for the school”?

  12. boonami 02/03/2011 at 4:11 PM #

    ^^it would be nice to see if sean miller would come after we snubbed him the first time and Fowl-up gave him the finger.

  13. packalum44 02/03/2011 at 4:15 PM #

    “Any chance we can pry Sean Miller from UA?”

    The chances are ZERO if we don’t try. He should be the number 1 candidate.

  14. DividedWeFall 02/03/2011 at 4:35 PM #

    Steve Alford is a solid candidate, but I doubt we could get him out of Albuquerque

  15. ryebread 02/03/2011 at 4:35 PM #

    I agree with packalum44. I’ve analyzed the candidates to death — both their situations, backgrounds, our situations and have tried to read the tea leaves. As much as I’d like Barnes, Few, Anderson, Wright, etc., they’re not coming for various reasons (though most involve money and the lack of recent success of our program).

    I think we’ve got to focus on the candidates who might actually come. Of those, I’d start and go at it with guns blazing with Miller and then move to Tubby. If neither are interested, I’d skip the rest and go straight to a mid-major with a proven record of winning year over year (e.g. Bennett, Kruger).

    I’d stay away from candidates who have washed out at high major programs (e.g. Alford, Fisher, Brey), have major red flags (e.g. Knight, Martin, Drew, Pastner), ones we can’t afford (e.g. Turgeson), assistants who are unproven, or the mid-major guy who has ridden one good player to success over a couple of seasons (e.g. Grant when he was at VCU). We don’t have to hire to retire, but the next coach needs to be a low risk winner.

  16. eas 02/03/2011 at 5:41 PM #

    ^^
    I basically agree with everything you just said ryebread. Sean Miller is a long shot after being snubbed before and having a solid gig at Arizona.

  17. Wolfy__79 02/03/2011 at 6:08 PM #

    as long as we stay away from the weave and heave nonsense i’m ok with style of play.. if that returns to nc state, i will write the coach off before he even steps on campus.

    i’ve wondered how tubby would do at nc state! i hate the idea of bringing baggage to the program.. but in this scenario it might be a perfect match.. our program and smith both have something to prove!

  18. PoppaJohn 02/03/2011 at 6:12 PM #

    Of all the names I’ve seen pitched as proposed new coaches, the only one that gets me excited is Miller. He’s considered an up and coming star on the national level. He was written up in SI earlier in the year as one of the future bright stars in coaching. Unfortunately, he’s only recently been given the keys to a program somewhat comparable to ours in that it has a history of national success and is in a major conference. He’s appreciated and beginning to see some signs of success in his second year.

    I don’t think we have anything persuasive enough to offer that could get him away from that situation so early in his tenure. The timing is off. We missed the chance last time.

    Tubby – (hate the name) – Scan the net and you’ll see a lot of noise about his inability to recruit at KU. If you can’t sell Kentucky….. but on the other hand, it definitely looks like he can coach. He loves the flex. And he believes in defense.

  19. section2chuck 02/03/2011 at 6:21 PM #

    “Minnesota lost last night. Might fall out of rankings. Tubby, especially at 60, is not the answer. Folks please regain your sanity.”

    Are you kidding me they lost by 3 on the road @ Indiana…

    Tubby is in his 3rd season, they are still (16-5, 5-5 Big 10) so I think you need to regain your sanity, we arent going to find a coach who will lead us to multiple undefeated seasons…Jeez

    Tubby would be a great candidate….

  20. StateofthePack 02/03/2011 at 6:27 PM #

    What baggage is there with Tubby other than age? His resume speaks for itself. Winner at Tulsa, winner at UGA, national title at UK (even if it was with Pitino’s kids, it could be with Lowe’s also…)and now showing signs of turning Minnesota into an annual tough out in the Big Ten. I think that is exactly who we need whose success speaks for itself and will resonate immediately with our young team about how things have to be done to be successful. This hire has to be a successful HEAD coach that embraces the challenge of the ACC and looks forward to butting heads with our neighbors to the west. We cannot afford to allow 4-5 more seasons of on the job training at the expense of our program or we will be drawing 4-5k for a nonconference game and 10k for a conference game because no one will care. Fan apathy for the program is at an all time high and that has to be addressed in short order to save our school’s bread and butter athletic program. I have full confidence in Yow to make the best decision.

  21. kyjelly 02/03/2011 at 9:46 PM #

    ^Lock:Now Lowe bit the bullet to coach here? He is getting a mil a year at least! Not really Mother Theresa territory.

  22. JSRy2k 02/03/2011 at 10:32 PM #

    @hoopsjunkie:
    Awesome, concise, analysis! Couldn’t agree more, and I don’t know that I’ve seen anyone offer the insight of ‘w/o boot Oct camp’ (sorry to anyone who has raised that before, kudos to you). It’s like the saying that pressure situations (eg. ACC schedule) don’t create but rather reveal character – what is already inside a person comes out under stress. In college basketball’s case, if it hasn’t been instilled since October, it ain’t comin’ out in February!

  23. nocard 02/03/2011 at 10:44 PM #

    I am telling you, give SL another year but ask him to bring in a player development coach. He has 2 coaches on the bench that were head coaches before they came to NCSU with him (Pete and Monte). Larry Harris is a good recruiter and the kids love him. Heck, he was able to recruit kids to come play that slowdown ball that Herb brought into the RBC.

    You guys on this post site are going to hurt this program more than this year’s team. Why would anybody want to go hard when their own fans will not give them some love if they post an L.

  24. Rochester 02/04/2011 at 9:02 AM #

    I’m not in favor of bashing kids or singling them out in most cases, but let’s get real. These kids wanted the challenge of playing in the ACC because they could face the best competition. If they’re up to that, are some negative (even if uncalled for) comments on a message board going to convince them to not even try to give their best? If so, they don’t belong in a Division I environment. I’d argue most of them don’t let stuff they read affect their play, unless they use it as motivation.

    All the negatives that could fit in the limitless boundaries of the internet are not nearly as bad for our program as finishing at the bottom of the conference five years in a row. State fans are dying for a winner. Let’s forget NCAA title for a moment. The next squad to capture an ACC title will be lionized as heroes forever. The right coach could make that happen within a time frame that includes many of the players on our current roster.

  25. tuckerdorm1983 02/04/2011 at 9:05 AM #

    turning off the lights and sweeping up is all that is left of the ACC season for the pack this year. I am not sure Sid gets another year. Sure there are freshmen playing and maybe they are better next year.

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