Sendek’s 1-11 season starting to receive attention; Still no mention of it from national “experts”

10-11 Basketball ACC & Other General Media67

If you haven’t been paying attention(we say that because several national media pundits appear to have forgotten that Sendek is still coaching at Arizona St), then Herb Sendek’s Sun Devil team fell to 1-11 Sunday night after getting thrashed on their home court by their arch rival Arizona Wildcats(sound familiar?). Well, apparently a few members of the local Arizona and Georgia media are actually taking notice of Sendek’s work in Tempe even if the national folks continue to ignore it.

This article by Greg Hansen of the Arizona Star brought up some interesting points:

TEMPE – An hour before tipoff Sunday night, I saw Amphitheater High School basketball star Tim Derksen eating his pre-game meal at a Sun Devil campus hangout. ASU had provided him and his father, Pat, with game tickets.

Until that moment, I actually suspected the Sun Devils had stopped recruiting a few years earlier.
When you are 1-11 in a seriously impaired conference, and when your head coach, Herb Sendek, is in his fifth season, piloting a roster that includes two or three useful players and not much else, you start asking questions.

Such as: How have the Sun Devils failed to prosper during a period in which Lute Olson left Arizona and Mike Montgomery exited Stanford? In the Sendek years, the Pac-10 has been a blurry mess: Oregon State, USC, Oregon and Cal dismissed their coaches.

Even UCLA went into an extended funk.

Ordinarily, it is senseless to pile on, but the story Sunday night was as much about ASU’s profound slippage, its eighth consecutive loss, as it was about Arizona’s unexpected climb back to national awareness.

Does that situation sound familiar to UNC replacing Dean Smith, Wake replacing Dave Odom, GT replacing Bobby Cremmins and the other coaching changes at places like Clemson, FSU, and Miami that happened during the Sendek era at NC State.

“Profound slippage?” Those national guys always tell us that programs like Arizona St. don’t have pressure and/or expectations like an NC State job and this article just goes to show they have no idea what they are talking about. Describing an underachieving coach like Sendek moving to Arizona St as taking a job with less pressure and realistic expectations is a recent phenomena and talking point. Unfortunately, reality is reality and we all know that all fans have expectations and all head coaching jobs have pressure.

The struggles can’t be possible with so many Pac 10 programs going through coaching changes, Sendek receiving a huge boost from landing a 1st team college all-american(James Harden) after hiring his high school coach, and actually making the NCAA tournament in his 3rd season. This is year 5 when a coach doing a rebuilding job has his players and his system in place. What happened after success in year 3 and all of the national publicity James Harden Herb Sendek brought to the ASU program?

Here is Sendek’s reaction to the loss:

Now with eight consecutive losses overall and 10 straight Pac-10 defeats, Sendek acknowledged that panic may set in among his players and the fan base.

“It is a natural reaction when you look at our record,” Sendek said. “We all kind of get wide-eyed when we see it. It is like getting a hard kick in the gut; it takes the wind out of you. I’ve been really proud of the way the guys have responded. They are resilient and they work hard. That doesn’t take away from the fact at times it feels like you got a quick jab to the solar plexus.

“It is very challenging to have a lot of confidence when you don’t have a great deal of success. I don’t see our guys hanging our heads or going to see Miss Cleo. They are showing up and they are working. The only way you attain confidence is to keep working.”

Again, sound familiar? Didn’t Julius Hodge reference Miss Cleo?

Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal Constitution mentioned Sendek as a possible replacement for Paul Hewitt of Georgia Tech yesterday:

Herb Sendek, Arizona State: He’s the dullest guy in the world, and he’s not a great recruiter. He left N.C. State in a snit because Wolfpack fans weren’t satisfied with five consecutive NCAA tournament appearances. But things haven’t gone great for him in Tempe — he’s 85-70 in four-plus seasons and has reached the Big Dance only once — and his Sun Devils are 9-15 and hold last place in the Pac-10. There’s a chance Sendek could get fired this season. It’s not often a big-time program hires a coach who has just been canned at another school, but Sendek does have a history of winning in the ACC. He was 46-34 in league play his final five seasons at State.

That is the 2nd reference in the last few weeks to Sendek’s job being in jeopardy at Arizona St. If you missed it last week, then here is a link to Sendek being mentioned as 1 of 2 coaches in the Pac 10 in jeopardy of being fired. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Sendek tried to get involved with a GT coaching search. It is a huge step up from Arizona St and certainly would give him a platform to make the NCAA tournament again. However, that brings up the question: why is Sendek at Arizona St. right now considering the supposedly amazing run of 5 straight NCAAs at NC State?

Before anyone asks why we keep mentioning Herb Sendek’s dismal season in the desert, then that is because nobody else in the NC State Internet community will do it. There was an excellent post on Packpride’s message boards yesterday that I would like to highlight:

You can act like the media is exclusive and that their opinion doesn’t hold water with anyone but themselves, but it’s flat out wrong, the perception they’ve created about the Sendek situation is eaten up by many, many folks.. Sendek and NCSU couldn’t both look good following his departure. The media chose NCSU to throw under the bus. I knew it was over for Sendek when he blew that double digit lead in the Pac-10 tournament (a la 2003), his one win in conference this year in year five proves every single assertion NCSU fans have been screaming about for five years, every single one. There is not one good coach out there staring a 2 win conference season in the face in year 5. I’m guessing 90% of NCSU fans would have loved to see him do well at ASU, but the media wouldn’t let that happen without trashing our university. So if it has to be one or the other, we’re all going to side with our university. We all know that when ASU does give him the boot, the national media plus Gminski, Brando, Patrick will use that newspaper as a coaster and move onto something else because they’ll look 100% wrong, or Patrick will flat out lie, again.

An interesting piece about that article by the Duke guy was that Al Skinner went to 7 NCAAts in his 10 years. That’s two more than Sendek and they fired him, he didn’t walk out. Mike Patrick likely has no idea who Al Skinner is.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

If NC State is going to be attacked by national media members claiming to be “experts” on NC State basketball and the Herb Sendek era, then we will continue to point out how they are flat out wrong and at the same time completely ignoring an additional five years of data during his tenure at Arizona St.

Please read all of the links to work done by the non-paid bloggers here at Statefansnation in the above paragraph. There is a lot of great work with mountains of evidence showing the ignorance of folks like Mike Decourcy, Jeff Goodman, Seth Davis, Greg Parrish, etc…Imagine using actual statistics and supporting evidence in supporting an argument?

But don’t worry. These “experts” have the team at Statefansnation very motivated to keep pointing out the ridiculous flaws in their commentaries. We have plenty more coming especially Parrish’s ridiculous analogy comparing Herb Sendek’s tenure at NC State to Jamie Dixon’s last 5 years at Pittsburgh. Never I have ever seen a paid professional writer refute his own analogy(Sendek to Jamie Dixon) and then still use that analogy to make his point. Brilliant work Gary!

In the upcoming coaching search, NC State fans and the basketball program will continue to be attacked, the “experts” will continue to try and tell us what we think and then why we shouldn’t expect what they tell us we expect.

Has any group of fans every been so lucky!?!?

Again, I will credit the local media for doing their jobs the last few weeks. From radio hosts like Adam Gold, Joe Ovies, and David Glenn to long-time ACC sports writers like Al Featherston and Brett Freidlander, they have shown an astute knowledge of NC State’s history, our entirely realistic expectations as a fan base, and a solid understanding of the controversy over the Herb Sendek era. Please go here if you missed any of their excellent work.

10-11 Basketball ACC & Other General Media

67 Responses to Sendek’s 1-11 season starting to receive attention; Still no mention of it from national “experts”

  1. Daily Update 02/16/2011 at 1:25 PM #

    wolfman9806: We wouldn’t take pleasure in Sendek failing at ASU if the media would have stopped years ago(like they could have) bringing up the whole debate.

    Why don’t you ask them to drop it? Why don’t you ask them to move on? Why don’t you ask John Swofford why he allows our partners in the media to come up with graphics to attack NC State when Sendek had absolutely no relevance to the UNC game a few weeks back?

    Why do you only ask the few people out here trying to defend NC State from these attacks to move on? Ask them why they are even wasting their time writing about our program when they could be spending their time writing about Sendek’s revival in Tempe? Why is he only brought up in relation to NC State’s potential open head coachign position or during our telecasts 5 years after he left?

    Lots of questions you could be asking the national experts. Instead, you ask us to sit back and take it. If it wasn’t relevant for us to cover, then guys like Ovies, Gold, Glenn, Featherston and Friedlander would have moved on as well.

  2. PoppaJohn 02/16/2011 at 1:26 PM #

    Daily Update – Wow! Sorry to see you discouraging viewpoints out of synch with your own.

  3. bradleyb123 02/16/2011 at 1:31 PM #

    The bad news is, they are going to say we ran Herb off, and that five straight trips to the dance was not good enough for us. So it serves us right that we’re losing now. (What they neglect to mention is that Herb only left because he received a $600K/year pay raise for moving to the desert. We didn’t run him off. And they also assume that just making the NCAAT is enough, and we should have embraced that awful basketball that eventually got us onto the tournament bubble every year…)

    But the truth of the matter is, letting Herb go will continue to be a “bad decision” on our part (in their eyes) until we get a winner here in Raleigh. I have been wanting Sidney to have ONE GOOD YEAR that tops Herb’s best year here, just to shut these people up that keep bringing up Herb.

    It doesn’t matter that Herb is having a terrible year at ASU now. He was a “winner” when he was here, and that’s all that matters. Until we actually do BETTER than what Herb did here, they will continue this campaign against us.

    I’m content that it was the right thing to do to let Herb leave. But I get tired of it being thrown in our faces at every turn. Sidney needs to win the ACC championship this year. Then maybe they will shut up and go away! (That and it would be nice to have a championship, too!)

  4. swamppack 02/16/2011 at 1:31 PM #

    Wolfman 9806, as for me the only time I would point out Herb’s failures at ASU would simply be a reaction sometimes to the constant persistance of some people to distort the facts along with a total ignorance of the history at NCSU b-ball leading up to his 10 yr. stint here at State.

  5. Wolfman 9806 02/16/2011 at 1:35 PM #

    ^^Daily Update. I understand the point that you made in your post that the media place blame on us rather than Herb over the separation. I will always side with my university and agree with you on that point. Though, I will not lash-out at Herb directly because the media portrays us as the ignorant villian. I choose to simply turn the other cheek. I am hopeful that Yow will approach the coaching search and future hire with professionalism and the necessary due diligence. The reality is the BBall program can’t really sink any lower. So, if we make a good hire than there are plenty of ‘low-lying fruit’ to be gathered and we can all feel better about ourselves.

    Fowler was the villian in our story, not Herb or Sid. They were simply in over their heads (though, Sid much, much more so).

  6. Avid109 02/16/2011 at 1:37 PM #

    Can you imagine what next season would be like if Ga. Tech did hire Sendek? I’ll bet some of the Sendek fans in the media would be doing a weekly performance comparison of him vs. whoever our new coach is.

  7. Wulfpack 02/16/2011 at 1:39 PM #

    It all depends on how you choose to define “shambles”. But one thing is for certain – we are not any good in a conference that will be lucky to see 4 bids.

    With the right coach, that can be corrected in a short amount of time. But if we choose wrong again we’re screwed.

  8. bradleyb123 02/16/2011 at 1:40 PM #

    “I’ll move on from this topic. Ultimately, my question is ‘What does it say about us taking so much pleasure in Herb’s failure at ASU?’?”

    I don’t think any (many) of us really take pleasure in Herb’s failure. I’d like to wish him well. But the better he does, the more these media rats will continue to bash NC State. If no one said a word about Herb, I’d wish him the very best (except when his team plays ours). Problem is, it’s not like that. Herb’s success only gives the Herb-lovers fodder to bash State. For that reason, and that reason only, I cannot root for Herb to do well. It really isn’t anything personal. We don’t hate the guy. We just want everyone to move on and let it go.

  9. Daily Update 02/16/2011 at 1:43 PM #

    9806: Maybe we aren’t as far apart as I thought. However, the whole “why don’t you just move on” stuff really bothers me since the issue has been revisited by Seth Davis, Mike Decourcy, Gary Parrish, Mike Patrick, Elmore, Tim Brando, etc….all in the last few weeks. We didn’t bring up Herb Sendek during the UNC game(it wasn’t as if Herb had a good record vs. UNC to even make him relevant).

    wolf 83: If you told us to move on, then that is why your comment was deleted(I think two total posts have been removed). I hope you stick around, but I also hope that you understand why the Sendek topic is still relevant today – because the media keeps it relevant.

  10. VaWolf82 02/16/2011 at 1:51 PM #

    Fowler was the villian in our story, not Herb or Sid. They were simply in over their heads (though, Sid much, much more so).

    Who is the villian should not be the subject, responsibility should be. The head coaches are responsible for the results of their program. The AD is responsible for setting expected standards of performance and making the tough decisions when those standards are not reached.

    Whether or not Herb met Fowler’s standards (assuming that he had any) is not the question. Neither Herb, nor Sid, nor Fowler met my standards nor what the large majority of fans would want. Very few fans were satisfied with Sendek’s results. The disagreement came from what standards should be required and whether or not Sendek was capable of much more than he had already delivered.

    But none of that has anything to do with this entry. This entry is not an attack on Herb. This entry is another response to the lazy media and a defense of NC State’s history and its fans.

    If you don’t want to discuss the entry, then feel free to move along. Personally, I delete all comments on my entries that presume to tell me what to write about.

  11. packof81 02/16/2011 at 2:04 PM #

    I do not hate Herb Sendek. I just think he is way overrated as a coach. He is mediocre at best.

    I do not take pleasure in his lack of success at ASU. However, I do feel a strong sense of vindication after hearing the incessant barrage of disinformation from sports media pundits over the years abusing their bully pulpit.

    Anyone who thinks the successful turnaround of the basketball team by a great coach will silence these disingenuous commentators has another thought coming. Your memories are short. They tossed us barbs during our heyday. Davis, Gminski and Bilas are Dukeys. Do you really think they’ll let up?

    It’s up to sites like this to set things straight. Nobody else will.

  12. fullmoon1 02/16/2011 at 2:41 PM #

    In response to wolfpack_83 would say its not that anyone is deriving pleasure from Herb’s troubles but rather our view on the topic of Herb as a coach is being validated. when he left we were hit hard by the media saying we ran off a good coach, this validates the idea that he wasn’t that good of a coach. The issues ASU has with him are eerily familiar.

  13. Sweet jumper 02/16/2011 at 3:26 PM #

    Just keep “chopping wood” and running the Princeton offense.

  14. albunde6 02/16/2011 at 3:35 PM #

    Hate is a strong word to apply to Sendek, it would imply that we loved him at sometime. I for one will dance the “happy dance” when he is fired by ASU. I would also recommend a sign be prepared to hold behind Giminski for his next trip to RBC. Would start with Herbs record at State, to be followed by second sign with his record at ASU.

  15. Wolfy__79 02/16/2011 at 4:07 PM #

    here’s some some simple math each person defending herb should look in to!!! in his ten years, he was dominated by the top tier teams… mainly the blue boys… even when dean moved on and against the likes of matt donuts!! i’m sorry, but i’m much too proud to consider average to be the goal for the basketball team. if the media wants to run the love-fest for the herb comparison and how nc state is a hind tit tobacco road team… i’m glad big brother aka SFN is here to set the record straight!

    if you are in the conference for ten years as a hc you need: 2 or more acc titles, winning record against unx/duke (they will remain atop the league) and successful results in the ncaa’s… all that will indicated that the hc can coach and has proper goals for the program. at nc state +1, we would like to see 1 nc in a ten year period. with herb, we were glad we got to the ncaa’s and thinking sweet16 & wtny before the tip… just after sneaking into the tourney via bubblidge!!

    again i’d like to thank you SFN writers/creators for doing what you do!!.. and i’m sure i never woo you all with my wisdom but love the outlet to speak and read about our wolfpack topics!! thanks again…

  16. Wolfy__79 02/16/2011 at 4:13 PM #

    btw!!.. i take much pleasure in herb not being successful at asu.. i do not hate him personally, but i hate how his average mentality poisoned some of our youngest fans… he essentially made nc state an elite practice dummy for how many acc teams that won nc’s?

    …i don’t see gt hiring him, but if they have hung onto hewitt so long then they are certainly capable of making a bad move! this league has added a few herbs with wake’s and uva’s hc’s… wait and see… they will become losers just like herb smoketek.

  17. Hamlet 02/16/2011 at 4:13 PM #

    Great read. I agree with everything included.

    Still, I’ll be glad when we can dispense with the talk of Herbie. He was bad enough when he was our coach, and yet we still have to partake in self-torture by bringing his name up over…and over…and over again.

    If anything, this just proves how dung-logged our basketball program is that we (and others in the media) insist on performing acts of necrophilia/bestiality on this long-dead horse.

  18. backnine 02/16/2011 at 4:58 PM #

    I have to believe GA Tech fans would have a coniption if they thought for one second Herb might be there next coach. Any AD (not named Fowler) can plainly see the mountain of evidence and statistics on what you get with Herbert in charge.

    And on another point someone made above, I don’t think most State fans are delighting in Herb’s struggles at ASU from a malicious perspective. Rather, we’re being forced to defend ourselves against the National Sports media that continues to try and trash us, five years after the fact. Herb’s current situation is nothing more than yet another exhibit in that defense.

  19. IMFletcherWolf 02/16/2011 at 5:05 PM #

    I wished Herb nothing but the best of luck from the moment he left State … until the media started mentioning his name at every turn.

    He’s been a head coach for 17(?) years, and we’ve all seen what his teams can and cannot do. I don’t think he is cut out to be a head coach of a major basketball school.

    ps- I really thought he would do well as ASU. Very interesting that he is feeling pressure after year 5 out there. I thought they had low expectations and we were the one with the crazy, high expectations. Oh well …

  20. mwcric 02/16/2011 at 5:42 PM #

    Granted I’m a nobody, so my accolades mean squat, but just the same I wanted to let you guys at SFN know that these essays written over the last six weeks or so taking the media to task on NCSU basketball are some of the strongest, most well-thought-out and insightful items I’ve ever seen here – and that’s saying something. Thanks for the good work.

  21. runwiththepack 02/16/2011 at 6:11 PM #

    albunde6, I thought of it first! I think it’s a great idea, even if you thought of it first (sign behind Giminski or others).
    Daily Update:
    I am very grateful that SFN, with your contribution,is helping to deflect the media smear campaign against NCSU over the Sendek matter. Please keep it up. Don’t anyone here think that advertising doesn’t work.
    Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any advertising, right?
    It seems likely that this is an orchestrated effort on the part of some behind-the-scenes forces. What else explains the sudden flurry of “reports” on this topic from those who have no business sticking their nose in our matters in the first place? And even less business of using their media position to intentionally mislead the public with, at best, selective truths?
    What we see in the national media lately is, in effect, negative advertising against us, much like negative political ads. The difference is that it is more difficult to know (or prove) who is behind it, compared to political neg. ads. Surely Sendek doesn’t have this much pull with the media. Hmm… who does that leave with “pull” who might be motivated to pull this crap?
    Daily Update, you are right on. I used to wish Sendek well, but now it is NOT possible, knowing that any good fortune on his part will be used to help smear us in Raleigh.
    But I will NOT express any contempt towards Sendek – I will only try to be ready to vocally disagree with anyone who assists, wittingly or not, in this smear campaign. I will present our perspective, as i have already done on N&O posts.
    NCSU must strive for ACC championships, as any other ACC member should – not ncaa tourney bubble teams, as these smear artists suggest.

  22. VaWolf82 02/16/2011 at 6:25 PM #

    It seems likely that this is an orchestrated effort on the part of some behind-the-scenes forces.

    A quote from Napolean comes to mind: Never ascribe to malice those things easily explained by incompetence.

    What else explains the sudden flurry of “reports” on this topic

    In the days of 24 hour sports stations on radio and TV as well as the need for constant influx of new web stories, don’t expect the media to easily give up the chance at what they consider low-hanging fruit.

  23. runwiththepack 02/16/2011 at 6:41 PM #

    VaWolf82,
    You’re probably right.
    So, it’s a “me, too! I want to pile on NCSU! Oh, boy! It’s all the rage” situation?
    But if it is incompetence, it is so bad, it SEEMS orchestrated.

  24. RabidWolf 02/16/2011 at 6:46 PM #

    Has anybody seen THIS tripe?

  25. RabidWolf 02/16/2011 at 6:47 PM #

    oops….

1 2 3

Leave a Reply