The Sidney Lowe Timeline & Memories

Sidney Lowe13

The Wolfpacker has put together a summary of the Sidney Lowe timeline that is probably valuable to review. (Click here)

Sidney Lowe took the NC State coaching job in the spring of 2006 and quickly got to work on the recruiting trail, signing highly-regarded forwards J.J. Hickson and Tracy Smith. He also wasted little time working his magic on the court, posting back-to-back wins over ranked opponents in his first season.

Lowe couldn’t make it last, though, and officially resigned from his post yesterday. The Wolfpacker takes an in-depth look back at NC State basketball during the coaching tenure of the former point guard.

May 6, 2006: Lowe is introduced as NC State’s 18th head basketball coach…

The timeline dovetails nicely with this thread about Sidney’s greatest coaching moments at NC State. The following are some random comments from the thread to drive some reaction/response from you:

* Single moment – 1st season win over Carolina was the single best game the team has played in the Sidney Lowe era.

* Michigan game (ACC/Big Ten Challenge), Season One. The most excited I’ve been watching a game in quite some time. Plus, it made Jimmy Dykes stammer.

* Can’t forget the general excitement of the 2007 ACC Tournament run

* Ben McCauley jamming it in at the buzzer against Wake in 08 was pretty sweet as well.

* Initial press conference

* First year win over UNC.

* First year ACC tournament fan. It was nice beating Duke and then knocking out UVA who was coached by the psycho.

* NIT game at home against Marist. Reynolds was rocking in a way that it hadn’t been since I was a student. I was at that game at least an hour before tip.

* Win over Duke last year.

* The win over #20 Villanova to win the Old Spice Classic

* The genuine smiles such as the one given to CJW before the hug in the WF game

While you are here, please allow us to encourage you to shoot over to our message forums (click here) for a few minutes. You can explore and participate in dozens of current conversations that might be of some interest to you.

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Sidney Lowe

13 Responses to The Sidney Lowe Timeline & Memories

  1. Wufpacker 03/17/2011 at 5:18 AM #

    I really appreciate the effort (both from SFN as an entity, and certain posters individually) to remind folks that not everything under Sid was painful.

    After a hugely “disappointing” search to fill the position, and then after a whole helluva a lot of debating over the summer and fall of ’06, I have to admit that for about twelve months (give or take) I thought that Lee Fowler had found the proverbial nut (you know….the one they say that EVERY blind squirrel finds occasionally) and that Sid was going to turn out to not only be a decent fill-in, but perhaps a damn good coach.

    His first season was up and down as expected, but the road wins over Wake and a ranked VT seemed promising, but when they immediately followed up the VT road win with a very convincing home win over Carolina, it seemed like perhaps something good had finally happened for NC State basketball. I fully expected them to come out flat for that Carolina game after the win in Blacksburg (and honestly wouldn’t have held it against them all things considered). When they came out and played with intensity and execution, I have to say that I was beginning to drink the kool-aid.

    The ACC tournament run to Sunday and the decent NIT appearance only reinforced the buzz from the kool-aid. Considering the incoming recruits for the following season, I admittedly expected too much (hindsight is 20/20 of course) for the following season, though perhaps not as much as Gavin Grant and his infamous “won’t lose more than four games” guote (I did expect single digit losses)

    Then came the UNO loss, and with it a buttload of doubts and rationalizations. Young team, haven’t gelled yet, etc. Then the Old Spice Tournament win and a Top 25 ranking reinforced those rationalizations (See, I told ya they hadn’t gelled before….but now they’re learning to play together). But of course they weren’t, and the rest of the season was excruciating.

    But for about 12 months there, I believed. I hadn’t felt that way for quite a while and it felt good even if it didn’t come to fruition. I had forgotten how good optimism felt, quite frankly.

  2. mak4dpak 03/17/2011 at 8:16 AM #

    I appreciate Sidney stepping up to the chanllenge of leading the State men’s basketball program, and for the great wins in his early years at State, but unfortunately most of his career has been a disappointment, and now it has finally caught up with him. I wish him well, and sure he will have no trouble landing a job, as an assistant in the NBA, where I feel he is best suited. I trust our next coach will bring the excitement back to our program, we once experienced. It has been toooooooooooooooooooooo long!

  3. frankiepack 03/17/2011 at 8:20 AM #

    Wow it even looks worse on paper. The 22-55 record ,six conference wins Sid’s high water mark,six league away wins in five years in a very weak conference. Most “highlight” wins sparked by the evil gang of three (Costner,Ben and Grant). Sid was a great player here a nice guy but a terrible coach.

  4. tcthdi-tgsf-twhwtnc 03/17/2011 at 8:58 AM #

    When Sid was introduced to the fans at Derr Track. The people cheering with excitement watching Sid and his family walking across the field to address the crowd. It was the first sign of hope for the program in years.

    NC State basketball fan base is a much more united now. Sid along with Yow have made the NC State job a much more desirable one than it was 5 years ago. Thanks Sid for your high level of class that the guy you replaced could only dream of.

  5. kjedward 03/17/2011 at 9:21 AM #

    I’ll never forget that NIT game at Reynolds. I’m a younger fan so I don’t have great memories of watching games in Reynolds back in the day like many of you but this game made me understand what everyone was talking about. I arrived there at least 30 minutes before tip-off and it was already loud enough to hear the cheers from outside. The sound was deafening, the crowd was electric. Made me wonder why we ever left. The Heritage Game is a nice throwback but we should really play a decent team there every year.

  6. PoppaJohn 03/17/2011 at 9:25 AM #

    I remember thinking what a mess the replacement process had been, but how bringing in a set of some of the most successful State point guards just seemed to have a logic to it. Lowe, Towe, Q Jackson, J Gainey. Of course I was thinking with my heart, not my head. The ACC always populates its head coaching positions with guys that the administrations vet as experienced, successful college head coaches that can recruit at a high level. Sid was none of those things at the time.

    I also remember some heated posts on this site saying how we should have hired Whitt, thinking he was the ‘up and coming’ savior we all wanted. When’s the last time anyone heard his name in the national press?

    I think Ms Yow will swing for the fences, I hope she is successful. To get a star, the circumstances (timing, money, other connections to program, Yow’s approach) will have to be perfect. We’ll just have to wait and see where that perfect alignment of the planets happens.

  7. ADVENTUROO 03/17/2011 at 9:46 AM #

    Sidney’s fate got sealed early on….First, there was absolutely NO talent on the squad and all the recruits, except Horner bailed. He, if you recall, had to have open tryouts just to have a scrimage or scout team.

    Second was his personal issues….no matter how capable an individual or how positive, THAT had to be a bummer. You will also note that NOT ALL his family was at the last radio show. Sidney has paid a tremendous personal price for coming back….not that it would not have happened anyway, but you gotta wonder.

    NOW…if you look at the talent that is left and the talent that is supposedly coming in, the Strength and Depth of the Team is probably his biggest legacy. It takes, as most know 4 -5 years to recruit blue chippers and we have a great team.

    I will not make excuses for the time it was taking for him to transition from the Pro’s to the NCAA….and he may not have the temperment to handle the fragile egos of the Freshmen….He coached them as if they were Egotistical Adults….not Egotistical Children. Roy and Mikey and others seem to have honed that skill a little better.

    Thus, Lowe is gone. We are a MUCH STRONGER team thanks to his recruiting.

    The JOB is FAR more attractive from that standpoint….no major rebuilding….the $$’s are NOW there……the AD is going to set tough standards…I worked for a lot of tough bosses…but she would be a challenge…and THAT is why she was hired.

    I am now completely on the Debbie Yow bandwagon and am totally confident that she will make the RIGHT choice….after all, who had ever heard of Jimmy V until Willis Casey hired him? He took Sloan’s TALENT and look how that turned out. And since we have a strong AD, then we will continue to have a strong BB Coach, so that some of the Jimmy V mistakes will not be repeated.

    Thus, I feel MUCH better about the future.

    Despite the W & L’s, there was excitement….you could not use that word and HS in the same sentence without add a NOT….

    My take…

  8. frankiepack 03/17/2011 at 11:34 AM #

    More like hype not excitment^ I guess you did not attend any home games like all last year and the second half of this year. There was no excitment whatsoever.
    Sid always had a bunch of people watching his back here and making excuses for hime left and right.

  9. Wolfy__79 03/17/2011 at 11:35 AM #

    hey, his tenure wasn’t without some high points.. but that doesn’t change the fact that it wasn’t working. i’m very thankful for his time here, one thing i think he helped us do is move on to the next era of nc state basketball. from now on, there shouldn’t be any prolonged discussions of the valvona era..

    if i ever meet coach Lowe in person i will certainly shake his hand and thank him for his work here! he’s a true nc state icon despite what the most recent numbers say. Thank You Sidney Lowe

  10. ADVENTUROO 03/17/2011 at 10:00 PM #

    FrankiePack,

    I DID attend ALL of the Home games….I bought 2 LTR’s when he was hired and then bought two more. I guess we went to different arenas…and I did also travel with the team to some out of town teams.

    I will admit there was some frustration….but the crowd was FAR more supportive than the three years of Sendek that I endured.

    I am probably one of the ones who DID watch his back…and am proud to do it and will continue to do so.

    You can NOT possibly say that he left us like HS did with NO talent and virtually NO team…..come on…when you don’t even have enough player for a scrimage….

    The recurits that came in last year will mature. If the recruits that have committed or are being “courted” commit, then the new coach will have a MUCH easier time…

    Perhaps you ought to read Tim Peeler’s 100 year history of NCSU BB and make some notes on how Jimmy V (whom I also did and still love) was “blessed” by the talent that Stormin Norman left him.

    I think that he did win a few games in 1983 with that squad….

    Watching a game tonight….hope they win, but would LOVE to have their coach….hope the rumor mill is correct….

  11. fernandopacker 03/18/2011 at 8:17 AM #

    ^ I was there as well and if you thought the crowds were large and exciting I would have to disagree.And I am sure this showed up on TV as well and another reason Sid is out.

  12. ADVENTUROO 03/18/2011 at 9:25 AM #

    Fernanopacker,

    Here are some facts for you to ponder. These come from the NCAA.ORG site and SFN has sent us there on several occassions. I also included info from our Sister Institution down the road. I don’t know how well the table from my Excel Spreadsheet will format…..scroll to the end for conclusions.

    RANK AVE ATT RANK AVE ATT
    2010 Lowe 24 13184 Williams 5 17786
    2009 Lowe 21 13456 Williams 3 21035
    2008 Lowe 16 15043 Williams 2 20497
    2007 Lowe 20 13952 Williams 3 20693
    2006 Sendek 18 14472 Williams 3 20239
    2005 Sendek 17 14464 Williams 3 20522
    2004 Sendek 16 14576 Williams 3 20802
    2003 Sendek 19 13563 Doherty 4 18688
    2002 Sendek 20 13468 Doherty 8 16319
    2001 Sendek 17 14072 Doherty 2 20836
    2000 Sendek 7 16535 Gutheridge 3 20163

    Lowe 20.3 13909 Williams 3.1 20225

    Sendek 16.3 14450 Doherty 4.7 18614

    Change -4% Change 9%

    Basically, Lowe’s attendance numbers through 2010 were only 4% LESS than Sendeks in the RBC. In addition, you WILL recall that the economy tanked in 08 and THAT really impacted things. This also squares with with Dr. Yow stated during her presser that we could sell about 6000 more seats, so the 2011 numbers will come in about the same. The HS Sympathizers are STILL buying tickets, but their seats are in the “high vis” area, so it looks worse. My observations are all based on about 9 years, so my original comments are backed up by FACT. HS’s attendance was only 500 MORE than Coach Lowe…and Coach Lowe was in a FAR WORSE ECONOMY.

    Still stick by my observations……

  13. ADVENTUROO 03/18/2011 at 9:29 AM #

    SFN’s software will NOT let me EDIT my previous post….the RANK refers to the NATIONAL NCAA Standings….should have left it out as it tends to confuse the data and the formatting is beyond my control.

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