There are many topics that I know a lot about. I know how to cook a whole hog for example. And I also know a lot of facts about the athletic history of NC State. Once while on a long drive with my wife, I kept her awake by recanting every State-Carolina football game from the last 30 years. She calls this information RUK – random useless knowledge. While I clearly have lots of RUK, there are plenty of things I don’t know. I can’t fly an airplane. I can’t build anything. I don’t know how to play guitar.
And, I don’t have the first clue of what the professional criteria should be in hiring a basketball coach.
Judging by recent posts on the StateFans Nation forums, Facebook and other corners of the “internets,†such self-awareness of knowing what we don’t know is rare among the Wolfpack faithful.
Consider the manic pendulum that swung back and forth last week. Early in the week, the StateFans Nation servers nearly blew up because of rumors that the supposed Wolfpack legend in waiting Rick Barnes was on the ground in the Triangle area. Then we got all riled up over Sean Miller and once his father seemingly took Miller’s name out of contention, the roller coaster careened downhill. But wait! Look at this Shaka Smart fellow! Man, he really put it to Kansas. He’d be a GREAT hire!
Yes, some of this is a little tongue in cheek but the point is this; There are a gazillion factors in hiring a major college basketball coach. And the great majority of those factors are things that the average fan doesn’t know by judging a win-loss record or watching games on television. We are making strong judgments based largely on perception.
Rick Barnes may be the perfect fit for the Wolfpack basketball program. But I’m not going to say that based on the fact that he made people in Austin pay attention to a winter sport and once got face-to-face with El Deano.
Sean Miller may be the savior to return Wolfpack basketball to the glory years that we all crave so desperately. But I’m not going to say that based on the fact that he brought a perennial PAC-10 heavyweight back to prominence.
Shaka Smart may be the next incarnation of Jim Valvano. But I’m not going to say that based on knowing his name for just under two weeks of a hot NCAA tournament run.
I imagine that as Athletic Director Debbie Yow gets down to business with these or any other candidates for the coaching position, they’ll talk about things such as; managing a team budget, empowering assistants, motivating players both in the classroom and on the court, willingness to do public appearances, etc. Those factors are just the few that came to my admittedly ignorant mind as I tried to think up what I might ask a coach if I were in Yow’s shoes.
I don’t want to be a wet blanket. I’ve been hitting the F5 button multiple times an hour just like all of our StateFans Nation readers. Keeping up with the latest rumor and swapping opinions is fun! However, we have to know what we don’t know.
Hiring Billy Donovan will not guarantee a return to glory. Nor will hiring Shaka Smart mean that we are doomed. All that we can do is cross our fingers and hope that this time, we got it right. Only time will tell. Given what I’ve seen from Debbie Yow, I like our chances for success.
But even that’s just a perception isn’t it?
