We’re Back! And By The Way, We Have a Coach

Debbie Yow Mark Gottfried151

SFN has been overloaded with traffic the past few weeks. We’ve hit records that have TRIPLED our previous record. Over the past month, we’ve had nearly 400,000 unique visitors. We had a single day record of 28,161 unique visitors yesterday (reporting for today isn’t yet over – but I expect our prolonged downtime will not overtake yesterday’s record). For the books, our previous record 10,135 unique visitors on October 12, 2010 (Carolina scandal). After some much needed maintenance, hopefully we’re back on track.

Oh by the way, we have a coach. Welcome Coach Gottfried! Expect analysis from the SFN crew on Mark Gottfried, Debbie Yow, Gary Williams, and the search in general as stories are confirmed in the coming days.

In case you’re wondering, yes, FireMarkGottfried.com was registered today (not by us). It may not be what you think it is.

Debbie Yow Mark Gottfried

151 Responses to We’re Back! And By The Way, We Have a Coach

  1. NCStatePride 04/05/2011 at 9:43 PM #

    Serious question to those seriously upset about the Gottfried hire: what makes Gottfried that much worse than Sean Miller? I mean, Gottfried has over 400 games experience, Miller has 70 games experience. Gottfried is at 58% winning percentage overall in the SEC in 10 years experience and Miller is at 67% winning percentage overall in 2 years of the PAC-10 which is only composed of one mediocre building season and one amazingly good season (i.e., no proven track record). Miller is 42, Gottfried is 47. Miller comes from a high school coaching family, Gottfried comes from a college coaching family and has a sports announcer in the blood line. About the only thing Miller has going for him right now (which is a HUGE ‘only thing’ is momentum from his exit at Xavier and his Elite Eight finish, but he’s also only in year two.

    Hell, for that matter, most NC State fans were willing to give Tom O’Brien the pass for having so many injuries, but in reality, much of Gottfried’s lack of success at Alabama was due to injuries with key personnel. I’m not making excuses for him, but what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. I’m not saying this is a “good” hire or a “bad” hire, but I am saying that people saying that Miller would be a grand slam and Gottfried signifies that the sky is falling need to check into what each coach has to offer.

  2. newt 04/05/2011 at 9:43 PM #

    Fortunately, BJD95 has lost most credibility in the last few days, so nobody is taking his current drivel seriously.

  3. West Coaster 04/05/2011 at 9:43 PM #

    BJD95 –
    Why are you so down on this hire?

  4. BJD95 04/05/2011 at 9:45 PM #

    The job isn’t and wasn’t the problem. It was Yow. She obviously wasn’t prepared for or failed adequately and proactively address the Sweaty Gary problem. He’s a complete asshole, but he got what he wanted. Her letter last night was a cowardly attempt to pass the buck on her failure, before she hired her personal friend. What a disaster of epic proportions.

  5. fullmoon1 04/05/2011 at 9:45 PM #

    For those unhappy with the hire I am curious as to why, no disrespect, just wondering? The guy has won at the college level, has been #1 and has built two programs. All of those things make him a pretty solid prospect.

  6. Pack1998 04/05/2011 at 9:47 PM #

    Slow down — if you think this is a bad hire I challenge you to look at the data.

    Go compare his wikipedia results to the following — Mike Brey, Mike Anderson, Greg Marshal, even Jay Wright.

    They guy has 2 blemishes on his record, his last 2 years at Alabama. And it appears something went terribly wrong there, but I gotta think Yow knows it. And hey, even Roy Williams misses the NCAA sometimes.

    Who did you think we were going to get? Billy Donovan (there was a slight chance).

    Come one . . . this is a very, very good hire. It is buying low situation, getting a guy after he has been down.

    And this guy will recruit, work hard, and compete. He recruited that UCLA team that won it all. He recruited to Alabama. He was mentored by John Wooden.

    And he wants to be here. Go Pack!

  7. Trout 04/05/2011 at 9:47 PM #

    I like this hire.

    good recruiter – check
    proven at a high level – check
    developed nba players – check

    He doesnt come with a defensive reputation, but hopefully his staff hires can overcome that.

    He is an aggressive recruiter.

    Welcome Coach Gottfried

  8. newt 04/05/2011 at 9:48 PM #

    Given that I didn’t assume we would hire Billy Donovan or Rick Barnes, I’m quite optimistic about this hire. Dude certainly exudes confidence. I do think that we’ll not get going until some of his recruits are here. We have a mixed bag of players right now in my view in terms of work ethic and dedication to winning.

  9. BJD95 04/05/2011 at 9:49 PM #

    Goodnight everyone. Again, I’m sorry for defending Yow’s leadership earlier and not seeing the writing on the wall. I shall do my best to not discuss basketball ever again (except in the past tense). I deserve all the flak I get for my vigorous postings during the search itself, no excuse for it.

  10. Wulfpack 04/05/2011 at 9:49 PM #

    I’m sorry, there is no way Gary f-ing Williams has that amount of influence over all of these coaches. I do not doubt it in the slightest that he spoke negatively of Yow. However, I would have expected our AD, who is supposedly so well respected, to overcome that. I do not blame Yow for the current state of the program. But she talked an awfully big game, and this hire does not come even remotely close to matching the qualifications she expressed 3 weeks ago.

    And she certainly did not need to address the whole Gary Williams thing during the press conference for our new coach. She should be well above that. Just another slap in the face, and Gary clearly got the better of her.

  11. newt 04/05/2011 at 9:50 PM #

    Take your pills before you go to bed.

  12. drgreenhouse 04/05/2011 at 9:51 PM #

    I’m glad the site is back up; I mean I was resorting to WRAL and ESPN to gauge fan reaction – great intelligent commentary that only tends to show up on SFN’s epic threads.

    Even though we have disagreed on candidates during this process, I’m kind of in agreement with BJD; why the hell couldn’t we have hired Gottfried the day after Lowe resigned? Was it because it would have cost him some salary from his Alabama stipend or his ESPN contract? Why even go through the motions of hiring a search firm? The most inept part of this whole search was making it seem like a dozen coaches turned down our offers when they never really talked about details with the job.

    I’m going to choose to remain optimistic for one reason, and only one reason – Hoosiers. In the movie, Norman Dale, the head coach, was hired as the basketball coach after screwing up in his previous job. An old friend who was a principal at a little school in Indiana was the only person willing to give him a second chance. He obviously had a huge chip on his shoulder; that attitude came out in his teams and they won the championship as a huge underdog. Here’s hoping we’ve hired our Norman Dale.

  13. hpack 04/05/2011 at 9:51 PM #

    Not the high profile candidate we were hoping for but possibly a very solid hire. Before the Epic Thread consumed all, and specific names became the focus, I planned to post what would be my number 1 requirement for the job….That being NO OJT. The ACC is just too competitive to bring in a coach that has to learn on the Job. Sid had no chance to learn all the (on and off court) aspects of the college game coming from his position as a NBA asst. It took Herb 5 years to learn before he reevaluated every aspect of his prgram. The bevy of mid major coaches discussed would have needed a significant amount of OJT. Now I admit, I was caught up in the Shaka mania, but even with Shaka’s very high ceiling, he would have brought significant risk.

    I don’t know much about Gottfried but a quick glimpse at Wiki shows a 5 year run better than ANY NCSU has had in the last 20 yrs! He had 10 yrs in experience in a major conference competing against the best. Things kind of fell apart after 10 yrs….so what!

    In the end Yow did not panic but managed OK in a tough situation and hired a seasoned professional with real qualifications. That’s a heck of a lot better than we’ve had in a while.

  14. graywolf 04/05/2011 at 9:51 PM #

    I think we need a basketball season to begin to evaluate our new coach. We shall see if he can keep the current players and if he is able to recruit. He has been out of the recruiting picture for 2 years which might hurt him in the beginning unless he has a staff that is up to speed quickly and is current. We will see how well he evaluates players as well.

    Good luck and welcome coach Gottfried.

  15. UmsteadWolf 04/05/2011 at 9:54 PM #

    Let’s all move past DY’s letter last night. It was a calculated PR move to lower expectations and it worked for the most part. Maybe not for all of the forum junkies, but for the majority of fans. Whether this is true or not, we still ended up with a coach that has the qualifications most were looking for. Putting together a great staff is key at this point.

  16. newt 04/05/2011 at 9:55 PM #

    Summary of coaching search:

    1 – Went after Barnes and Miller who both listened but decided to stay at their current great situations.

    2 – Threw everything at Shaka Smart, who decided to stay in the comfort of VCU and > $1M (wussy)

    3 – Talked with Marshall and Cronin but found them lacking chutzpah.

    4 – Released highly criticized letter responding to Internet fever that had us hiring some secret superhero (ironic, isn’t it?)

    5 – Continued down list; quickly found good fit with Gottfried – experienced, has a plan, daring.

  17. West Coaster 04/05/2011 at 9:56 PM #

    BJD95 –
    The fact that Yow has known Gottfried for 30 years is your gripe? Hiring someone is a huge risk, personally & professionally, & most of that risk comes from not knowing them as a person. If she were interested in hiring him, but didn’t know him, she would have asked around to find out what kind of person he was. Knowing him simply means that she didn’t have to rely on second-hand opinions.

  18. NCStatePride 04/05/2011 at 9:57 PM #

    Seriously, BJD, I just don’t get it. So you think that NC State after a history of not getting hired guns to coach us was going to up-and-hire someone that is high dollar to come work a program that has been dead for years now (and no, I’m not just saying that because Yow said it… it should be obvious we’re in trouble)?

    And about the “why didn’t we hire him in the first place” talk, that just doesn’t make sense either. So is your question why we didn’t hire someone who wasn’t our first choice on day one? If so, the question answers itself… because he wasn’t our first choice. I got the opinion that several feelers were sent out at once to multiple candidates and over the last 24 hours, Gottfried accepted an offer. That’s all just opinion at this point, but I definitely didn’t get the vibe off anyone, NCSU related or otherwise, that this occurred last night at 3:00AM to cover Yow’s ass.

    Hell, look at everything else that’s been leaked to the media. If Yow had some secret deal to Gottfried JUST to save her ass, are you telling me THAT wouldn’t have leaked to the media? I just don’t buy it, BJD.

  19. JT 04/05/2011 at 9:57 PM #

    The guy can coach. I sense he has the attitude for the job. I am psyched. And Yow? Hell, she just stated the obvious in the email. Got no prob with it. Go Pack!

  20. newt 04/05/2011 at 9:59 PM #

    Again, the freaking letter was in response to the people who are now criticizing the freaking letter. Maybe if utter, speculative BS wasn’t being thrown about by folks that have somehow managed to accumulate a level of clout, Debbie wouldn’t have had to write the letter that they now criticize. There was definitely an epic PR fail during this search, but it didn’t from the Athletic’s department.

    PS – I thought Gottfried was cool in a Sweet Home Alabama (the movie) sort of way. He’s an arrogant SOB, which I like.

  21. gcpack 04/05/2011 at 10:01 PM #

    Post Deleted

    NCStatePride: I don’t agree with BJD95 either, but it’s no one’s right to critique another Wolfpack fan’s loyalty to NC State or his fellow fans, especially when he has dedicated so much time and effort to this site and informing other readers. Let’s keep the discourse civil and if you have a personal problem with an author or any power, please contact them directly via PM.

  22. ncsu93grad 04/05/2011 at 10:02 PM #

    Like the hire, but the proof will come in W’s and NCAA bids.

    My biggest gripe with the pressed was that DY got in the mud with GW. Stay classy Debbie. rise above it.

  23. packalum08 04/05/2011 at 10:03 PM #

    BJD,

    I share your frustration and disappointment. I was frustrated and embarrassed by the Yow email. I am underwhelmed by the hire (Yow’s fault for getting our hopes up?). The honeymoon is over.

    That said, I don’t think this is the death knell of State basketball. There is a decent chance (not sure how great) that MG will bring us back to the last 5 years of HWSNBN. There may even be a chance that we surpass that with him. But I think that we will be better off when MG leaves than when he got here. Then we have to hope for another upgrade, maybe Archie if all goes well. Who knows.

    As for DY, the honeymoon is over. She is not a miracle worker. I also heard that she did not attend this year’s Hoops For Hope game (can someone confirm?), which disturbs me greatly, as this was started by her sister and is one of the best athletic traditions we currently have. Is she a step up from LF? Probably. Is she a flight of stairs better? Probably not.

  24. statehead 04/05/2011 at 10:03 PM #

    To everyone who happens to disagree with our new coach, think of it this way… Look at all of the “good” coaches that we went after. No one wanted the job here. So if they were to afraid and didnt want to assume the responsibility of rebuilding this team then why would you want them as your coach anyways. I’m just hoping that this just is not a pay check for Mark and that he takes this job seriously

  25. albunde6 04/05/2011 at 10:04 PM #

    This is just like asking a girl to the prom, she may not be pretty, she may not be thin, but she said yes. Coach Gottfried is now our coach.

    Side note, listen to acc show on 94.5, he thinks above average hire.

    “could be worse, yea could be raining”

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