Winning the Press Conference

Coaching Carousel Debbie Yow NCS Basketball95

As the Internet continues to grind out speculation regarding the the coaching vacancy in the Wolfpack men’s basketball program, the now legendary thread on the StateFans Nation forums got me to thinking; what really drives this collective desire to find out any information on who the next coach might be? Why would hiring Rick Barnes/Billy Donovan/Sean Miller excite a larger percentage of the fan base than hiring Shaka Smart or Gregg Marshall? As we pointed out last week, truly educated opinions on coaches are few and far between, it’s primarily a perception game that drives fan excitement.

And then it hit me.  The press conference to announce the new hire is the program’s first “win” under new leadership. Let’s just say that Debbie Yow rolls up to the podium with Billy Donovan in hand in a few days. The press will go nuts, the coverage will be national and the admins at StateFans Nation will probably have to get even more powerful servers to handle all the traffic. We’ll all stroll into work the next day with our chest stuck out and that Tarhole who works for you will have to grudgingly concede that little ‘ol NC State pulled off a big hire.

Under that scenario, we haven’t won the first game yet, but we have won the press conference and fired a strong first shot in the perception war. The payoff is immediate and it would feel really good to get that first win.

Contrast that with the announcement that we hired Shaka Smart/Gregg Marshall/insert mid-major here. I’d be pleased and not disappointed in the least.  However, in terms of fan excitement, we’d all have a very hopeful wait and see attitude. We wouldn’t get the immediate payoff of winning the press conference.

The irony is that winning the press conference is certainly no guarantee of restoring Wolfpack basketball to its previous greatness. It would will be nice to win the press conference, but there are much bigger fish to fry.

 

 

 

About SMD

SMD graduated from NC State at a time when beating UNC-CH in both major revenue sports was a regular occurrence. This was well before a time when I could express my frustrated attempts at being a writer on the "internets." When I'm not talking about the Pack, I'm probably arguing politics.

Coaching Carousel Debbie Yow NCS Basketball

95 Responses to Winning the Press Conference

  1. kyjelly 04/04/2011 at 12:32 PM #

    If he turned down 2 mil for 6yrs DY and SS are nuts!

  2. eas 04/04/2011 at 12:33 PM #

    Cronin paying us 1.5m a year…..hilarious.

  3. PoppaJohn 04/04/2011 at 12:35 PM #

    RememberV – too many guys reporting it for this to be wrong – DG is one of many

  4. PackerInRussia 04/04/2011 at 12:38 PM #

    As to the original post, I keep trying to remember the FITSQ (Fannies In The Seats Quotient). This hire, according to Yow, needs to cause 6000 more people to jump up and go buy tickets to b-ball games. Now, maybe at this point, it has to be someone who will cause 6000 more people to go buy tickets after the season starts and the team shows an ability to win, but by making that part of Yow’s goal made me think she needed to get someone who would win the press conference.

  5. anonimus 04/04/2011 at 12:42 PM #

    Too many guys citing multiple independent sources or too many guys citing the same unconfirmed source?

  6. nav 04/04/2011 at 12:42 PM #

    Twitter blowing up with reports on how every coach in the nation doesn’t want to work with Yow. Somewhere, in some corner of the world, Gary Williams is sitting back smiling.

  7. PoppaJohn 04/04/2011 at 12:43 PM #

    ^ to your point, it appears that WTPC has passed us by. We’ll have to settle for “.. bigger fish to fry.”

  8. BJD95 04/04/2011 at 12:45 PM #

    No way did Smart turn us down. Something bigger must be going down, I just have no idea what it is. Such an insane ride.

    If we did get turned down and we have to go below Smart, then NC State might as well shut down the basketball program.

  9. PoppaJohn 04/04/2011 at 12:46 PM #

    ^^ good point, probably the latter – but we are talking about talking heads rather than the ‘Billy Donovan is coming’ yahoo on PP. Sounds real, but probably indicative of a ‘declined persuing conversation’ rather than an official refused offer.

  10. nav 04/04/2011 at 12:51 PM #

    Say what you want about these being bogus reports but this is becoming more and more 2006ish. Is anyone else just ready for fb. At this point I would hire Archie away from Dayton just to move on with my life.

  11. anonimus 04/04/2011 at 12:52 PM #

    I would submit Wikipedia is more factually reliable than the electronic bathroom wall graffiti that is Twitter.

  12. ThomYorkepack 04/04/2011 at 12:54 PM #

    Now, if this doesn’t yield a miracle, this search can be considered a failure.

    Here’s hoping for a miracle.

  13. Wulfpack 04/04/2011 at 12:57 PM #

    Not looking good, folks. No A listers and now no Smart. We better lock up Marshall now before Miami grabs him. It appears this job ain’t what we thought it was.

  14. Rochester 04/04/2011 at 12:58 PM #

    Where’s Engin Atsur’s plane? Anywhere near Raleigh?

  15. Wonderwolf 04/04/2011 at 12:59 PM #

    IMO we will be getting a knockout name,,bc of this, yow is waiting till wednesday after the attention is away from the tournament so that we get maximum exposure!! i still get the feeling that its miller or barnes for some reason,,not sure why. i also think its curious how there is no talk of turgeon lately?? hmmmm

  16. PoppaJohn 04/04/2011 at 1:00 PM #

    Debbie – Schedule the freakin’ presser!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  17. nav 04/04/2011 at 1:02 PM #

    If we have any reasonable coach, not named Cronin, that has expressed willingness to come here hire him now. Do not delay.

  18. ADVENTUROO 04/04/2011 at 1:03 PM #

    The seat factor is an interesting view. With $haka $mart, it would have gone up quite a bit. I don’t have a CLUE who is on the list….but I suspect Marshall….past that, there is no real name recognition.

    Now, NAME RECOGNITION does NOT guarantee success and/or seat sales. But it CERTAINLY helps. WRAL has run the story, so I think they checked it out THOROUGHLY before airing it.

    Word on the street is that $$ will get about $1 Million out of VCU. Listening to Jimmy V’s comments on what he came here for, he would have said that for an extra million a year, he would have bought Pam an airplane to visit her OB/GYN or just moved his practice to Raleigh.

    But the beat will go on. This is really is turning into a PR show now. DY understands PR, so I think that something will be coming out VERY shortly.

    There is already a Vigilante Group gathering in the West Parking lot of Reynolds and their banners and effigies are NOT too flattering to Debbie.

    Ya gotta LOVE the excitement of this….

    First, everyone was upset that there was NO NEWS….as compared to 2006.

    Then, at the first news, it is like…..WE DON’T NEED THIS PUBLICITY & INFORMATION….

    So, whadda you want?

    We are living DOWN to our reputation MORE every day…..

  19. tvp1 04/04/2011 at 1:05 PM #

    BJD – I think it’s time to use Occam’s Razor.

    The most logical – perhaps the ONLY logical – explanation here is that, after missing on the A list candidates, Yow identified Smart as the top B list candidate, waited until his season was over to talk with him, and he turned down a huge raise to stay at VCU.

    If so, one has to wonder if this search is actually WORSE than Fowler’s Odyssey. At least he was never turned down by a mid-major.

  20. BJD95 04/04/2011 at 1:06 PM #

    Stop freaking out. Traded texts with Jeff, he agrees with my take. All indications since Saturday have been that we weren’t going after Smart. Bigger fish in the picture.

    The media haven’t gotten anything right to date – why start believing them now? The only grain of truth is that Smart won’t be our coach.

  21. NCSU84 04/04/2011 at 1:07 PM #

    Speaking of the press, did anyone catch the Yahoo comments about Stevens?:

    “Stevens doesn’t need to jump to any old job – say the current openings at Missouri or North Carolina State.”

    Any old job? Yeah, I guess a $1 million dollar+ salary is just another job.

    http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/news?slug=dw-wetzel_stevens_already_found_big_time_040311

  22. nav 04/04/2011 at 1:09 PM #

    BJD, thanks for the optimism man. I need all I can get.

  23. EdMar 04/04/2011 at 1:12 PM #

    I do not care who we get as long as we hire someone that in the words of Evanescence “Wake me up Inside”

    How can you see into my eyes
    Like open doors?
    Leading you down into my core,
    Where I’ve become so numb.

    Without a soul,
    My spirit sleeping somewhere cold,
    Until you find it there and lead it back
    Home.

    (Wake me up)
    Wake me up inside.
    (I can’t wake up)
    Wake me up inside.
    (Save me)
    Call my name and save me from the dark.
    (Wake me up)
    Bid my blood to run.
    (I can’t wake up)
    Before I come undone.
    (Save me)
    Save me from the nothing I’ve become.

    Now that I know what I’m without,
    You can’t just leave me.
    Breathe into me and make me real.
    Bring me to life.

  24. Howler 04/04/2011 at 1:13 PM #

    I think BJD is on the right path. Smart was basically a fall-back guy for us. The story comes out making it sound like he’s sitting on an offer, but he knows that he isn’t. So what better move for him than to say he is withdrawing his name from consideration? This could be an indication that Yow has a very good hire to announce very soon.

    Or not. And that is the scary part. I have said all along, however, that G. Marshall is a better hire than Smart, so if Marshall turns out to be the guy, I will continue to think that he was higher on the list than Smart and that we did not wait for a “no” from Smart to sign Marshall. Another mid-major other than Marshall, and I am probably not happy.

  25. BeVeryAfraid 04/04/2011 at 1:15 PM #

    Debbie, it you are out there—call Sean Miller one more time!

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