In a statement that will surely relieve Demon Deacon fans, former NC State head coach Herb Sendek said in an interview on an Arizona sports-radio show that he’s staying put in Tempe:
It looks like you can put the speculation to bed.
A report came out Monday linking Arizona State basketball coach Herb Sendek to the opening at Wake Forest.
As a guest of the Dan Bickley Show with Vince Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Tuesday, Sendek dispelled any notion that he could be leaving Tempe for the job.
“I am not in play for Wake Forest,” he said.
NC State fans might remember similar statements from Sendek during his time here – he would claim to not be in play for a high profile job elsewhere before anyone credible had reported any potential interest from the hiring school. At the time, that dashed the hopes of people who were dissatisfied with Sendek while simultaneously pleasing his supporters. Ultimately, Sendek left Raleigh for Arizona State rather suddenly after a late-season meltdown and early NCAA Tournament exit had many Wolfpack fans irate at the state of the basketball program.
When this story was released today, Arizona State fans reacted in a way that might sound familiar to people who remember those times in Raleigh:
I wouldn’t put this to rest, Herb is a lame duck coach so he should strongly consider this…I was hoping WF would come through.
Another said
This sucks, but is no surprise.
And finally, someone else posted
If Wake hired Herbert, there would be a mutiny of epic proportions. Ron Wellman would be lynched by the weekend.
That last statement is probably a very accurate statement.
Thing is, it is extremely unlikely that Wake Forest has ever given serious thought to contacting Herb Sendek, much less hiring him. The bottom line here is that Herb is being Herb and going back to his old playbook: when the heat gets turned up on him in his current job, feign disinterest in a good job, whether or not that school is at all interested in him.
We as NC State fans remember that tactic quite well — but unfortunately for Herb, ASU AD Ray Anderson is probably a lot smarter than “Coach” Lee Fowler was in his most insightful moment.
We also probably would say that Sendek needs time to build his program. Much wood needs to be chopped, the sun will rise many times, inexplicable losses and offensive droughts must be endured and above all, patience during wholesale transfers and regular late-season meltdowns will be required if the Sun Devils hope to ever get a glimpse of basketball’s promised lands. According to many in the national press, they already have a great coach and who do they think they are to even dare to aspire to what Arizona, UCLA and others in the Pac-12 achieve year after year.
Or maybe not. Seems Sun Devils fans are pretty reasonable in their hopes for their basketball program. They just happen to be watching the movie we’ve already seen and like us, they don’t like it and already know how it’s going to end.
You have to think that Herb may be a bit on borrowed time in the desert. He’s got a new AD and these old tricks of declining jobs he was never considered certainly got him lucrative contract extensions from @Lee_Folwer and Lisa Love, but Anderson comes from the NFL, has degrees from Stanford and Harvard, read: he’s no dummy and can sniff bullshit with the best of them. After all, he spent time in Boston and San Francisco. Hey Herbie, there ain’t but one Jed.
