I’ve been holding onto this entry for a year. I never had the opportunity to finish them off, so I decided to wait to our one-year anniversary.
One year ago this weekend, NC State was participating in our first Sweet 16 in sixteen years. On the NC State pre-game radio show (pre-Wolfpack’s embarassing egg-laying against Wisconsin), Wolfpack Athletics Director Lee Fowler chose to give an interview on the Wolfpack radio network. (I know…I know. What a surprise that Lee Fowler would give an interview.)
I was listening to the interview in Houston Texas on XM Satellite Radio while I was waiting for the game. I (almost) could not believe my ears when I heard Fowler blurt an antagonistic statement aimed at 80% of the NC State fanbase that was the equivalent of a five year old’s, “na-nanny-boo-boo, stick your head in doo-doo” (barely paraphrased):
“You know…I really haven’t heard much this week from a lot of the people that I’ve been hearing from recently”.
Hmmmm. How did that work out for Einstein?
At least Fowler is consistent. He chooses ignore huge swaths of performance and focus on self-selected, arbitrary items when “judging” Herb Sendek and NC State Basketball just as he chooses to ignore years of consistently negative feedback less than a four day period when the opposition was finally happy.
Pardon me for being saddened that a man gets paid Lee Fowler’s salary to represent North Carolina State University with such consistent unprofessional behavior. He thinks that he is is cute when he does this. It is even more sad that NC State’s leadership have made this Tennessee native SO comfortable in Raleigh that he feels empowered to verbally attack large bases of fans in public (after making statements to the effect of, “lunatic fringe” and “50 people on the internet)
Sadly, Fowler’s focus on being “right” (about Herb Sendek, about his unwaivering choices) cloud his ability to learn from others how to act. You see, most people aren’t stupid enough to run their mouth about a topic when the facts don’t support their position (even in the middle of a short-term success).
There’s More
In other comments before Sendek & State lost ANOTHER double-digit lead in an important Tournament game (Duke, Maryland, Vanderbilt, Wisconsin), Fowler also made reference to the four Sweet 16 games in which he “coached” in as an assistant coach at Memphis State.
I find Fowler’s reference to these Memphis State teams quite curious because a quick look at the NCAA record books indicates a massive hole and does not jibe with Fowler’s self-focused boasting.
I’ve never thought about the Fowler support of Sendek from this angle — but, could it be that deep inside (where Fowler could not consciously find) that Herb Sendek’s failures help boost Lee Fowler’s own image of his past “achievements”?
Why does Lee Fowler think that a rag of a shool like Memphis State deserves to go to four Sweet 16s in his tenure as a coach but NC State only deserves to go to one in ten years with our current coach? The answer may lie in Fowler’s own presence of sitting on the bench as opposed to his luxury box provided by NC State with his clown-like, unlit cigar hanging from his mouth.
