Tudor: State is Fine with Sendek Being Good, Not Great

We will leave the comments to Tudor, as he continues to hit home runs related to the Herb Sendek situation at NC State. Today’s beauty is akin to Tom Sorenesen’s piece last week that was discussed here. If you haven’t seen Tudor’s previous gem from a couple of weeks ago, click here.

The prevailing question about N.C. State basketball, both for the short and long term, is how successful can the program be with Herb Sendek as coach?

My thinking on that issue hasn’t changed a great deal over the years.

The Wolfpack can be good, but not great, with Sendek

After 10 seasons, Sendek has coached enough games in Raleigh to demonstrate a general pattern. He is 72-88 in ACC regular-season games and 13-10 in the ACC Tournament. His NCAA Tournament record is 5-5. Those numbers aren’t dog slobber all over your term paper, of course.

Lots of schools would love to have a coach with those kinds of credentials. Sendek has built a top-30 program and reached the NCAA Tournament five straight years. Sendek recruits quality players, and State puts great stock in such factors.

It’s clear the school’s leaders are convinced there isn’t a better coaching alternative. Barring radical changes in the administration’s thinking, Sendek will have job security into the foreseeable future.

So Sendek has done a good job. Good, not great.

Sendek has substantially more supporters in high places than among the masses.
And progressively, those people in the middle of the spectrum will become more difficult to silence. Those folks want more than Sendek has delivered. They want league titles and Final Four runs, the sorts of achievements the Pack has produced in the past.

The dissent isn’t hurting State’s basketball economy, so far. Most of the seats in the RBC Center are sold. The basketball program’s revenue stream flows in a profitable direction, win or lose. The bottom line is there, but the enthusiasm isn’t. In fact, it’s in decline.

That is Sendek’s biggest problem. He has won over the administration, the faculty and the hearts of his players. But he hasn’t earned the confidence of State’s rank-and-file supporters.

So what can Sendek do to overcome that problem?

Sendek is doing enough to keep his job. But he isn’t doing enough to create genuine excitement among the fans about the future.

Sooner or later, that has to change.

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19 Responses to Tudor: State is Fine with Sendek Being Good, Not Great

  1. Gumbydammit 03/26/2006 at 10:51 AM #

    Question is, how do you hurt Fowler and Co. economically without hurting yourself or the players? Not giving to WPC results in losing your LTR’s. Buying tix but not going serves to hurt the players – they are not the ones with which Pack fans have the problem – it is HERB and FOWLER.

    To Tudor’s question: “So what can Sendek do to overcome that problem?”

    Here’s my answer – Herb, pack your sh** and get the hell out of town. Your welcome has long been worn out and although you’re a swell guy, you’re a mediocre coach and WE JUST DO NOT WANT YOU ANY MORE.

  2. class of '74 03/26/2006 at 11:18 AM #

    Herb is the key to getting this done with minimal damage to all parties involved. I don’t expect that to happen based on what I’ve seen over the past month. It will take a losing season to build enough pressure to come even close to having his leech-like attachment to NCSU broken and even then I’m not confident the admin will pull the trigger.

  3. WTNY 03/26/2006 at 12:52 PM #

    *Sendek needs to admit the obvious: His offensive system has run its course. It no longer catches quality opponents by surprise, and when the outside shots aren’t falling against those teams, defeat is virtually unavoidable.*

    Please, Coach Sendek, listen to those words.

  4. BJD95 03/26/2006 at 12:52 PM #

    Our OCC schedule means that it would likely take a 3-13 ACC record to have an overall losing season. It’s hard to be that bad.

  5. ncsslim 03/26/2006 at 1:34 PM #

    Yes, but a losing a ACC record is not out of the question, and that could well be next year. That would in all liklihood break his NCAA string, which is his only claim to success on the court. I’m not stupid enough to think for one minute, however that the rules won’t immediately change when that occurs, especially with the savior (one player that can be spoken in the same regard as those that our neighbors fill their rosters with) on the way. Keep in mind, he graduates his players (who the hell knows the actual truth in this; did Melvin or Sherill ever graduate?), and the entire team doesn’t have to give DNA tests to confirm rape. The bar is pretty low and will get lower.

  6. Old13 03/26/2006 at 1:42 PM #

    Anything (stopping contributions, not buy tickets or attending games. etc.) that is effective in getting changes in the program quickly, or, better, getting rid of Herbie, will impack something. Not doing anything to effect change hurts us alumni and fans and, in my opinion, the school’s national image and reputation in the long run. Maybe a little short-term pain in some areas would be worth it to get the program righted quickly. In any case, some sort of pain is obviously going to be felt somewhere no matter what happens.

  7. choppack 03/26/2006 at 1:59 PM #

    [quote]Herb is the key to getting this done with minimal damage to all parties involved. I don’t expect that to happen based on what I’ve seen over the past month. It will take a losing season to build enough pressure to come even close to having his leech-like attachment to NCSU broken and even then I’m not confident the admin will pull the trigger.[/quote]

    I agree. The one thing I’d add is that a new AD could facilitate change as well. Of course, we currently have an AD and he seems to have the proper allies.

  8. blpack 03/26/2006 at 2:41 PM #

    Along the lines from above, when we played a team the second time around we by and large got hammered or the point differential between game 1 and game 2 was huge. This chicken offense has been figured out and everyone seems to make adjustments in the second half of the season except for State. Herb’s stubborness is old. It is long past time for a change.

  9. graywolf 03/26/2006 at 5:14 PM #

    Tudor is right, except it won’t be 2 years away but 3 because freshmen don’t play in Herb’s system.
    I really miss the V days when we ran an offense and we were not a system and that there was a multitude of defenses to turn to other than just simple man to man and getting burned.

  10. coppertop 03/26/2006 at 6:14 PM #

    You know normally I loathe almost everything that Tutor says, however, I agree 100% with the following statement:

    “Sendek is doing enough to keep his job. But he isn’t doing enough to create genuine excitement among the fans about the future.

    Sooner or later, that has to change.”

  11. WolfInVolCountry 03/26/2006 at 6:33 PM #

    I have come to the realization that nothing re. Pack basketball will change in the forseeable future. I see a mid-conference finish next year with no wins against Duke or UNC (even though Duke is supposedly rebuilding); even a possible “0-fer” against the Big 4.

    We will be a bubble team, and if we miss the likely statement will be “we have made the NCAAs for 5 of the last 6 years… what a great run we have had.”

    One thing that drove Buzz Peterson from UT was mediocre results coupled with 6000 fans per game at Thompson-Boling Arena. I don’t see attendance dropping to those levels at RBC, and with LTRs and WPC support there is no catalyst to remove Herb.

    Oh well, congrats to a spunky George Mason team; playing in a place and time that few Wolfpackers can recall.

    See ya’ll here same time next year.

  12. SaccoV 03/26/2006 at 7:27 PM #

    If Jim Larranaga doesn’t get coach of the year across the country, there is something very very wrong. Note, a spin-off of the current discussion needs to focus on the coaching changes around college basketball and their effects over a period of time. As Larranaga has proven to everyone in the country who squawks about there being no better coach to find for NC State, we must look closely at guys like Larranaga and Gregg Marshall to find the best damn coach we can. I know that NC State is NOT going to fire Herb Sendek, but let George Mason’s Final Four appearance be a slap in the face to all those broadcasters and basketball “analysts” who say that we could do no better. I could personally spend another 500 words singing the praises of at least 20 coaches who could give us better than 10 years of Herb-a-tory!!!

  13. scott 03/27/2006 at 12:31 AM #

    I really think fans who hold LTRs should boycott going to games next year. Think about it..your LTRs will be worth more if & when Sendick leaves b/c people will have an opportunity to be excited about WPack games again. And who really wants to go watch anymore of Herb-ball..I certainly don’t.

  14. Old13 03/27/2006 at 9:15 AM #

    I’m not sure that doing what Mr. Tudor suggests will really heal the Wolfpack Nation. Lee Sendek has essentially killed my enthusiasm for all things NCSU, and I’m sure that of others as well. I’m not convinced that I would regain it either unless Lee Sendek is gone for good from NCSU.

  15. Carl NCSU '73 03/27/2006 at 12:06 PM #

    Caulton Tudor has finally come up with a suitable name for us “good is not enough� N.C. State fans. I’ve always known that I am not a “lunatic� as Lee loves to call us, and I’ve always been pretty sure that I am not on the fringe, either. C.T. describes us as “middle of the spectrum�: Not stark, raving mad but not completely content with the status quo, either. Old enough to remember when N.C. State was truly one fourth of the Big Four, and old enough to know that when the big money dogs demand results they usually get them.

    So we Middle of the Spectrum types (MiddleSpecs? MTS’ers?) are more puzzled than mad in wondering (1) why ten years of recruiting has not produced the necessary level of talent to truly compete, (2) why we are not clearly evolving toward a more traditional offense (after all, we all know that speed kills, so why not attack the basket at high velocity?), (3) why our basketball coaching staff seems to de-emphasize emotion when, again, everyone knows that very often emotion drives us to higher achievement than would otherwise be possible, (4) when our basketball staff will receive the same degree of respect (read: hatred) from fans of the Other Two that our football staff gets, and finally (5) when Big Money will finally pound its fist on the table.

  16. David C. 03/27/2006 at 12:45 PM #

    his article should have said…

    THE AD NEEDS TO MAKE CHANGES…

  17. Fletch 03/27/2006 at 12:47 PM #

    Carl NCSU 73, that was a great reply. I couldn’t have said it better. I had a fellow NC State fan tell me this weekend that herb has an NBA coaches mentality in terms of no emotion, every game is the same, every win or loss is still just 1 win or loss mentality. Great for the pro’s, but sucks for the college game wich is driven on emotion.

  18. David C. 03/27/2006 at 12:47 PM #

    Carl NCSU…

    the one thing you have to understand is the BIG MONEY DOGS aren’t demanding a change with Herb… they are completely happy…

    the problem is the other 85% of the WPC is not happy, but since they actually work for their money they can’t just throw away the investments made with LTR’s and throw them out the window like these BIG MONEY DOGS could if they were unhappy with the situation…

    I am at a loss at what will improve this situation…

  19. class of '74 03/29/2006 at 12:39 PM #

    ^An AD with some vision and standards for acheivement.

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