Caulton, We Couldn’t Have Said It Better

General Media NCS Basketball Required Reading Tradition67

The N&O’s ACC Now Blog posted Caulton Tudor’s Monday article, and it is a must read. Bravo!

(As of 9:10pm ET, the N&O’s ACCNow Blog is encountering technical problems.)

You are going to love this article! And, some Wolfpackers are going to feel compelled to apologize to Caulton Tudor for some criticisms that you have levied against him in the past.

To be fair, Tudor has done a phenomenal job supporting the general historical truth regarding NC State’s Basketball program and tradition over the last few years. This is just another example of it. We here at SFN are very appreciative of his work.

I get a feeling that the ignorance and lack of historical knowledge of college basketball in today’s younger ‘journalist-types’ (Gregg Doyel, Andy Katz, Jim Rome, Adam Gold, Ken Tysiac, etc) frustrate Tudor. (That’s another thing we have in common!) It is almost like the seasoned veteran is taking the clueless class dunce to school. And, he does a damn good job of it!

Last week, we ran an entry that ties very nicely to Tudor’s article called “Because We’re NC State”. We encourage you to read it by clicking here.

When the N&O gets their blog back up you will enjoy “State has every right to pursue name coach”.

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General Media NCS Basketball Required Reading Tradition

67 Responses to Caulton, We Couldn’t Have Said It Better

  1. chris92heel 04/09/2006 at 9:10 PM #

    In other words, Greg Doyel, you’re an idiot.

  2. WAWolf 04/09/2006 at 9:16 PM #

    I finally got thru after several tries. My guess is that so many of us are trying to access it that we crashed their server. 🙂

  3. ncsu81 04/09/2006 at 9:22 PM #

    Sunday, April 9, 2006
    State has every right to pursue name coach
    Note: This column will appear in Monday’s print edition.

    By Caulton Tudor

    The most surprising aspect of N.C. State’s basketball coaching search is the belief by some that it’s a waste of time for the school to court big names.

    What a bunch of hogwash.

    To say State is acting too big for its britches by aiming high is exactly like saying that South Carolina had no business trying to hire Steve Spurrier as its football coach. Or that Rick Pitino, having once coached the basketball team at Kentucky, would never consider Louisville.

    [More:]

    Wolfpack athletics director Lee Fowler is doing precisely what he should do in swinging for the fences in his quest to find Herb Sendek’s replacement. Why not?

    Even more to the point, why should anyone at State take a defeatist attitude into its own job hunt? That would be just begging to be average.

    There is no guarantee that Fowler will connect, of course. Texas’ Rick Barnes, the No. 1 target all along, declined. But it certainly wasn’t a no-brainer for Barnes. He mulled the offer long and hard.

    And with good reason. State’s basketball situation is attractive by any comparison. The fans are passionate, the program’s legacy rich and the financial rewards generous.

    It’s safe to say that 75 percent of all current college basketball coaches would jump at the opportunity to coach the Wolfpack. Does that precludes the possibility of landing a coach among the remaining 25 percent? Certainly not.

    Where basketball is concerned, State is not a mid-major school in a mid-major conference at a mid-major location. It’s just the opposite, in fact.

    State basketball has had periods of greatness dating back to World War II and has been consistently far above average throughout most of that same stretch.

    Had it not been for Everett Case winning big at State in the 1940s and ’50s, there is every chance that North Carolina would not have hired Frank McGuire and gone undefeated in 1957.

    Had it not been for State’s fans, the ACC Tournament would not have become a national sports fixture. Had it not been for Lorenzo Charles, there wouldn’t be a lead highlight film clip for CBS-TV to start each NCAA Tournament.

    Jim Valvano won a national championship at State at about the same time that Mike Krzyzewski was fighting like the devil to keep Duke fans from storming his front porch.

    It’s true that State has had its moments of turmoil. So have North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, UCLA, Michigan, Kansas and just about every other school that dabbles in high-octane athletics competition.

    But the assertion by some that State is a second-class basketball program with second-class athletic citizenship is more than inaccurate. It’s offensive to the ear.

    Now, Fowler has turned his attention to Memphis coach John Calipari, another big name.

    Whether Calipari is interested or up to State’s muster isn’t known at this point. But if the coach is interested and passes what will surely be a close inspection by the school, you can bet your Chuck Taylor high-tops that he will not arrive in Raleigh with a willingness to concede ACC championships and regional supremacy to Carolina and Duke.

    He will go after Williams the same way Williams went after Krzyzewski; the same way Krzyzewski chased Dean Smith in the 1980s and ’90s.

    What’s wrong with that?

    Should State hire a coach, whether that coach is a big, middle or little name, who takes the approach that Duke and Carolina are simply too good for the Pack to attack head-on?

    That’s ridiculous. If something like that made any sort of sense, every other school in the ACC would have dropped football the moment Florida State was admitted as a conference member.

    I’m not saying that John Calipari is right for State or that the school is right for him. But you put Calipari on that Wolfpack sideline next season, and it’s a stone-cold lock that the country — and the country’s top high school prospects — will take immediate notice.

    No one will scratch their head and ask themselves, “Now who was that guy N.C. State hired?�

    It comes down to this: State right now has an opportunity to replace a good coach with a great one, and it’s going to take a great one to compete evenly against Duke and Carolina.

    Great coaches can be found almost anywhere. Duke found Krzyzewski at Army. That is a well known fact. Less known is the fact that Duke once strongly considered hiring Adolph Rupp not long after he was basically forced to retire at Kentucky.

    Fowler could well wind up bringing in a coach with little or no name recognition, and that coach could turn out to be the next Krzyzewski or Williams.

    But for anyone to criticize Fowler and State for pursuing a coach capable of making the biggest possible instant impact is absurd at best and ignorant at worst.

    Here’s another way to look at it: Roy Williams said no to Carolina once, but did that stop Dick Baddour and the school from going after the same coach a second time? No, because Carolina wanted to get the best coach it could.

    State has every right to do the same. If it doesn’t work out, so be it. But there is no reason in the world for State to target coaches who think that being third on the block is good enough.

    Posted at 08:22 pm by J.P. Giglio in N.C. State
    1 comment | Permalink

  4. beowolf 04/09/2006 at 9:26 PM #

    *the seasoned veteran is taking the clueless class dunce*

    WELL PUT.

  5. gotohellcarolina 04/09/2006 at 9:27 PM #

    Thank you, Caulton. This is all we have ever said. Why can’t we expect better?

  6. VaWolf82 04/09/2006 at 9:28 PM #

    absurd at best and ignorant at worst.

    A perfect description of Doyel.

  7. roon7723 04/09/2006 at 9:30 PM #

    thanks for the article ncsu81

  8. Jeff 04/09/2006 at 9:37 PM #

    Compare the difference in Tudor’s article to Ken Tysiac’s uneducated piece in today’s Charlotte Observer:

    UNC, Duke success hamper Pack search
    KEN TYSIAC
    [email protected]

    Though North Carolina State administrators and top-dollar contributors loved the squeaky-clean program former head basketball coach Herb Sendek ran, the rank-and-file fans never warmed to him.

    Me: Never warmed to him? Not true at all. The rank-and-file fans DID warm to him. On Day One! And the warmth lasted for a full four years. The problem, Mr. Tysiacs, is that you were like 12 years old at the time. Don’t let the truth ever get in the way of your comments

    RALEIGH – One difficulty of the N.C. State basketball coaching job became painfully apparent to Buzz Peterson when at Raleigh-Durham Airport as an assistant coach for the Wolfpack in the mid-1990s.

    Peterson had just been on a plane with Tommy Amaker, then a Duke assistant coach. Not long before, Peterson also ran into Phil Ford, who was an assistant at North Carolina.

    At the airport, Peterson saw a billboard proudly promoting the area’s NCAA champions. North Carolina had won the 1993 title, and Duke had won back-to-back NCAA championships in 1991-92.

    “We’ve got to get our program going,” Peterson, now Coastal Carolina’s coach, remembers thinking. “They’re not just winning. They’re winning national championships.”

    Now N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler is pursuing candidates to replace Herb Sendek, who accepted the Arizona State job April 1 after 10 seasons at N.C. State.

    N.C. State has tradition of its own, with NCAA titles in 1974 and 1983. But North Carolina (two) and Duke (three) have combined for five NCAA championships since Jim Valvano wandered the floor in ’83 in Albuquerque looking for someone to hug.

    Duke and North Carolina are located within 30 miles of N.C. State, whose fans don’t accept losing to their local rivals.

    “You’re going against two of the biggest guys on the block in America, Duke and UNC,” said Les Robinson, the former N.C. State coach who now is The Citadel’s athletics director. “And to me, that’s a challenge.”

    It makes the job unappealing for some, but Peterson said the positives outweigh the negatives. Robinson, who said he likes a challenge, said proximity to two of the nation’s most successful programs makes N.C. State one of the best coaching jobs in America.

    The Wright stuff

    Chris Wright was Exhibit A for why N.C. State could compete against the best basketball programs in the nation in recruiting.A 6-foot-1 point guard at St. John’s College High in Washington, D.C., he is rated the nation’s 30th-best junior by scout.com. All-Star Sports recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons said Wright is so gifted he might not play four years in college before being grabbed up by the NBA.

    Wright was recruited by Duke, Villanova and Wake Forest.

    He chose N.C. State. Until Sendek left, that is.

    “One of the biggest reasons I went to State is because of the coaches,” Wright said after rescinding his commitment. “I liked the coaching staff.”

    Scout.com recruiting analyst Dave Telep said Wright probably won’t sign with the new coach N.C. State hires, but said the Wolfpack job still is attractive from a recruiting standpoint.

    North Carolina signed more McDonald’s All-Americans (three) in each of the past two classes than N.C. State has the past five years. But Telep said the Wolfpack still can recruit top players.

    “Everybody’s concern with the N.C. State job is, is being that close to Duke and North Carolina too much to overcome? And I think that’s seeing too much of the negative,” Telep said. “N.C. State is a big-time program in America’s premier basketball conference with outstanding facilities, and it should be a place kids want to come play.”

    A magnetic personality

    Peterson said top coaches should be interested in N.C. State, too.

    He especially is impressed with the RBC Center, the 19,722-seat arena the Wolfpack shares with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes. Peterson said a coach must have a magnetic personality to be embraced by the fans who fill that arena.

    “You’ve got to be a really good P.R. person,” Peterson said. “You’ve got to get out in the public and everybody has to know the coach.”

    That was where Sendek failed. Though school administrators and top-dollar contributors loved the squeaky-clean program he ran, the rank-and-file fans never warmed to him.

    His five straight NCAA tournament appearances weren’t enough. Some fans didn’t like Sendek because he couldn’t win against Duke and North Carolina, but his record against the Tar Heels (5-17) wasn’t much different from Valvano’s (7-18).

    Valvano was a comedian who could sell wool sweaters to a herd of sheep. Sendek seems like he would be more comfortable conversing with physics professors than basketball fans.

    Robinson said Sendek’s move to Arizona State was probably best for everybody. He also said the N.C. State job is more attractive because of Sendek’s success.

    “I think it’s primed to be a great job again,” said Robinson, who was Sendek’s predecessor. “Herb has helped do that. I hope I helped a little. It was a long drought, but the last three or four years Herb brought it back to more than respectability.”

    `They’re passionate’

    When Robinson was a member of the Division I men’s basketball committee, helping select the field for the NCAA tournament, he became more familiar with basketball on a nationwide scale.

    Fowler is searching for a coach who shares Robinson’s conviction, but it might not be easy. Coaches have long expressed disgust at the way N.C. State’s fans treated Sendek, a winner who ran a clean program.

    Even though N.C. State has a winning tradition and impressive facilities, that sentiment in the coaching ranks — and the NCAA champion programs down the road — are working against Fowler as he looks to replace Sendek.

  9. jncope 04/09/2006 at 9:37 PM #

    What a great article. Monday’s sports page in the N & O should be buried at the RBC Center in a time capsule and dug up decades from now when people will laugh at the some of the idiots in the national sports media who failed to recognize the re-awakening of a sleeping giant in Raleigh, NC.

  10. NCStateDude92 04/09/2006 at 9:40 PM #

    outstanding article. very well put

  11. GrandWolf 04/09/2006 at 9:51 PM #

    Caulton Tudor has succinctly summed up exactly why NC State fans/alum have every right to connect the future w/ the past.

    Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Kudo’s on a great article.

  12. GoldenChain 04/09/2006 at 9:59 PM #

    Doyel, Tysiac, Geminski, Bilas, Mark Packer, etc are completely clueless in this matter.
    They say no one will come because a) everyone is afraid of K & Roy b) us fans are unreasonable/unrealistic jerks although we’ve lived through 15 seasons of frustration, how did that work in CH after what? Two? c) nobody wants $2mil.
    I hope Calipari comes and that we go on a tear for years to come (it would also be OK with me if Cid grabs Hasbro by the neck and throws him against the backboard, well, in the basketball sense).

  13. graywolf 04/09/2006 at 10:05 PM #

    Bravo Carlton Tutor. I didn’t think I would ever utter those words.

  14. 70wolf 04/09/2006 at 10:06 PM #

    Actually Tudor has understood for quite a few years . I have corresponded with him several times . Here is an excerpt from a message I received from Tudor in Dec 2003 and I quote …” I (Tudor) wrote 3 different times — all in March, 01 — that State needed to make a change right then, but Chn. Fox stood solidly behind Herb. …But you can’t fire him now — unless there is just a flameout this season. He’s become Herb the Hummingbird. Impossible to corner. ” Does that sound like a guy who was lashing out at us to support Herb ???

  15. Cardiff Giant 04/09/2006 at 10:07 PM #

    ^ Doyel is clueless, but you also have to note that for reasons of his own he hates NC State and its fans. He’s not just dumb – he’s malicious.

  16. 98st8 04/09/2006 at 10:10 PM #

    When do tickets go on sale for the press conference?… it’ll be sold out

  17. cfpack03 04/09/2006 at 10:12 PM #

    Nail on the head. Now hopefully every paper and sports outlet in the nation picks this article up and plasters it on their front page.

  18. Wolfpack_34 04/09/2006 at 10:16 PM #

    THANK YOU TUDOR.

  19. Wolf-in Around 04/09/2006 at 10:17 PM #

    Tudor wrote one heck of an article…I had to read it twice because it was so well written….EXCELLENT!

  20. TNCSU 04/09/2006 at 10:21 PM #

    Finally someone knowing some history of Tobacco Road B-ball has written a great article! Here’s to Cal bringing Wolfpack B-ball where it belongs. Thanks Tudor!

  21. Micky McCarthy 04/09/2006 at 10:23 PM #

    Good article, but Tudor doesn’t know basketball NEARLY as well as Jed Clampett.

  22. TNCSU 04/09/2006 at 10:33 PM #

    I especially loved the Spurrier at South Carolina comment, and the FSU football analogy.

  23. marathonman 04/09/2006 at 10:34 PM #

    As a Wolfpack fan, it’s sometimes easy to feel “homeless” when it comes to having a true hometown newspaper that covers your athletics programs…given that the N&O claims UNC-Chapel Hill as their home team…but after a week of being unjustifiably dogged by the national media I think we all owe CT a big “thanks” for accurately describing our situation…..

  24. toph23 04/09/2006 at 10:34 PM #

    Sorry if this is old news, but ran across this at the Memphis Commercial-Appeal site, posted around 7:15 pm. Most likely the last media commentary until the morning.

  25. TNCSU 04/09/2006 at 10:42 PM #

    Interesting….esp the $2.5 incentive.

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