While everyone is focused (but fading) on the Wolfpack’s coaching search, the free time has created opportunities for some people to research specific potential candidates for the job.
We haven’t talked very much about Dereck Whittenburg, but we will spending a little more time on him soon.
While you wait on us, we thought that we would share a fun quote that came to us during some surfing. It was the Quote Of The Week from College Hoops Net a couple of years ago; and it is quite a departure from the embarassing out of conference philosophy with which Wolfpackers have had to swallow over the last decade. (See analysis)
Wagner head coach Dereck Whittenburg after his team’s strong showing in a 97-85 loss at #11 UConn:
“They had no reason to get up for us,� said Whittenburg. “They have a great team, they’ve played other teams in our league. I hope that they would respect us now.
I would love to get a Big East team to come to Wagner and play, and let’s see. Everybody who looked at the schedule said ‘Coach, you’re crazy. Why are you playing Connecticut?’ Well, I really believe we had a chance. And that’s why everybody who sat in the stands were very quiet, and they thought ‘Well, this is another Saturday night blowout for the Connecticut people.’
But our kids don’t think that…and I’m really proud of them, because we had a chance tonight. We just played against an opponent that’s bigger and stronger and are probably going to be in the Final Four later on in the year. But I would love to invite any Big East team – you guys can write that – to come to Wagner and play us any time, any day.â€?
