This week has been quite a whirlwind for NC State’s Basketball program.
Heading into the week the program had been told that Chris Wright was going to announce his selection for NC State on Tuesday. Between Monday night and Wednesday – Wright had changed his mind, Andrew Brackman’s decision to play baseball became public, and Sidney Lowe’s first media day didn’t go quite as flawlessly as it should have.
But, even before JJ Hickson committed to the Pack on Thursday others were starting to take notice of, and buy into, a new feeling inside of NC State Basketball.
Check out this blog entry from the Fayetteville Observer written after media day.
As bad as things might seem for State in the short-term, I came away from new coach Sidney Lowe’s media day press conference yesterday with an amazingly positive feeling about the future of the Wolfpack program. It’s going to take awhile, perhaps a few years. But with a little patience and A LOT of recruiting, the potential is there for State to finally get to where it wants to be. That is, the equal of UNC and Duke. Or, at least, in the same ballpark with them.
The reason for my optimisim is Lowe. While the book is still out on his coaching ability, his personality and motivation are off the charts. In just 10 minutes, he set the bar higher than Herb Sendek did in 10 years by specifically stating that beating UNC and Duke were among the Wolfpack’s top priorities. And making it a point to show his national championship ring to his players, he is making a statement that State will no longer be happy just to make it to the tournament every year and the Sweet 16 every now and then.
That’s not to say Lowe is going to lead the Wolfpack to a national championship anytime soon. But if you don’t set goals, you’re never going to reach them. Now, at the very least, the N.C. State basketball program finally has some lofty goals.
It is nice to see some ‘outsiders’ acknowledging the absence of ambitious goals in the past after all of the arguments that WolfpackNation waged with ourselves in recent years. It would have been even nicer if some of the media would have recognized before sixteen years slipped away. But, credit must go to Caulton Tudor for penning one of the best essays on this topic even while Herb Sendek was still employed at NC State. ( Key link available by clicking here.)
