We had a quite a weekend of despair on the gridiron, so we ask that you spend time scrolling through some of our football entries on your own without a lot of linking from us. We’ll get back to a lot more commentary on the Pack’s spiraling season later in the day. But, while hope still springs eternal for the Pack we thought that we would hit some items that you may have not seen yet.
Julius Mays
One of our most popular single-day entries in quite a while was our entry regarding the Julius Mays commitment linked here. Many of the comments shared in that entry are as good or better than the entry itself and you really should read through them if you haven’t.
The unique twist to analyzing Mays’ commitment is that we just don’t know that much about him and his talent yet to make any kind of accurate conclusions. If Mays ends up a Top 50 national player and one of the 10 best point guards in America then the staff has obviously hit a grand slam with an extremely early assessment of a talented player. If Mays ends up as one of the Top 200 players in America as a “combo” guard then his fit on the roster is a little more perplexing in light of existing players in the program and the enormous success that Coach Lowe‘s staff is having gaining access and interest with the most talented high school players in America.
Coach Lowe Article
The Durham Herald Sun had a nice article on NC State Basketball and Coach Lowe last week that we didn’t discuss. (Link to article) There is nothing there that you haven’t seen before but it is worth a quick link.
For sure, Lowe is going to ask for your patience, and it would be thoughtful and maybe rewarding if you gave it to him. Consider his situation for a minute.
He directed Jim Valvano’s 1983 NCAA championship team as a point guard who’d value the ball, distribute it to the right teammates, usually at the exact time for a high-percentage shot. Lowe would stare down defenders and dare them to get close and then, with the quickness of a cheetah, he’d whip a pass to the waiting hands of Thurl Bailey. Then, as Lowe would sometimes do, he’d wink over at Valvano who’d rub his dark eyebrows as if, well yeah, that was the right thing to do, Sidney.
If it hasn’t already happened to Lowe, it will — and that’s the day he’ll be catching a flight from Raleigh-Durham International and either Mike Krzyzewski or Roy Williams, or maybe both, will be there, too.
The territory is cluttered with national titles and Lowe knows it.
“We’re going to get it where it needs to be,” Lowe said, drawing on the coachspeak you’d expect from a man who will be an underdog more times than he’d like. “We might have to make some adjustments.”
Pearl’s Personality
ESPN ran a very interesting article that you will enjoy focused on Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl –
Pearl’s Personality as bright as his sports coat
After years of dreadful dullness, the SEC has transformed into the most charisma-laden league in America — without any help from the flagship program, Kentucky.
Please don’t ever mis-read any of our comments about other coaches as complaint/indictments on the hiring of Sidney Lowe. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, Pearl represents one of those awesome options that would have been available to NC State had Lee Fowler ever taken charge of State’s basketball program so we like to follow him (for numerous reasons).
For the record, we aren’t just looking back at Pearl with the use of hindsight now that he is successful at UT. Take a look at our entry from March 30, 2005 when he was hired and before he ever coached a game. Identifying up-and-coming coaching talent really isn’t that hard…even for the lunatic fringe who don’t “know basketball”.
Again, really good article on ESPN that you will enjoy.
Best Games of the Year
College Basketball junkies will likely take the games discussed in this article and drop them into their calendars for viewing during the year.
Give Sendek Some Time Follow-up
We were so busy last week that this entry got a little lost in the midst of all of our work. We wanted to re-link it because it was related to basketball but also because the conversation that was had inthe comments was fantastic and accurately articulated some people’s opinions that are often mis-represented on the internet. It’s definitely worth some reading.
Red / White Game
The following is some video from last week’s Red / White game. (Link to related comments about the scheduling of the R/W game.)
