Just yesterday the N&O ran a Q&A with Tom O’Brien so today’s article focused on Elliot Avent in Technician fits nicely into the week.
Avent has coached at NC State for 12 years and “has compiled 443 victories, second-most in Pack history.” Whenever the media talks in total number of wins and not winning percentage I always get a little nervous. Remember how Herb Sendek had the second most number of ACC wins of any NC State coach? Of course, he had the second to worst ACC winning percentage. Thank God for Les Robinson and Todd Turner, eh?
This year’s Wolfpack baseball team seems to be coming together nicely against a really tough schedule. Hopefully this team can end coach Avent’s drought and finally earn Avent and NC State a conference championship and/or Avent’s first berth to the College World Series.
After returning to State, he took his first three teams to the NCAA Tournament before suffering through a three-year drought, which he said had to do with some recruiting gambles and “bad luck” of recruits being high draft picks. He said it just gave the program a chance, though, to rebound as it has with five straight NCAA appearances starting in 2003.
^ Translation, “Avent struggled on his own after riding the coat-tails of Ray Tanner’s players and legacy and now the program has rebounded to a nice equilibrium of consistently reaching the minimum standard of NCAA tournament appearances.”
I was a little surprised that the article didn’t make mention of the impact of the millions of dollars that have been spent at Doak Field to help show our support of Coach Avent and help elevate State’s program. Hopefully those improvements will serve their desired purpose and help the Wolfpack host a regional in the NCAA Tournament this year.
