Say it isn’t so…Sendek on the hot seat?

10-11 Basketball Coaches College Basketball Media49

I couldn’t believe my eyes when someone posted this link on our message boards, but apparently someone in the media is actually following Herb Sendek’s results at Arizona St. With the constant shots taken at NC State by our broadcast partners at ESPN and Raycom(specifically Mike Patrick, Mike Gminski, Tim Brando, and Len Elmore), then we have to point out that some professionals covering college basketball actually do their homework and portray issues accurately. Shocker…I know.

From Eye on College Basketball:

Today, I’m going to single out two coaches from each of the Power Six conferences who are likely on their way out after the season. Before I do that, I want to congratulate the nation’s Athletic Directors for not firing anybody mid-season this year. After watching programs like DePaul and UNC-Wilmington struggle to find new leaders after firing coaches in January, perhaps the notion that it’s better to finish the season before handling your business is taking root again.

Now, on to our Power Six Pink Slip Pairings:

ACC: NC State’s Sidney Lowe (2-7 in conference) and Georgia Tech’s Paul Hewitt (3-6)

Pac-10: Oregon State’s Craig Robinson (4-7) and Arizona State’s Herb Sendek (1-10)

What? That can’t be possible. We have the constant stream of national media pundits like Mike Decourcy making appearances on local talk radio telling us that somehow Sidney Lowe’s performance at NC State proves that NC State fans were wrong about Herb Sendek. I can never understand how another coach’s results prove anything about Herb Sendek. Especially, when the media guys wouldn’t let us use the results of Everette Case, Norm Sloan and Jim Valvano as reasons we weren’t 100% satisfied with Sendek.

Maybe someone should let Arizona St and their fans know that Sidney Lowe is going to fired after this season and that means that Sendek is actually doing a great job at Arizona St. Seriously, 1-10 in your conference is a good season(more on that later).

Here is a tweet from Mike Decourcy to one of his buddies in the media Seth Davis(Duke graduate) on what appears to be 12/12/2010:

Reading through @SethDavisHoops mailbag, love that 5 yrs later so many NC State fans refuse to admit they were flat wrong on Herb Sendek.

Really Mike? Do you even follow Herb Sendek since he went to ASU? 1-10 after 5 years of rebuilding?

If anyone else hasn’t noticed, then Sendek currently sits at 9-14 and in dead last in the Pac-10 at 1-10. Sendek did have a single NCAA appearance in his 3rd year after hiring the high school coach of top 3 NBA pick James Harden, but the program has gone backwards since. Sendek will not be fired this year, but another year or two of missing the NCAA tournament will certainly make his seat very hot.

Here is a comment from Seth Davis about 2 months ago:

I am rooting like heck for Sidney Lowe to get it going at N.C. State, but with the Wolfpack off to a shaky 4-3 start — and to be fair, they’re without their best big man, Tracy Smith, right now — you have to wonder if there are a few reasonable N.C. State fans who appreciate how wrong it was to run Herb Sendek out of town. Sendek could have kept his job because the administration was backing him, but he chose to bolt four years ago for Arizona State, where he has led a revival. I always cite Sendek as a great example of a coach who fired his fans.

Seth, can you please update us on that revival going on in Tempe? Thanks in advance.

When will the national pundits like Decourcy and Seth Davis and our broadcast partners at ESPN and Raycom like the G-Man, Brando, Patrick and Elmore finally give their readers/viewers an accurate picture of the Sendek issue that they still can’t seem to let go 5 years removed from Herb choosing to leave NC State. That doesn’t seem like too much to ask considering they get paid to cover college basketball and/or partner with the ACC to promote the schools in the conference.

Why is a discussion of Sendek’s results at Arizona St avoided by these guys?

The obvious answer is because Sendek’s results prove they were all wrong about Sendek’s abilities as a program changing type of coach. They should have let the issue die a long time ago, but for whatever reason they just can’t let it go. We now have almost 5 years of additional data to form opinions in this debate, so I challenge Davis, Decourcy, Patrick, the G-Man, etc…all to put together a column on how Herb’s results at Arizona St. prove that NC State fans were wrong about Herb Sendek. No mention of Sidney Lowe’s results are allowed because Sidney’s results have absolutely no relevance to proving Sendek’s abilities as a coach.

To give two of our local radio guys credit, Joe Ovies and Adam Gold have been doing a great job sharing their perspective on the Sendek issue, the upcoming NC State coaching search, etc…Honestly, I have become a huge fan of their radio show from 3-6 pm on weekdays. Gold wrote an excellent column on this exact topic after Mike Patrick blatantly lied about this issue:

With a table under the heading “last 2 head coaches, NC State Wolfpack” the ESPN crew detailed the last five years of the Herb Sendek era vs. the current 5-year Sidney Lowe regime. I don’t have to list off all the numbers because we all know what the numbers say. In fact, the numbers scream that the program was more successful under the last five seasons of Sendek’s tenure than Lowe’s first five. We all know Sendek took the Wolfpack to five straight NCAA tournaments while Sidney Lowe has watched the last five in a row. We all know that the program is not what it needs to be today even though it appeared to be on better footing five years ago.

But, we also know that while Sendek was just south of popular in Raleigh — okay think Antarctica — he wasn’t forced out in favor of the “tremendously popular Sidney Lowe”, as ESPN’s Mike Patrick tried to tell us. That is the living, breathing definition of intellectual dishonesty. Yes, Sendek was not the apple of Wolfpack fans’ eye, yes they created an atmosphere that was uncomfortable for him and his family in spite of the recent success and yes that atmosphere pushed him to seek and accept the first halfway decent sounding coaching job in the sport. But, the choice was never, at any time, between Herb Sendek and Sidney Lowe.

Here are some questions the members of the media could ask and provide us some of their own insight:

What is going on at Arizona St. now that a great coach like Herb Sendek hasn’t continued the success he had at NC State? Why was he able to get the program going so quickly, but wasn’t able to sustain the success he achieved in his third season since he has now had 5 years to rebuild the program? What obstacles is he facing at Arizona St. that are so difficult to overcome considering he was able to escape the two biggest obstacles in the world of sports – being located near UNC-CH and Duke? What is the outlook for the ASU program over the next few years? Is it going to get better?

Here is a quote from Sendek soon after he left NC State in one of Davis’ articles(sorry Seth, I can’t find a link):

Says Sendek, “It’s a tough street corner. North Carolina won the championship two years ago, Duke was ranked No. 1 in the country for most of last season, and North Carolina will probably be No. 1 at the beginning of next season. Our fans want to do favorably well against those schools. It’s just part of the territory.”

How is that street corner in Tempe working out for you, Herb?

As I said in this column less than a month ago before Sendek lost 7 consecutive Pac-10 games:

All of this proves that location relative to other top basketball programs has very little to do with your actual success as a basketball coach. If it is a factor at all(I would argue that it isn’t), then it is at best very minor. NC State’s location in one of the fastest growing metro areas in the country and one of the highest rated places to live in the entire country is actually a huge asset to an NC State basketball coach. Essentially, NC State’s location was one of the reasons Sendek made the now famous 5 straight NCAA tournaments at NC State. He had Raleigh to sell when convincing the players that made up those teams to choose NC State. Not to mention that Raleigh is drivable from almost any area on the east coast that an NC State coach would recruit. Sendek now has those factors working against him at ASU. Not that ASU isn’t in a great area, but the distances to potential recruiting territories are great….

…However, I wonder if eventually someone in the media will finally make the point that just maybe Sendek should want his job back at NC State. Or at least at a program with the resources to win that exist at NC State. He is certainly available and there are certainly better jobs with bigger opportunities in better locations. Yet, nobody has even attempted to pluck Sendek from the desert.

10-11 Basketball Coaches College Basketball Media

49 Responses to Say it isn’t so…Sendek on the hot seat?

  1. JT 02/08/2011 at 12:41 PM #

    Gold’s article was spot on. The national media almost always misses the nuances that speak the real truth. I remain baffled by the belief that Sendek was more than a decent coach- I think he underachieved as a recruiter/ coach/ politician (with the fan community) his entire career at State. I still think back to my UNC friends telling me they never wanted Sendek fired- that tells it all.

  2. hoop 02/08/2011 at 12:43 PM #

    Sendek is the only man in history who went to the desert to get out of the heat.

  3. Daily Update 02/08/2011 at 12:45 PM #

    Sendek was a much better coach than Sidney Lowe. That is clear. Sendek did a lot better with the resources NC State provides a coach than Lowe.

    However, Sendek not being able to overcome the lack of resources at ASU shows that we were right about not being satisfied with his results at State. If Sendek were truly a program changing type of coach, then he would by year 5 have ASU as a fairly consistent NCAA team.

    There are a lot of coaches(mid-majors) that can get Sendekian results at NC State. Herb isn’t a coach a program cannot survive without.

  4. one00_proof 02/08/2011 at 1:04 PM #

    We probably will never see justice until Sendek is fired from Tempe and even then, it will probably come from a local media outlet. It’ll be interesting to see how the national media will handle it because they will have it shoved down their throats.

  5. LRM 02/08/2011 at 1:23 PM #

    The point is always missed: just because Sidney Lowe was the wrong hire doesn’t mean Sendek was the right coach for us.

  6. anonimus 02/08/2011 at 1:29 PM #

    I’m sure NC State fans and supporters will somehow be blamed for Sendek’s lack of success (and possible firing) at ASU. Facts mean nothing to these brain dead spin doctors.

  7. bradleyb123 02/08/2011 at 1:31 PM #

    The point is always missed: just because Sidney Lowe was the wrong hire doesn’t mean Sendek was the right coach for us.

    This is absolutely right!

    The decisions (letting Herb walk, and hiring Sidney to replace him) were TWO distinct decisions. Not one WRONG decision.

  8. WolftownVA81 02/08/2011 at 1:37 PM #

    How is it the NCSU fans get the bad rap in all this instead of the person who was actually in charge of the program? Have you ever heard the name LF mentioned by one of the National media pundits in conjunction with how bad the coaching search was which is why we ended up with Lowe in the first place? It sure is easy to blame the one group who had the least to do with the results on the court or the running of the program.

  9. packalum44 02/08/2011 at 1:48 PM #

    Don’t expect much critical thinking from journalists – they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. Guess that’s why they start out at 20K per year, if they have a masters degree. (No I’m not exaggerating)

    I work with alot of people who make me go, “Wow, that guy/gal is sharp!” How many “wow” moments have you experienced with a journalist? My only “wows” come from reading this blog.

  10. packplantpath 02/08/2011 at 1:51 PM #

    http://herbsendek.com/sendek/

    🙂

  11. blackdom 02/08/2011 at 2:02 PM #

    Well was not a fan of Herbs either,so this is no suprise. As bad as Herb is or was he is still a better coach than Sid.

  12. Prowling Woofie 02/08/2011 at 2:20 PM #

    ^ Wow – did Herb’s mom write that bio ???

    And the statement about Herb having the second-most ACC victories over his last five years (behind Coach K) is a lie… Herb had 46, Gary Williams had 48. I didn’t even check any of the other coaches’ records.

  13. Texpack 02/08/2011 at 2:27 PM #

    If the media were honest about the situation when Herb left, I really wouldn’t care about his results at ASU. He realized that what he thought was acceptable and what the fans thought was acceptable were too far apart and chose going to ASU as his remedy. (I think its really unfortunate anytime people take shots at someone’s spouse or kids in this that type of situation if that really happened.)

    I’ve had employees quit for multiple reasons over the years and I’ve always believed that if somebody is unhappy enough to initiate a job search or if they get that fantastic offer out of the blue, leaving is the best thing they can do.

    I think the Sendek myth has been perpetuated by those who want to devalue the State job because they know that the only school in the ACC with the tradition, fan base, and resources to compete with Duke and UNC-CH on a regular basis is NC State.

  14. ushum 02/08/2011 at 2:55 PM #

    boom goes the dynamite…

  15. Rochester 02/08/2011 at 4:01 PM #

    Where is Gregg Doyel on the media blowhard poll?

  16. Lunatic Fringe 02/08/2011 at 4:15 PM #

    I still do not believe Sendek is on the Hot Seat since that would mean that the ASU fans actually care about the status of their basketball team. They are the Georgia Tech basketball fans of the PAC 10 in that regard.

    A general comment for anyone reading that wonders why NC State fans will not “let the Sendek issue die” simply has to read the comments in the original posting and listen to Mike Patrick for about 5-minutes during an NC State game to realize it is NOT the fans. We will let it go when they do, which I expect them to do very soon now that Sendek has leveled off at ASU.

    One final note – for better or worse NC State fans are consistent. NC State fans were also vocal about the release of Amato, Les, and O’Cain when it was clear they were not getting the job done. The difference is that Seth Davis, Mike Patrick, and such feel we wronged a coach they like.

  17. Hamlet 02/08/2011 at 4:19 PM #

    I might have been wrong about Herb. I thought that he was a slightly above average coach when he left for ASU, not what we should expect at NCSU. It is beginning to look like he is average, at best.

    As was pointed out on this blog a few weeks ago: It appears that NC State made Herb Sendek a moderate success, not the other way around. Leaving for ASU was probably the worst career move the guy could have made because he obviously is not the kind of coach that can build that program into anything substantial.

    I suppose all those other big time D-I programs just didn’t see the coaching ‘prowess’ of Herb that those enlightened ones in the media saw.

  18. MattN 02/08/2011 at 4:30 PM #

    Are the usual suspects saying ANYTHING about Wake and Gaudio???

  19. runwiththepack 02/08/2011 at 4:41 PM #

    Texpack says: “I think the Sendek myth has been perpetuated by those who want to devalue the State job….”

    You could well be on something there, Texpack. It’s the same UNC-CH marketing campaign that results in those same commentators also saying what a beautiful campus Chapel Hill has. Haven’t we heard that a million times? Says who, besides the Chapel Hill clique?

    Can you think of any other college program that somehow arranges for the commentators that cover their games to repeat, ad nauseum, how beautiful their campus is? Sure, it’s probably a very nice campus. After all, it is a bastion for the privileged ruling elite in NC, so one would expect that they would have a lot of our $$ they robbed from the rest of the state to spiff up their campus.

    That’s what the commentators say about the same time they also say what a squeeky-clean athletics program they have. The level of self-promotion and influence over the media is peculiar, and would make for an interesting study.

    Thank you again and again, Dave Glenn and Adam Gold, for providing an accurate perspective (only a little is needed) on the strange national sports media luv-fest for Sendek. The commentators were apparently put up to it, probably by our “sister” school backstabbers.

    I used to wish Sendek well after he left. But since I love NCSU, I can no longer do so because any Sendek success, as modest as it may be, is somehow used by these creeps to smear NCSU.

  20. packbackr04 02/08/2011 at 4:49 PM #

    the “sendek Myth” was perpetuated by our own AD for YEARS!

  21. rtpack24 02/08/2011 at 5:00 PM #

    The chart that ESPN should have used if they were going to compare Sid and Herb should have been each coach’s first 5yrs which Herb went to the NCAA tourn. exactly 0 times. He never made the tourn until he hired Larry Hunter. Not that any of this has anything to do with our current situation. It does show how bias and slanted the national media is to NC State.

  22. DT44 02/08/2011 at 5:09 PM #

    excellent points by all….the most amazing thing about our whole situation is that the true villain, Fowler, is forgotten or ignored by the national geniuses. Had we been able to hire even a reasonably experienced, competent coach instead of the disastrous Lowe experiment, our results these last five years almost certainly would have been markedly better—and Herb Sendek would be a footnote to history, hardly mentioned or commented upon outside of Tempe AZ.

  23. Daily Update 02/08/2011 at 5:10 PM #

    ^rtpack: Great point. And with the media usually painting things in a positive light during broadcasts(Butch overcame adversity), then why aren’t Patrick and his boys sticking up for an ACC legend and imploring us to bring him back for a 6th season to finish what he started? The experience with Herb suggests he is on the right track and he has his recruits here a year earlier than Herb.

  24. StateFans 02/08/2011 at 5:23 PM #

    Last 15 years in BCS jobs Sendek will have advanced to 6 NCAA Tournaments.

  25. RedandWhite97 02/08/2011 at 5:33 PM #

    Does this sound familiar (from Devilsdigest.com forums):

    “IMHO, nearly every player who plays for Coach Sendek acts like a beat dog with his head down and tail between his legs. They seem like they are so afraid to make a mistake and get yanked and benched that they all end up playing so deliberate and mechanical without any natural flow as a team. The games are droll, and mostly boring.

    However, in the game against Stanford, Coach Sendek was FORCED to play Felix and he shined. It almost seemed like Felix knew he could play a little more of his game due to the lack of players behind him so he opened up his bag of tricks and played more of his game. Sendek was also forced to use Creekmur a bit more in the rotation and he played pretty well, too. When McMillan was hurt earlier in the year, he was forced to play Jackson & Dunson and they both delivered at times until Sendek tightened the screws down. Signs of life shimmered from time to time all to be quashed by a quick yank on the short leash and back to the bench.

    I don’t think ASU’s problem is a huge lack of talent(albeit needs improving), it is becoming clear to me and others that it is more about the coaching and lack of developing the players. Recruiting has been a challenge as has simply keeping players from transferring. There have definitely been disgruntled players in regards to the system who have left (Rudd, Walker, etc) and I expect we shall see one or two more leave at the end of the season.”

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