The Post-Lowe Era Strategy

Good riddance

This is more of a repudiation of Lee Fowler than it is Sidney Lowe because the latter’s record in the NBA suggested that he just wasn't college coaching material. A 79-228 (.257) record is horrible at any level, and a sub-.300 record gets you passed over for most jobs worth anything. Obviously, Fowler missed that sign. Furthermore, the fact that he embarrassed the NC State name with way handled the coaching search was bad enough, but knowing that the one guy--Sean Miller--who actually wanted to come to Raleigh never received a phone call JUST INFURIATES ME TO NO END! As a result, those are five years that we will never get back especially now that Miller is married and is committed to rebuilding Arizona.

When Lowe was being described as the NC State version of Matt Doherty less than midway throughout Season 2, I didn’t want to believe it. When the team tuned him out like it did at Cameron last month when it scored fewer points in the entire game than Duke did in the first half that was the ultimate sign that Sidney would be tagged with that dubious tag. He may get another gig at the NBA as an assistant coach, but he is damaged goods when it comes to being head coach.

What’s needed

Debbie Yow is doing the right thing in closing off the coaching search to the media. Anybody wanting stuff leaked should be stomped out of town. In addition to having someone who’ll take challenging Duke and UNC seriously, we cannot have coaches like Bruce Pearl and John Calipari because…the local daily clearly hates us and the weekly is little better (read Bob Geary’s post on State basketball following the team’s awful showing in Greensboro to get my point). People say things go in cycles but the relationship between Wolfpack Nation and the N&O is irreparable.

We need to adopt an “us against the world” attitude since Duke and Carolina have their allies lined up in the press so when we get back to the top, we can ignore them and the national media. It worked for the Pistons in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and it can work for us since all everybody seems to do is kiss up to the schools in blue.