Cardiac Pack 2.0

I'm forever grateful that the Wolfpack men's basketball team turned it around when it was almost a certainty that a coaching change was inevitable prior to the start of the ACC Tournament in D.C. While I treated the Final Four run as an extremely pleasant surprise, I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a new era of success.

A pattern of the team's three ACC Championships in the multi-bid era (from 1975 on):

Every postseason game that the Original Cardiac Pack played in except the Sweet 16 against 10-seed Utah was a nail-biter.

The previous team to win an ACC title won every game in that tournament by single digits.

Most of this year's ACCT games as well as a couple of NCAAT games were close too.

Meanwhile, notice a glaring difference between the '24 team against the other two championship teams:

Can anyone say unprecedented?

No one gave this year's team much love whereas the '83 team was hampered by Dereck Whittenburg's injury before Cardiac Pack 1.0 went on that Cinderella run once he returned from his injury. The '87 team started the season as an NCAA Tournament caliber team before it fell off in the middle of the season and had to rally in Metro D.C. just to get into the Big Dance.

For the second time in a six-year span, Debbie Yow had to find a new basketball coach because if she hadn't, Mark Gottfried would have become Herb Sendek 2.0 with half of the fanbase calling for his head and the other half rallying behind him. Two bad seasons followed four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament. In reality, Gottfried had three disappointing seasons because in Year 2, the Wolfpack were picked to win the ACC, but the team wound up playing the first day of the ACC Tournament and flamed out against eventual champion Miami in the semis. It's pathetic that football schools and Virginia were able to win four straight conference titles while this program is still looking for our first conference title since 1987.

Kevin Keatts needs to realize that Sweet 16s won't cut it any more. This program wants regular season titles, ACC titles, and to be in the mix for the Final Four from this point out. After all, FSU, Miami,Virginia, and Notre Dame were able to do at least one or two of the aforementioned. If Keatts doesn't get the job done, then, apathy will reign supreme. After all, the University of San Francisco also has two national titles but has been insignificant ever since Bill Russell left.

Gottfried wasn't alone in helping this program underachieve. C.J. Leslie was exposed for what he really was: being selfish. He was so much of a problem his freshman year that Sidney Lowe suspended him at Duke and benched him in what would be the ex-coach's last game at the 2011 ACC tourney. Gott tried to work with the dude but C.J. was too problematic in the end.

Rodney Purvis is someone who I wish nothing but ill for because of how ungrateful he turned out to be. He was the hometown player who was supposed to lead State back to the promised land but cut and ran to UConn after his freshman season.

Secession Olympics

Political and cultural schisms seem to be the rage. Belgium set a record for political instability when it couldn't form a government for 536 days between 2010 and 2011 due to rifts between French-speaking Wallonia and Flemish-speaking Flanders. Closer to home, Quebec may or may not hold yet another secession referendum over the next 5-10 years. And there's America with its blue states vs. red states narrative. Given that Scotland is set to vote on secession from the United Kingdom next Thursday, I'll take a look at how these secession movements could affect sports.

U.S.

Here in this country, the rift between so-called blue and red states has widened. If tensions make unity impossible, then the following will happen:

• American dominance in the Summer Olympics would come to an end as China would take over. Meanwhile, the Blue and Red Zones could spend more time trying to one up each other and rooting against their ideological opposites
• Based on how many conservatives railed against the World Cup 2-3 months ago amid the possibility of the United States embracing soccer on a wider scale, the Red Zone would not field a competitive men's team on the worldwide scale and would only play a spoiler role in terms of World Cup qualifying, but, it would field a very viable women's team due to the strength of certain colleges. The Blue Zone would field very competitive men's and women's teams and the latter would create quite the rivalry for the Women's World Cup
• The NBA, NFL, and MLB could either split up into separate Red and Blue Zone Leagues or remain as is
• The NCAA would remain in the Red Zone, creating a mess for all of the colleges who field major sports teams. Bowl games and the NCAA basketball tournament could get very dicey every December and March

 

UK

The nation has for decades fielded four separate national teams for non-Olympic competition. When it comes to the Olympics, Scottish secession could be quite big. When the Summer Olympics were in London two years ago, Scotland claimed 13 of Britain's 65 total medals (20%). Earlier this year in Sochi, the Scots won half of Great Britain's four medals. Speaking of the Winter Games, all of the curlers hail from Scotland, so future British teams may not even qualify for the Olympics.

The Open Championship would no longer have the fabled St. Andrews golf course

Canada

The Great White North has its own problems with secession brewing. An independent Quebec could quite possibly spell the end of Canada because Ontario isn't connected to any of the Atlantic provinces. Out west, some or all four of the provinces could either form their own independent nation, remain with the other English-speaking provinces and territories, or join the U.S. The Atlantic provinces would most likely have to join the U.S. since they'd be too small to make it on their own.

The dissolution of Canada would mean the following for its sports:

• All of the federal government's efforts to make Canada more competitive in international sports would evaporate overnight
• The tension between Quebec and what's left of English-speaking Canada would run deep in the Winter Olympics--especially in hockey and curling
• Speaking of hockey, the NHL would basically become an American league or splinter off into separate American, Quebec, and Canadian leagues. There would be multiple new leagues depending on how deep the split is following Quebec's departure from the Dominion. The hockey leagues would be so distinct that the Stanley Cup may revert back to its original position of a competition between the champions from each league
• There's a chance that an English-only Canada could still field a competitive soccer teams on both the men's and women's sides, but if the English provinces and territories are too splintered, there's no chance on the men's side. Quebec wouldn't field a competitive team at all

Continental Europe

Spain's government is threating to block a referendum Catalonians are holding November 9. The secession effort is a threat to the Spanish state because if there's an independent Catalonia, then the Basques will be next ones to ask for independence. Barcelona--currently Spain's largest city--is in Catalonia. The breakup would be a potentially devastating blow not only to the Spanish state but also to soccer as La Liga would lose two of its money making teams.

The breakups of Spain and Belgium could result in more soccer leagues and Olympic teams because other nations could then follow. This map on Europe is a mark of what the most radical secessions could do.

The latest ACC news

The ACC backed away from a plan to add a ninth conference game in football in exchange for its teams to play at least one major nonconference game against a power conference--including Notre Dame. If the playoff committee holds this against the league in the event that the ACC champ is tied with a school from another conference that didn't play for or win its league crown, blame your own ADs, John Swofford.

On the basketball front, the ACC Tournament is being moved up a day so that the championship will be played Saturday night instead of Sunday afternoon. This move has everything with the ACC wanting to push the Big East out of Madison Square Garden so that it can hold its tournament there because Brooklyn (2017 & 2018) is nothing more than a consolation prize. Anybody with half a brain needs to realize that the ACC has not given up on the ultimate prize that is Manhattan.

Back to the NCAA tourney

The Wolfpack are going dancing for the first time since 2006--Herb Sendek's final season in Raleigh. As it turned out, we were the last name to be announced...talk about cutting it close.

This is the second time in the at-large era that a first-year NC State coach has been able to get the Pack into the NCAAs. Mark Gottfried is the first on to do it since Les Robinson got Jim Valvano's leftovers in 1991 to the Round of 32.

It would have been significantly better if those crooked refs hadn't decided to play the judge, jury, and executioner roles in yesterday's game.

Anyways, this is a checklist for Wolfpack Nation:
1. Return to the NCAA Tournament. Check
2. Return to being a Top 25 team with consistency
3. Win an 11th ACC Tournament title. It's coming next year--a year late
4. Consistently compete for and win regular season and conference titles
5. Be a consistent Sweet 16/Elite Eight team
6. Be ranked #1 in the polls
7. Return to being a Final Four caliber team
8. Win another national championship (among many, that is)

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.

Finally

Sidney Lowe is out as Wolfpack head coach. Press conference to follow.

From Jared Brooks, producer of the David Glenn Show

• There were no traffic issues at the RBC Center Wednesday night
• The arena was 2/3 empty three minutes into the game
• Fans booed over the team's lack of rebounding

Given the apathy these days in Raleigh, it's only a matter of time...

After the Wolfpack's 92-78 loss to Duke, the only thing that needs to be said is that Sidney Lowe had better find a way to go 11-5 in the conference or otherwise win the ACC title because if he doesn't, he will be out of a job come March 14. Ten wins will not cut it (just ask Virginia Tech, who were sent packing to the NIT last March despite a 10-6 ACC record) because this team has no quality wins.