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.

Triangle & Wolfpack Links

 

NC State http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/technician http://d.lib.ncsu.edu/collections/catalog?_=1422050350393&f%5Bispartof_facet%5D%5B%5D=Agromeck+Yearbooks http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/scrc   Wolfpack Alum Related http://www.arielleaudio.com/ https://jenniferbringle.com/   Triangle Entertainment & Media http://raleighco.com/ http://dtraleigh.com/ https://triangleexplorer.com/ https://www.raleighagenda.com/ http://www.inboundraleigh.com/

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.

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.