Dear Readers,

You probably heard the sneering, the invective, and the breathtaking conceit through late spring and on into the summer. How could you have avoided it? As NC State Athletics Director Lee Fowler led a national search to replace head men’s basketball Coach Herb Sendek, the NC State fan base was subjected to near daily tongue lashings from members of the mainstream press. Their charge: Wolfpack fans – a consortium of unrealistic fanatics – had conspired to push out one of the greatest basketball minds in the entire country.


“They had a great basketball coach,” Gregg Doyel, a columnist for CBSSportsline.com wrote in April. “Maybe that’s all they had, but that should have been enough.”


Contra Doyel, while at NC State Herb Sendek compiled one of the most thoroughly mediocre records of any basketball coach in our history. At a school with 10 ACC Championships and 2 national titles, Sendek never led the Wolfpack to an ACC Championship or past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament, while his record against rivals Duke and UNC-CH was an abysmal 8-38.


Criticism of Sendek on the last point was incomprehensible to nationally syndicated sports radio talk show host Jim Rome. How, Rome asked, could NC State fans expect to beat Duke and UNC-CH? NC State ought to know its place and stay there, dutifully playing the role of humble footstool to its Triangle neighbors.

With the resources NC State has, this university should be footstool to no others in the state or in the country.

Let it be said clearly to the Class of 2010: You are about to embark on an academic journey at one of the best schools in the country – a university with a rich academic and athletic tradition. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.


James R. Lawrence, III

0 Comments