Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Dead Coach Walking? Sidney Lowe Takes His NC State Team To Some Graves

There seems to be some rumblings on Tobacco Road as to the job status of NC State head coach Sidney Lowe. At press time the Wolfpack are 12-7 overall, 2-3 in the ACC.

Pack fans felt this was the team to emerge out of the "red-headed step child" role NC State is mired in with the success of Duke and North Carolina in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill triangle. It just hasn't happened.

This isn't entirely Sidney Lowe's fault. NC State's roster is full of talented freshman and the best thing about freshman is that they become sophomores. (Or NBA millionaires in the one and done era.) Then the Pack's best player Tracy Smith missed several games following knee surgery.

The point is many thought NC State would be further along than they are this season.

Recently NC State celebrated the 100th year of men's basketball and this is where Sidney Lowe got creative. Lowe took his players to the grave sites of former NC State head coaches Everett Case, who established NC State as a national power when the ACC began in 1953, Jim Valvano, who won a national championship in 1983, and took the players to visit with Joan Sloan, whose husband Norm Sloan won a national championship with NC State in 1974.

"They need to know these three men," Lowe told the Raleigh News Observer. "Any time they talk about N.C. State basketball, those three men should be mentioned. These kids really got a taste of who these coaches were."

Great move by Lowe, I'm sure this adventure brought home to the players that at one time NC State was a major player in the ACC and competed for NCAA championships. It's just been almost 30 years.

We here at the OSG HQ can't help but think if things continue to be mediocre Sidney Lowe's NC State tenure might be dead and buried.

Photo Courtesy: Ethan Hyman/Raleigh News Observer

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lo Must Go! Lo Must Go! Lo Must Go!