Sidney Lowe is starting over. At least, that’s how the NC State basketball coach views his fourth season at NC State with his youngest Wolfpack team.
“Yeah, we're going to be young,” Lowe said. “It'll be mostly guys who obviously I recruited." State welcomes a six-man freshman class that has graded near the top ten in some national recruiting rankings. “Impact-wise, I don’t know [what to expect this season], but they’re going to play.”
The Pack loses their top three scorers from last season’s 16-14 squad. State now carries nine freshmen and sophomores. Dennis Horner is the lone player recruited by former coach Herb Sendek.
This offseason, coaches like Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith told Lowe this was his season to put his own stamp on the Pack program. “No question about it,” said Lowe, who has yet to make the NCAA tournament as a coach. “They said, ‘This is where you can make your mark and change things.’ One of them said ‘change the culture.’”
The prize of Lowe’s class is Parade All-America Lorenzo Brown, a 6-5 guard from Roswell, Ga. who can play both guard positions. Lowe described his game as “a little quiet, not vocally but certainly in his play. He might be a little hesitant coming in as a freshman.”
Even though Lowe’s freshman class has credentials, the story of the recruiting season was John Wall of Raleigh Word of God leaving the state to play for Kentucky. Lowe had recruited Wall early, but NC State fell down Wall’s college wish list as the attention on his recruitment grew. “My only thing is I just wanted the best for him,” Lowe said. “I think the media attention came quick, fast and a lot of it. I hate that he had to go through certain things, but I think he’s going to be fine. He’s a good young man.”
Also this offseason, NBA coaches called Lowe to gauge his interest in returning to the NBA as an assistant. “I guess they were just wondering, ‘Are you enjoying what you’re doing?’ But it wasn’t long conversations at all,” he said. Lowe turned them all down, including new Washington Wizards coach Flip Saunders whom Lowe had previously coached with on the Detroit Pistons staff. “I’ve got a few more years on my contract and I’m going to live that out.”
Notes
Farnold Degand’s injured left knee is still bothering him. He took time off from training this offseason. Lowe plans to use Degand some at the two-guard spot in small lineups with Javi Gonzalez or Julius Mays at the point. “Farnold’s knee is going to be crucial for us,” Lowe said….The coach confirms Courtney Fells has had multiple workouts with NBA teams including two with San Antonio. Brandon Costner recently worked out with the New York Knicks, and Ben McCauley will likely seek a professional basketball career overseas…When asked how rival UNC’s 2008-09 national title affects NC State, Lowe declined to comment. “I’m going to stay away from that question,” Lowe smiled. “We got another championship in the ACC. You’re going to try to get me in trouble in here.”
Copyright 2012 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Most Recent Comments
RE: Lowe looks to put his own stamp on State program
"when you fire a coach, you set back your program YEARS."
No way, Dude. That's bunk.
If you fire a coach and then hire a worse coach than your program will sink and be set back for years.
Let's just look at the ACC for examples- Gosh, Roy Williams, Skip Prosser (which should have been our scenario), Gary Williams, Purnell. But if you hire not terrible coaches, you get terrible results. The best case scenario for us would be like FSU/MI that gets one superstar player every couple of years which gets us a few W's every 4 years (not hard to get in the ACC- location and league branding). However, we still have the dilemma about Lowe not coaching. It's a freakin problem.
But hey you're ok with it so I'll be ok with it. I'm becoming used to losing and the pain is becoming numb.
You're a good guy, TBK, and I know I'm coming at you hard but man, come on. You are not being a good fan by letting this #%#$ stick to all 4 walls. You gotta see this for what it is. It smells awful and it looks worse.
RE: Lowe looks to put his own stamp on State program
"I have expectations. I also have hopes. I also know that when you fire a coach, you set back your program YEARS."
That's bunk and you know it.
Let's just look at the ACC for examples- Gosh, Roy Williams, Skip Prosser (which should have been our scenario), Gary Williams, Purnell. But if you hire not very good coaches, you get not very good results. The best case scenario for us would be like FSU/MI that gets one superstar player every couple of years which gets us a few W's every 4 years (not hard to get in the ACC- location and league branding). However, we still have the dilemma about Lowe not coaching. It's a freakin disaster.
But hey you're ok with it so I'll be ok with it. I'm becoming used to losing and the pain is becoming numb.
You're a good guy, TBK, and I know I'm coming at you hard but man, come on. You are not being a good fan by letting this stick to all 4 walls. You gotta see this for what it is. It smells awful and it looks worse.
RE: Lowe looks to put his own stamp on State program
Low did not have a complete rebuilding job. Those seniors carried him and were enthusiastic about him joining. Little did Atsur know. What a great player and kid.
Low has no system. He's all over the map. Clueless. This is just as plain as day. You can't possibly disagree. I could tell this after the 2nd year. 3rd year confirmed it.
Low DID NOT HAVE TO REBUILD. He only had to take it beyond Sendeck's ceiling. Lowe has recruited no players (besides the one year wonder) that were ranked higher than what he had when he arrived.
He has sunk this program. Look at the results over the last 3 years. How can you argue this? Yeah- you're a great fan. Three years you can see where the program is headed. We would be lucky to be back where we were with Sendeck after 15 years with Low which is apparently what Syd supporters want. But why set any expectations?
I forgot my favorite Low excuse from his "fans"- HE'S LEARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RE: Lowe looks to put his own stamp on State program
Patience? For what? Low fans to set a result. Why not pay him more than $1M/year with the hope of being 5th in the conf (how pathetic in a down league year).
Low was left with an awesome team that carried wins when nobody thought it was possible (UNC at the RBC Center). We now know that this was not Low magic but just the heart of the players on the floor.
TOB has 60+ players with limited talent. He's implemented a system and his guys have discpline, understand the fundamentals and have vision. (Thank god Fowlup was told to stay out of the hiring). I had heard that we could have possibly had TOB sooner if it wasn't for Fowlup. Last year it was fun watching TOB put the pieces together. With Low- you just want to cry. He just has 13 players.....13.
13 confused players. Nobody knew when they were going to play and who with nor under what game conditions. Defense was non-existent (this is basic). The offense was sporadic due to player rotation. No fundamentals. Lots of laziness and standing around on offense and defense because the players were lost.
Why I do think he's not ever going to be successful? The excuses. Coach K &Coach Smith didn't have Low's litany of insane rationalizations. His sick mother, his "stuff" wasn't executed, injuries, shots didn't fall, doesn't have his "own" players, trying to switch systems, then the player blame (each one of these kids got attacked by Low through the media which is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE- Grant, McCauley, Fells, Costner). The 2nd game against UNC, he bailed- dehydration. Dehydration is preventable. Drinking fluids. He knew that we got lucky in game 1 and he bailed. All you've got to do is go back and read the nonsense. Winners don't make excuses. They go to work on the weaknesses and come back stronger. With Lowe, he flounders as does the State program. Fans like you accept and embrace this. Keep your poster if it makes you proud. Are you a fan of this? REALLY. NCSU baskeball = irrelevant.
RE: Lowe looks to put his own stamp on State program
Everbody agrees that this was a botched coach search. In light recent administrative actions, it's totally clear that after 2 coaches declined the job, an insider ON the search committee gets the job. How good ol boy can it get. It also makes sense given the way that he signed onto the job that he has completely divided the fan base.
Those who support Lowe say give him another 15 years. He deserves that. Who is going to take this job anyway. It's only a million dollars a year. There are no goals and no expected outcomes. There is absolutely no vision. The fan base (Truthbeknown and Canes017) just want to continue in the belief that maybe one day we can be 5th in the conference.
There's another part of the fanbase that sees the handwriting on the wall and has seen way enough. I don't think that I'm saying anything earth-shattering acknowledging that Low is not a good X&O coach (look at his college and NBA records and his silly player rotation), not a good motivator (last 3 seasons), not a good administrator (never did figure out his 14 player team- bad scholarship management and he had time to think about these things), not a good game coach (no flow of the game- look at him with that stupid card), not a good recruiter. Anybody can recruit in this league. "Kid, how would you like to play 20-40 mins in the ACC."
There is no way you can compare Dean Smith and Coach K with this disaster. They had a system in place by year 3. By year 4, the coaches were rolling. You could see the future. Dawkins, Alarie, Bilas were on board with Duke. It was just a matter of reloading. Honestly, do you think the fanbase of Duke or UNC would tolerate this culture of losing that we've developed and have encouraged? NO- look at Dourtery.
