WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina State University

Lowe: Fan support 'means everything'

By Joe Ovies

Dec 4, 2009

N.C. State head basketball coach Sidney Lowe joined Adam Gold and Joe Ovies on 620 The Buzz before his team heads to Wisconsin to take on Marquette. Lowe has been pleased with the effort so far, despite the shots not falling against Northwestern on Tuesday night.

A crowd of just over 11,000 showed up at the RBC Center for that game, which brought the conversation with Lowe to the topic of fan support. It's a hot discussion in the Triangle, kicked started earlier in the week when Roy Williams took a jab at the Tar Heel fan base for skipping out on early season contests. Lowe also wants to see more support for home court advantage, even if that means giving your tickets away to friends if they were going to be unused.

"[Fans] are missing out on a group of young men who are proud to be wearing that uniform, care about playing hard and pleasing their fans," said Lowe.

Lowe says his players are trying to show the fans who do show up how much they appreciate the support, including the ones who stuck around after the loss to Northwestern.

"We walked off that floor and we had some fans who stayed in there and applauded our guys coming off that court," said Lowe. "I can't tell you how much that meant to those young men."

Ultimately it comes down to creating an intimidating environment, similar to what Lowe saw at Michigan State

"Our guys walked on the court just to shoot around, and the lower bowl was just packed," Lowe said. "The heckling and everything just started, and that's an intimidating factor."