Tackabery Chronicle

What do we really want at NC State?

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There has been a groundswell of unrest among Wolfpack faithful this spring after the terrible performance of the basketball team. Season ticket holders and fans came out to see the Pack in large numbers this year. Coach Lowe had more support losing this year than Coach Sendek ever had winning. I can remember during the Julius Hodge years, when we made the NCAA tournament and were grinding out wins, albeit not always against the toughest opponents, hearing Sendek imploring fans to show up and watch the team, and nights when Tony Haynes called 12,000 fans in the RBC Center an achievement. This year, Lowe’s team drew 14,000 plus on a regular basis. It appeared to me that people really wanted to see him succeed.

Then came loss after loss after loss, and the agony of watching a team that never gelled, rarely talked to each other on the court, sulked on the bench, and played as if they were in some hated biology class that they had to sit through. After suffering through another year of mediocre football, was this just too hard to take?

Animosity has now focused on Lee Fowler, our un-esteemed athletic director. Fans’ bile started spewing after Fowler made reference to his time as a basketball coach when pleading for patience with Sidney. This was a major mistake, especially with my husband, who immediately pointed out that the team for which Fowler served as an assistant coach, after arriving at the NCAA, was slapped for recruiting violations, an achievement we sincerely hope he wasn’t referring to when he asked us to be patient with the program. Bile has continued to rise weekly, at least in my house, with Fowler’s statements on his television program, in which he repeatedly points to his achievements in facilities as indications that the athletics programs are going in the right direction.

I know people are tired of hearing Wolfpack fans whine, and Wolfpack fans are tired of losing. There seems so much to be proud of at NC State. Our booster club has recruited 20,000 members, and despite being fifteen and thirty miles away from other nationally-known collegiate athletic powerhouses, NC State now has the best facilities for the major college sports money makers in the RBC Center and renovated Carter-Finley Stadium, which is simply the best ball field for many miles. We also have some of the most loyal fans, who continually support the program with their wallets, something that, while I have no hard numbers to support this, does not appear to be the case with the two programs we play locally. Go to a Duke or Carolina game, and count the number of people in collegiate apparel and holding other tchotckes. Carolina may be the best-selling brand among NCAA programs, but that’s because gang bangers buy their clothes, not because local fans do. One of my favorite past times before a Carolina game is to count the number of fans who merely wear their cleanest light blue shirt. But I digress.

It seems we are perturbed because all this loyal support and hope and fear does not result in wins for our program, and instead of explanations we get a lot of talk about how nice our buildings look and how patience is a virtue. State Fans Nation posted yet another diatribe today, and while I can’t blame them, I’m still left wondering, what is it we want, exactly, that makes us whine so much?

I know what I want. I want to compete, and not hear about how we don’t belong in the Triangle with Duke and Carolina because we’re simply not on the same level, when in fact our program is the one that raised the level in the first place.

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