It has been 2 days since Mark Gottfried was fired by NC State. If you only follow the national basketball writers, you would think that Mark Gottfried was the greatest coach NC State has ever had. Jay Bilas used his twitter account to applaud Gottfried for making 4 NCAA tournament fields, 2 NCAA tournament wins, and 2 Sweet 16 appearances. In another tweet Bilas sited the fact that the 20 years before Gottfried was hired that NC State only made the tournament a total of 5 times.
There have been others, Gary Parrish seems to think that the NC State fan base is delusional for expecting, better results then the basketball program has given it’s fan base over the last 2 years. Parrish, in his column cites an unnamed coach who stated “I wouldn’t touch that job.” Well, as a fan base, we WOULDN’T WANT YOU!
What NC State fans want is a consistent winner! Yes, someone who makes the NCAA Tournament every year they are eligible. Notice how I did not say, National Championships or Final Four runs. This fan base understands that the program needs to walk before it can run. What the fan base wants is a vision for the program and is able to produce evidence that the team is moving in some kind of direction. I believe that NC State can reach a Notre Dame level of success.
Notre Dame doesn’t get the greatest college basketball players out there. What they do have is a coach who teaches a system and gets the players to buy into that system. Mike Brey also is able to develop players over 2-3 years.
Bilas and Parrish seem to think that these kinds of results are the best that NC State can achieve. Both of them, and many others for that matter, believe that living in the shadow of the University of North Carolina and Duke hinders NC State’s ability to win. This is actually a terrible analogy.
Actually it’s intellectually lazy to defend this belief. NC State competed with both of these teams in the mid 80’s. In the 1985-86 season Duke went 37-3, UNC went 28-6 and NC State went 21-13. Don’t tell me that NC State can’t compete because of the 2 Blues!
The national media is blaming a fan base for wanting a change from a coach over the last 2 season has been 8-24 in the ACC. They are blaming the fan base for demanding a coach prove that he is building something and not having 6 of his own recruits transfer out of the program the last 6 years. They blame the fan base for watching these games, and seeing a team that looks lost on the defensive end and does not seem like it understands how to play a 2-3. It’s the fan bases fault for the NC State post players not being able to get a rebound.
Parrish and Bilas alike haven’t watched or cared about NC State this season, and probably don’t have the time to. However, they believe they know what is exactly wrong with NC State basketball and tell us, the fans, to stay in our lane. We won’t be able to compete in an ACC when Duke and UNC are only 25 miles away. My response is this, go back to covering UNC, Duke, Arizona, Kentucky, Louisville.
Leave us alone like you’ve been doing for years. And when we get a coach who understands building a program, gets a team to buy into his philosophy, institutes a system and does not deviate from that system… Don’t worry about NC State knocking on the door of the elites… We’ll go ahead and kick the door in……
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