Fowler out at State

[diablesseblu]

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/ncsu/story/7539602/

Excellent decision for the Wolfpack programs. Their Director's Cup performance has been an embarassment.

[fan345678]

http://www.wralsportsfan.com/ncsu/story/7539602/

Excellent decision for the Wolfpack programs. Their Director's Cup performance has been an embarassment.

no kidding...are they good at a single sport? Fowler's sci-fi equivalent would be the alien race who drains all of a planet's resources, moves on, and leaves nothing but a barren clump of rock and dirt.

[wolfpackdevil]

Even though Fowler made some good hires (O'Brian, Harper,) he has been a pretty bad athletic director.

So in the last week, NC State has aquired the top high school basketball recruit out of North Carolina, recieved the #5 ranked recruiting class for next year, retained their soon to be first team all-acc star Tracy Smith, and got rid of their unwanted Athletic Director.

How can it get much better for the Wolfies? Maybe they could start by actually winning something.

[kingboozer]

Even though Fowler made some good hires (O'Brian, Harper,) he has been a pretty bad athletic director.

So in the last week, NC State has aquired the top high school basketball recruit out of North Carolina, recieved the #5 ranked recruiting class for next year, retained their soon to be first team all-acc star Tracy Smith, and got rid of their unwanted Athletic Director.

How can it get much better for the Wolfies? Maybe they could start by actually winning something.

good for state, i'm always happy to see tobacco road get stronger, hope wake can make a comeback in bball too.

[sagegrouse]

no kidding...are they good at a single sport?

7th nationally in women's air rifle. How's that?

sagegrouse

[wolfpackdevil]

7th nationally in women's air rifle. How's that?

sagegrouse

At least in my mind, Air Rifle is definitly not a sport.

[diablesseblu]

They do have a national collegiate bass fishing title during Fowler's tenure.

[cspan37421]

I find it curious that NCSU enjoys some sympathy on this board - even to the point of almost openly rooting for them to return to relevance, but as far as most are concerned, UNC can stay down forever.

Is this simply because they've been down for so long? And that it's fun to see UNC have a "catastrophic season" (wink wink, Roy!) since they have won a couple titles in the last several years - that to see the mighty fallen is joyous?

I'm wondering if the same sympathy would be extended to UNC if they became as irrelevant as NCSU has been, or if there's something distinctive about NCSU that merits the DBR soft touch more than UNC.

[rasputin]

I find it curious that NCSU enjoys some sympathy on this board - even to the point of almost openly rooting for them to return to relevance, but as far as most are concerned, UNC can stay down forever.

Is this simply because they've been down for so long? And that it's fun to see UNC have a "catastrophic season" (wink wink, Roy!) since they have won a couple titles in the last several years - that to see the mighty fallen is joyous?

I'm wondering if the same sympathy would be extended to UNC if they became as irrelevant as NCSU has been, or if there's something distinctive about NCSU that merits the DBR soft touch more than UNC.

No. Never.

I recall a thread some time ago about which other ACC programs we favor over others (understanding that such favor isn't reciprocated). I think the most-mentioned in that group were NC State, Clemson, and Wake Forest.

[Duvall]

I find it curious that NCSU enjoys some sympathy on this board - even to the point of almost openly rooting for them to return to relevance, but as far as most are concerned, UNC can stay down forever.

Is this simply because they've been down for so long? And that it's fun to see UNC have a "catastrophic season" (wink wink, Roy!) since they have won a couple titles in the last several years - that to see the mighty fallen is joyous?

I'm wondering if the same sympathy would be extended to UNC if they became as irrelevant as NCSU has been, or if there's something distinctive about NCSU that merits the DBR soft touch more than UNC.

I sincerely hope we would never see UNC treated this way, even though we've seen during UNC's far too rare down seasons that there always a few wets on the boards that are bizarrely incapable of enjoying the sight of the Heels being beaten into the ground. But I think you would see some degree of sympathy for any other school in the conference that suffered NCSU's rotten luck.

If NCSU is unique, it may be because they are the one school in the league too busy hating UNC to have much time to waste on hating Duke.

[Bluealum]

As an alum and north carolina resident before and after Duke, there is a real difference which is impacted by UNC's success but is not the main part of the difference in sentiment, from my perspective.

I have always appreciated the consistent support that NC State alum/fans voice for their teams win or lose. They may gripe about coaches/AD's/strategy etc. (who doesn't) but they really care about their teams and support/follow them in good and bad times.

I would like to think the same is true of Duke (in basketball particularly) fans. I certainly remember how much we cared in 95 when the bottom fell out in the 2nd half of our season.

UNC fans, however tend to be rabid in good times (I generalize of course) and mostly indifferent in bad times. That is much tougher to appreciate.

Secondly, their wrath for Duke (fueled by our success both academically and athletically) is significant, which of course colors our impression of them. The reach that UNC has in NC is dramatically enhanced by their remarkable control of the media here (They have THE journalism school in NC). Take a look at where the writers for papers large and small come from here and you will be surprised at the overwhelming proportion that attended UNC.

This is something that both Duke and NC State fans can jointly appreciate. Our successes are not as celebrated and our losses are highlighted in the local media. There aren't many institutions of the size of NC State/Duke that have to face such a strong negative bias in their local area coverage which will inevitably tie the two fan bases together in mutual distaste for UNC.

And of course there is that awful blue...

[cspan37421]

I sincerely hope we would never see UNC treated this way, even though we've seen during UNC's far too rare down seasons that there always a few wets on the boards that are bizarrely incapable of enjoying the sight of the Heels being beaten into the ground. But I think you would see some degree of sympathy for any other school in the conference that suffered NCSU's rotten luck.

If NCSU is unique, it may be because they are the one school in the league too busy hating UNC to have much time to waste on hating Duke.

what are "wets" ?

It has been amusing to me to see UNC go from penthouse to outhouse; having said that, our crushing of them can be written off easily as "an off year." Beating them when they're good hurts them a lot more, and means more for our program. No matter how good GT, MD, etc., were, the perception was that the ACC was down because UNC stunk (and NCSU did too, and Wake was down, ...).

Of course, that does not mean that the ACC was down, but not that many people you encounter in b-ball chit chat are willing to settle disagreements with cold hard facts such as Pomeroy or Sagarin ratings.

[cspan37421]

Bluealum, you make an interesting and valid point. I haven't live in NC since college days, but I have seen the differences in front pages of the Charlotte Observer in '10 vs. '09, and read of the "pressbox cheering" of sportswriters when Duke got bounced early in the NCAAs some years back (was it the VCU game?). So yeah, the quickly-deteriorating "profession" of journalism probably does treat both schools poorly in their own backyards.

I was wondering if it was a NCSU - engineering school thing. But it sounds like you're saying the Wolfpack are less prone to bandwagon behavior. 1995 was rough for Duke, but even then I remember our losing-season team forced a double overtime thriller before yielding to the NBA-ready Heels. Can't say they gave us that this year, despite having vastly more talent than we did then.

So yeah, I buy the media argument; the media certainly can color perceptions, and we really don't have much of an "in" media wise. Certainly Feinstein isn't carrying the banner!