It’s been 18 days since Herb Sendek left N.C. State for Arizona State and, since then, two coaches – Texas’ Rick Barnes and Memphis’ John Calipari – have spurned Athletics Director Lee Fowler and the Wolfpack community to stay at their respective universities.

Eighteen days and there’s no sign of a new men’s basketball coach.

And now some State fans are getting nervous.

“I just hope we haven’t lost here,” Austin Davis, a sophomore in business management, said. “I’m afraid we ran Sendek out and now we aren’t going to get what – or who – we really need.”

But former Athletics Director Les Robinson said he told Fowler hiring a coach takes time.

“What I’ve said all along is that time is of no essence,” Robinson, a State alumnus, said. “This is a 10-year decision for an athletic director.”

He noted how long it takes to hire the head of an academic department.

“For the head of biology or English, they take six months to find the right guy,” he said. “With the men’s head basketball coach, they pressure the A.D. into making a decision.”

Robinson said he received 10 phone calls Thursday asking for a response to a rumor that Mike Montgomery, coach of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, was going to be the Pack’s new head coach.

“I talked with him before the State job even came open, and he said he wasn’t going anywhere,” Robinson said. “He said he just can’t afford to leave. But if he’s fired, then that’s another story. But I really think he’s going to stay at Golden State.”

Robinson said he has been in contact with Fowler throughout the search for a new coach, and he said he has a good idea of who State’s new coach could be.

“This one might come out of left field – it could surprise some people,” he said. “The biggest thing is that they find someone who can come compete with the big guys down the road.”

John Raymond, a sophomore in sports management, said he hopes State hasn’t earned itself a reputation with potential coaches.

“I hope coaches don’t see that we ran off Sendek as a lack of fan support,” he said. “At this point, we need a guy who can come in and win over the players first. People here want someone exciting. We need someone to make N.C. State different.”

Davis said he’s torn about whether Sendek’s leaving has been a good move for the basketball program.

“Part of me wants to say ‘This is a bad thing’ because you can’t build a championship program overnight,” he said. “But the other part of me thinks Sendek had hit a ceiling, and he had gone as far as he could have gone.”