It may only be October, but Sidney Lowe might want to go ahead and put up a Christmas tree.
He’s going to need one for the massive gift the media gave him on Sunday. That would be the pre-season forecast that his team will finish 12th — that’s right, last — out of 12 teams in the ACC for the 2006-2007 basketball season.
Now, you might be asking, why would that be such a positive thing for N.C. State’s first-year basketball coach? Well, on top of the fact he is loved by throngs of fans for his part in the school’s 1983 national championship, he now has no expectations on him for his first season.
Sure, the media may still ask him tough questions during the upcoming season, and they should. Director of Athletics Lee Fowler hired Lowe only after plenty of big-name candidates — Texas’s Rick Barnes, Memphis’s John Calipari, West Virginia’s John Beilein and ESPN analyst Steve Lavin — reportedly turned down the position. So whether or not Lowe is the right man for the job and how he handles it this season are valid enough questions to ask.
But if he’s struggling and ever feels like he doesn’t care to answer the question, he can simply point out, “I’m right where you said I’d be.”
And he’ll be right. Last place is another world from where the team has been the last five seasons — the NCAA Tournament. It’s where teams like Duke’s football team and Clemson’s basketball team commonly find themselves.
It’s somewhere that, contrary to the somewhat popular perception that the program was in shambles when former coach Herb Sendek left, the Wolfpack hasn’t been since 1996.
So all Lowe technically has to do to exceed expectations and keep State out of the cellar for an 11th straight season is finish ahead of one team in the ACC.
With returnees Gavin Grant, Engin Atsur, Ben McCauley, Brandon Costner and Courtney Fells on board and Dennis Horner taking the court for the first time this season, the talent is in place for the team to at least be competitive. The rest of the roster and even some of those players are still unproven, but not unproven enough to expect a last-place finish.
I’m not tooting the horn for the Pack, saying the team will greatly exceed expectations in Lowe’s first season. But I’m saying it won’t be hard to do better — say, somewhere between sixth and 12th with less-than-stellar programs such as Clemson, Virginia Tech, Virginia, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech still claiming membership in the ACC.
Let’s be honest — it’s not a tall order to not be the worst at what you do. If someone tells me our paper is the worst paper in the area — which I don’t believe — all I have to do is find a publication with less resources, staff or experience.
The same can be said in the ACC basketball environment. Find at least some schools with less basketball tradition, less resources or even less experience than your own meager experience. Then beat them and finish ahead of them.
All the while, do it in an environment where you’re loved by fans because of a championship that you won almost 25 years ago as a player.
I must say, if I was Sidney Lowe, my first season would certainly be my most enjoyable. No expectations, plenty of love and unconditional support.
It can only get tougher from there as Lowe becomes more experienced and if — more likely when — he has to answer questions about multiple losses to Duke and North Carolina in the future.
But Lowe’s got plenty to worry about for now. He’s rebuilding a program hit hard by graduation and the departure of Cedric Simmons to the NBA and Andrew Brackman to the baseball team.
And don’t forget — he’s got a Christmas tree to buy.
Tell Clark if you think he should buy a Christmas tree for Lowe, or let him know where you think the basketball team will finish in 2007 at sports@technicianonline.com. He can also be reached at 515-2411.