Thirty-two years after starting on N.C. State’s 1974 national championship basketball team, Monte Towe found his way back to Raleigh last Thursday night, and on Friday afternoon he met with members of the media for the first time as his alma mater’s associate head coach.
Towe resigned his post as head coach at New Orleans to join new coach Sidney Lowe’s staff. The past year, Towe said, has been very difficult for his family because of Hurricane Katrina and all its consequences.
“Sometimes it feels like that storm was sent to New Orleans to get me out of there,” Towe said.
While driving to Raleigh from New Orleans, Towe said he and his wife reflected on the year.
“This has been a tough time for us and for her,” Towe said. “When we were driving here, she got her calendar out, and she went back to August 29 — when all this started. By the time she got done reading everywhere we’d been, I was tired. It’s been an incredible, incredible year. We had moved two or three times. And by the time Sidney called, we were just getting back into the house.”
He said in order for New Orleans to agree to release him from his contract, State had to agree to play the Privateers. According to Towe, they will come to the RBC Center twice, and the Wolfpack will travel to New Orleans once.
“I’ve got to come up with some money [that] Lee Fowler and the Wolfpack Club are going to help me with,” Towe said about resolving his contract situation with New Orleans. “But it’s all over now. When we started, I didn’t think this was going to be that big of an issue. I thought I’d be able to get here quicker.”
Towe said everyone wants to know why he accepted a job as an assistant when he was a head coach.
“Everybody asks that question. I’ve been an assistant coach a lot in my life with Coach Sloan, Flip Saunders, Eddie Biedenbach — just the ability to come back here and be on Sidney’s staff. The money was going to be the same, and that was important to me because I had a good contract down there. I’ve got no problem in taking a back seat,” he said.
He said one of his first priorities is going to be to try to keep as much of Herb Sendek’s recruiting class intact as he can.
“There are two or three guys who we have signed and we’re trying to get in here,” Towe said. “If they come here, we are one team. And if they don’t, we’re another.”
He added that he didn’t know much about the players currently on the roster.
“I really don’t know anything about the roster right now. I’ll learn that soon enough,” Towe said. “We’re in a period right now where we can’t work with them on the floor. We can’t watch them play. We can’t be involved in workouts. Really, my job right now is to let the guys know me. We’re going to have to find a comfort zone.”
When Towe played at State, the team was housed in Reynolds Coliseum and the football, basketball and baseball teams all shared locker rooms. Now, he said, campus is much more impressive.
“It’s incredible,” Towe said. “The practice facilities, the weight facilities, the RBC Center — although I love Reynolds Coliseum — it’s just incredible what’s here now. Basically in college basketball, you have the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’ Well, I’ve been with the ‘have-nots’ for a while. [N.C. State] has to be one of the best jobs in the country.”
He said the team isn’t far from being among the nation’s best, either.
“There is no reason we shouldn’t be one of the top teams in the country,” Towe said. “I don’t know how soon that’s going to happen, but we certainly have all the facilities. The whole thing is here.”
