Aging Disgracefully

Look, if you go to the online discussions of Sendek's departure, it is clear that there are alot of reasonable State fans out there who see things as they actually are. But looking at the overall picture, State fans have to realize that as a group they themselves are a real impediment to the program's success. Among them, there is a small but vocal minority who are so vicious you have to wonder whether they have psychological problems. Then there is a much broader group who are more diplomatic, but have bought into the Big Lie: of a mythological earlier era of solid dominance on the hardwood. Against that backdrop, they feel that Sendek is a mediocrity who can never return them to the dizzying heights. The reality, of course, is that State has had some strong years, but nothing like the sustained dominance of Carolina and Duke, and the program was in a definite downward trajectory when Sendek took over (the only even halfway decent player they could get in those years was Kenny Inge, whose strength on the hardwood was based more on his being a Lord of the Sith than a great athlete). Against that backdrop, Sendek's record is clearer: a very strong coach, who patiently and cleanly built a solid foundation on much higher ground than he found the program and from which NC State would have gradually ascended to the next level of the game. But now the fans behavior has cost them this really good coach and will soon, I suspect, really start to hurt recruting as well. Who would even want to play at a place like State???

(Perhaps even worse, a careful reading of the comments suggests that if Sendek had simply been a loudmouthed and demonstrative asshole (as opposed to the gentleman that he is), but with the same record, he might not have faced nearly as much criticism from the Pack faithful.)

State should be competitve with Duke and UNC. The fans need to realize that the atmosphere their delusions create is at least as big a part of the problem as anything going on at the top.

Update: Here are some useful thoughts on Sendek and his legacy. Some State fans have written me, fewer have posted comments, that clearly demonstrate an emotional reaction to my emotional reaction to Sendek's departure. You might ask why I have been so moved. On a competitive level, I did not like Sendek: he was building a program that I knew would slowly but surely become a royal thorn in the collective Tar Heel ass. But as a competitor, I really respected him. He did what he did with real class (it is a sign of character, not a failure of one, when you do not mark every game, as K does, with an unbroken string of foul-mouthed attempts to lobby the refs). I basically think that Wolf Pack crowd who drove hom out did so unjustly, showing no class themselves and punishing someone who had, unlike them, to live in the real world (and not some fantasy "when we were giants" bubble) and did so with dignity and success, on and off the court. Never, I think , has a program been less deserving of its coach than NC State's was of Sendek. Unless by dint of a scandalous salary offer the school can buy its way out the hole its fans have put it in with their stupidity, you are about to reap what you have sown, and find out what State basketball was really like on the eve of Sendek's arrival.