N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe was on the ACC teleconference Monday, and the only questions came from a writer for the league\u2019s website. And that\u2019s just the problem with Wolfpack basketball \u2013 it\u2019s not relevant. Even the fans who go to the games \u2013 and you have to be impressed by their loyalty \u2013 aren\u2019t engaged.<\/p>\n
It is a given that State needs new energy in the program. Lowe\u2019s biggest weakness as a coach is that, despite his love for the game and the program, he could never coax the best out of his players. It\u2019s hard to see how he could be 30 games into this season and still wondering why his team didn\u2019t play hard on defense.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why State needs to make a bold move to resurrect its program, and why it should take a long look at Connecticut women\u2019s coach Geno Auriemma. Auriemma flirted with going to the men\u2019s game in 2006, when he had discussions with Oklahoma. He has\u00a0 remained at UConn as the Huskies have produced the dominant women\u2019s program in the country.<\/p>\n
Auriemma has the talent, and temperament, to succeed at State. Wolfpack fans love it when their coaches stand up to the rivals at North Carolina and Duke, and you know Auriemma wouldn\u2019t be intimated by the coaches there. He has a no-nonsense swagger to him that would play well in red.<\/p>\n
Wolfpack athletics director Debbie Yow obviously knows him, and the nature of that relationship would be important. But the Wolfpack program is just listless and needs energy. It does not need a publicity stunt. What it needs is a seasoned coach who can come in, develop talent and lead players to wins.<\/p>\n
Auriemma knows how to do that as well as anyone. He signed a five-year, $8 million contract with the school in 2008, but NCSU could easily match or exceed those dollars. One complicating factor would be that Auriemma will coach the U.S. women\u2019s team in London in the 2012 Olympics.<\/p>\n
But heck, what\u2019s wrong with that?\u00a0 Mike Krzyzewski certainly hasn\u2019t slowed down despite his Olympic responsibilities.<\/p>\n
N.C. State needs some fresh air. And Auriemma, who turns 57 March 23, may feel the time is right for a new challenge. \u00a0If so, the Wolfpack should give him a full hearing. It\u2019s a risk, but so would any hire. We do know this \u2013 Auriemma knows the game, and he knows how to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe was on the ACC teleconference Monday, and the only questions came from a writer for the league\u2019s website. And that\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,81,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-stories","category-n-c-state-wolfpack","category-uncategorized","wpcat-79-id","wpcat-81-id","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1273,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1236\/revisions\/1273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalsportsnc.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}