I'm trying to find a particular newspaper article that was published during the last basketball season. It talked about all of the accomplishments of the NC State program to justify how our fans weren't expecting too much with high standards.

It was a great synopsis of our history, but now I can't find the damn thing.

Does anyone remember what I'm talking about, and (hopefully) have a link?

12/13/2005 11:17:13 AM

i remember it

we used to be great under jimmy v. now look at us. no championships.

12/13/2005 12:25:36 PM

V was a brilliant defensive coach, but let's face it, his teams weren't really consistent...

The article I'm thinking of, though, talked about everything, back from Case coming down here, through the Dixie Classic, Sloan, and Valvano...

12/13/2005 12:28:26 PM

I think this is it, found it in a google cache:

dunno if this will work or not: http://tinyurl.com/bk8x6

Quote :

"By AL FEATHERSTON : The Herald-Sun afeatherston@heraldsun.com Dec 31, 2003 : 11:28 pm ET Mike Gminski tried to give N.C. State fans a history lesson Sunday night. But his take on the Wolfpack's basketball past went over about as well as the Smithsonian's original Enola Gay exhibit. Gminski stirred up a firestorm of criticism from Pack fans who believe the former Duke All-American was belittling N.C. State's proud hoops tradition. Gminski, a commentator for Fox Sports Net during the N.C. State-Virginia telecast, was trying to defend Wolfpack coach Herb Sendek. Late in the game, the former Duke big man and play-by-play partner Tom Brennaman were discussing the critics who think Sendek should have accomplished more than two NCAA Tournament trips and one NCAA Tournament win in his seven-plus seasons at N.C. State. It is possible, Gminski suggested, that Sendek is being judged using too harsh of a standard. "Really, consistently, this program has never been a national power," Gminski said. "They were [a power] for a brief period in the early '70s with David Thompson, and, really, that '83 national championship was -- you have to say -- a bit of an aberration. No one was expecting that. "But year in and year out, they haven't challenged for a national title. So maybe the expectations of the fans are a little out of whack. Yeah, Duke's down the road. Carolina is there ... Wake Forest. So the bar is really high. So the history on a national level is not there." Gminski tried to clarify his statement Wednesday. "I'm not trashing their history," he said. "I'm just saying I don't consider N.C. State one of the elite programs. North Carolina, Kentucky, Duke, UCLA -- those are the gold standard in college basketball. I don't think N.C. State's at that level." That opinion has to gall Wolfpack fans who have tried to cling to their history over the last dozen or so years that the program has spent in the basketball wilderness. There are still living Pack fans who remember the days of Everett Case, when N.C. State won nine conference titles in 10 years and was the ACC's premier basketball program -- the team that North Carolina and Duke were trying to emulate. Middle-aged fans remember the Norm Sloan era, when the Pack slipped behind UNC as a national power (except, as Gminski mentioned, during Thompson's glorious three-year run) but still boasted a stronger program than the Blue Devils. And all but the youngest fans can recall the 1980s when Jim Valvano made the Pack one of the nation's most exciting teams. It was not just the miraculous 1983 title drive. Valvano also led the Pack to an ACC Tournament title in 1987, an ACC regular-season title in 1989, four NCAA Sweet 16 trips and three trips to at least the Elite Eight. His head-to-head record with Mike Krzyzewski was 14-9, and even after Coach K's Duke program took off in 1984, Valvano maintained an 8-7 edge over his contemporary. In fact, it's not unreasonable to argue that when N.C. State upset No. 2 North Carolina to win the 1987 ACC Tournament in Landover, the Pack -- not Duke -- ranked historically as the ACC's No. 2 program behind Dean Smith's UNC juggernaut. At that moment, N.C. State had two national titles to Duke's none; 10 ACC titles to Duke's eight; virtually the same composite ACC record as the Blue Devils; almost as many AP top-10 finishes (Duke led 11-9) and the same number of No. 1 poll finishes -- one each. Since that Wolfpack triumph, Krzyzewski has taken Duke's program to unprecedented heights, while the Pack program collapsed in the early 1990s in a welter of probation, academic questions and the bad publicity brought on by a muckraking book that was as inaccurate as it was damaging. Sendek took over the Wolfpack basketball program when it was at the bottom of the ACC and has slowly rebuilt N.C. State to the point where it can fairly be characterized as a middle-of-the-road ACC program. Setting aside for a moment Gminski's judgment of the Wolfpack's basketball legacy, he does raise a valid point -- how should Sendek be judged? Should he be measured against the Les Robinson depths that he inherited or the peaks of the Case-Sloan-Valvano years? "I think Herb has been treated unfairly," Gminski said. "I think his record should earn him some breathing room." N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler appreciates Gminski's support for his oft-criticized coach, but he doesn't agree with the commentator's characterization of the program. "You can count on two hands the number of teams that have won multiple national championships, Fowler said. "I think any team with two national championships has to be put right up there." Indeed, N.C. State's total of two national titles trails just five teams: UCLA (11), Kentucky (7), Indiana (5), Duke and UNC (3 each). The Pack has as many as Kansas, Cincinnati, Louisville and Michigan State. Gminski is correct to argue that N.C. State never has achieved the level of consistent excellence that UNC enjoyed under Smith or Duke has earned under Krzyzewski. But does that mean that N.C. State has "never been a national power?" Are Wolfpack fans wrong to wonder why their team has spent the last decade looking up at Wake Forest and Maryland? Forget the two national titles and consider this: -- N.C. State is 22nd on the NCAA's all-time win list. -- N.C. State has been ranked by the AP in 34 different seasons -- the 10th best total in the nation. -- The Pack's 28 NCAA Tournament wins are 24th best all-time. -- The Pack played in and won three of the most significant games in NCAA history -- the 1973 Sugar Bowl Sunday game with Maryland that convinced the TV networks that college basketball deserved a national audience; the 1974 ACC title game that went a long way toward convincing the NCAA to allow more than one team per conference in the NCAA Tournament; and the 1974 NCAA semifinals, when N.C. State snapped UCLA's string of seven straight national titles. That's quite a legacy. And it was even better a decade ago, when N.C. State ranked in the top 15 in both total wins and NCAA victories. That's what frustrates Wolfpack fans. They see their legacy slipping away. Forty years ago, N.C. State was the best program in the ACC. Twenty years ago, it was the second best. Today, the Pack still ranks third historically, but Wake Forest and Maryland clearly have been better in recent years and are closing hard. If something doesn't change, N.C. State basketball could find itself in the same boat as Duke football. Hard as it is to believe today, when Bill Murray retired in 1966, the Blue Devils were the ACC's premier football program. In the last four decades, Duke has slipped steadily, first to the middle ... then to the bottom of the ACC football pack. New coach Ted Roof faces a monumental task just to return the Blue Devils to respectability. The Wolfpack hasn't fallen nearly that far. Sendek has finished above .500 in the ACC in each of the last two seasons and reached the ACC Tournament finals both years. To Gminski, that's something Pack fans should celebrate, not criticize. "It should at least earn him some peace," Gminski said. Fowler is convinced that his coach is on the right track -- he's optimistic of receiving a third straight NCAA Tournament bid this year and looking forward to next year when Sendek adds what Fowler calls, "maybe the best recruiting class we've ever had." But Fowler also wants to make it clear that he shares the high expectations that Gminski characterizes as "out of whack." "Our expectation is to get back to battling for national championships," Fowler said. "That's what we're striving for." Al Featherston can be reached by phone at 419-6606 or by e-mail at afeatherston@heraldsun.com. "

12/13/2005 3:21:17 PM

That's the one I was looking for!

Thanks, man.

12/13/2005 3:22:28 PM

too bad THABIGL cant read, that would be good for his pea size brain to take in

12/13/2005 3:26:15 PM

^^^ Your tiny url didn't work. try this one http://tinyurl.com/ao245

[Edited on December 13, 2005 at 3:28 PM. Reason : another ^]

12/13/2005 3:28:12 PM

That is an excellent article. Too bad that would never make it to the pages of the N&O. I just wish the average college basketball fan here in America would recognize the history our basketball program has.



[Edited on December 13, 2005 at 3:46 PM. Reason : s]

12/13/2005 3:45:46 PM

Yeah that was definitly an excellent read and I think the author did a great job to present both sides of the story.

12/13/2005 5:50:10 PM

Quote :

"-- N.C. State is 22nd on the NCAA's all-time win list. -- N.C. State has been ranked by the AP in 34 different seasons -- the 10th best total in the nation. -- The Pack's 28 NCAA Tournament wins are 24th best all-time."

Keep in mind that these are from December of '03, too...that season and the next both had 20+ wins, we were ranked last year and this year, and we had more tourney wins added to our total.

So I'm not sure where we'd place on these lists right now (although I'm sure it's close to what we were).

12/13/2005 6:01:27 PM

Quote :

"Fowler is convinced that his coach is on the right track -- he's optimistic of receiving a third straight NCAA Tournament bid this year and looking forward to next year when Sendek adds what Fowler calls, "maybe the best recruiting class we've ever had.""

Reading that part makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. We've had two tournament berths since then, and that recruiting class being referred to is Brackman, Simmons, and Grant.

12/13/2005 9:29:35 PM

Wow, thanks for that. I actually have the original URL saved, but it hasn't worked in years. I didn't want to delete it, I just kept hoping it'd come back

http://herald-sun.com/sports/columns/38-430592.html


I think it's called "Tradition Runs Deep For The Pack" or something similar

12/13/2005 9:48:40 PM

huh,
great article, I wonder where are stats are after last year's run...

12/14/2005 1:58:46 AM