Time to go to Plan D
Poor North Carolina State.
The school can't seem to find a basketball coach to replace Herb Sendek - despite the fact that boosters seem to be willing to pay top dollar for the likes of Rick Barnes or John Calipari to come in and work their magic.
The not-so-merry go-round reminds me of what took place in Charlottesville last spring when Virginia was looking for somebody to take over for Pete Gillen - who, it must be noted, didn't have anywhere near the run at UVa. that Sendek had at N.C. State.
Virginia seemed willing and more than able to make Kentucky coach Tubby Smith the highest-paid coach in the NCAA - but ultimately, Smith remained in the Bluegrass State.
With Barnes and Calipari now off the board, it would seem that N.C. State's dreams of luring away somebody else's savior are fading fast.
The solution might be to go the route that seems to be working for Virginia - which hired a young coach, Dave Leitao, with plans to grow the program around whatever wizardry he can conjure up.
My "ACC Nation" cohost, Patrick Hite, has mentioned the name former 'Pack guard and current Fordham head man Dereck Whittenburg along those lines.
Another advantage to Whittenburg - in addition to his potential to grow as a coach at State - is that he knows the territory, having played and coached (as an assistant at Georgia Tech) in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Memo to N.C. State officials: Patrick's finder's fee can be made out to ...
- Chris Graham