Sweet and Lowe-down
The biggest challenge facing new North Carolina State men's basketball coach Sidney Lowe isn't overcoming the stigma of being the 195th person offered the job.
Lowe, a former NBA head coach and current assistant with the Detroit Pistons, has to learn a whole new ballgame when he heads back to Raleigh - where he was a star on the early 1980s teams of Jim Valvano that brought the school its second national championship in 1983.
The Xs and Os in college hoops are the same, sure - even down to the zone defenses that NBA teams are now allowed to play. A backdoor is still a backdoor, a pick-and-roll is still a pick-and-roll.
But unlike in the NBA, where thousands of top players are pining for a chance to suit up in your colors, you have to go out and find players to fill out your college-basketball roster.
And that takes time, patience, luck ...
One would suspect that Lowe would be able to flash his '83 championship ring and his NBA credentials and be OK - eventually. But eventually won't cut it at State - where, no doubt, some enterprising soul has registered the domain firesidneylowe.com in the event that the Pack loses its opener next fall.
Here's to hoping - for Lowe's sake - that the cupboard isn't as bare as former coach Herb Sendek must have thought it was when he bolted for Arizona State earlier this spring.
- Chris Graham