COMMENTARY

By Mike DeCourcy

updated 10:43 p.m. ET May 2, 2006

Mike DeCourcy

No matter what you think of the coaching search at N.C. State, understand one thing: Not a single coach turned down this job because some Wolfpack fans were mean to Herb Sendek. Not one.

Many of them will tell you Sendek did a pretty fair job, and they'd be right, but most coaches only will be critical of a rival coach if the two of them are competing for the same recruit.

What those coaches who are — or were — interested in this job understand is that despite not making the NCAA Tournament for his first five seasons on the job, Sendek was allowed to remain for another five seasons. That's the kind of sturdy support few coaches expect in the positions they hold now.

There are lots of reasons lots of coaches would love to have this job, but State's blind lust for a famous coach leads us to believe they'd hire Paris Hilton before calling Gregg Marshall or Bob McKillop.

The university has allowed this pursuit to get really sloppy, and it's a shame, because this is one of the great basketball programs. Wolfpack fans deserve better. The calamity of this search has turned some potential candidates against it. Some are angry. Some are merely suspicious that if chosen now — in the wake of open rejection by Rick Barnes, John Calipari, Steve Lavin and John Beilein — their selection would not be embraced.

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The list of blunders in this search seems to grow by the day, and each one is another obstacle to overcome when State eventually offers the job to someone who'll take it. Here are the most damaging, in chronological order:

1. Pursuing Barnes. It never was going to happen. What did State have to sell that he didn't already own? Supposedly, the chance to coach in his home state, and the ACC. Well, he was a few miles from home and already in the ACC when he left Clemson for Texas. I realize Clemson is not as good a job as State, but it still is in the conference and wasn't enough to hold him. Going after Barnes set the tone for the debacle to follow.

2. Not striking quickly enough on Calipari. There was a very short window in which Calipari was just angry enough at Memphis to take the State job. Pack officials talked to him during that period, but didn't put on the fullcourt press until later. By then, Calipari had calmed down and commenced using the N.C. State interest to better his Memphis situation.

3. Not being aware of Beilein's buyout. I can't understand how this could be possible, but that's what athletic director Lee Fowler told the News & Observer of Raleigh: "Some (candidates) don't mention a buyout until you start to get serious. They don't mention (potential problems) on the front end." Seriously? It seemed everyone in basketball knew of Beilein's $3 million buyout. Reporters from the Indianapolis Star mentioned it in articles about Indiana's coaching search, which concluded nearly a month before N.C. State approached Beilein.

4. Phil Ford. It embarrassed the school to have news leak that someone involved in the search spoke with Ford — who has not coached at the college level since 2000, never has been a Division I head coach and had two DUI arrests in a three-year span while an assistant at North Carolina. He was one of the Tar Heels' greatest players, so it made no sense to fans that someone with fewer qualifications and more baggage would be contacted ahead of former State star Dereck Whittenberg, now the coach at Fordham. This was not Fowler's fault. It happened over his head. But the mess landed on him.

Simple fact: If it takes you more than a month to hire a college basketball coach, you're doing it wrong.

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