The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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50 ■ THE WOLFPACKER BASKETBALL PREVIEW 2017-18 candidate to take over the Wolfpack. It was certainly a dream come true for the West Virginia native who got his start in coaching when Case stepped down two games into the 1964-65 season by taking over the Wolfpack freshman squad. Robinson had plenty of talent, with All- America guard Rodney Monroe and record- setting point guard Chris Corchiani coming back for their senior seasons and junior for- ward Tom Gugliotta poised for a breakout year. Monroe averaged 27.0 points during his senior campaign, smashing both the NC State and ACC career-scoring records. Cor- chiani became the first player in NCAA his- tory to collect more than 1,000 career assists. And Gugliotta averaged 15.2 points and 9.1 rebounds per game. All three earned first- or second-team All-ACC honors. Robinson's Wolfpack lost in a trip to East Tennessee, but Robinson won his first meet- ing against both Dean Smith and Krzyze- wski, knocking off UNC and Duke teams that both were ranked in the top 10. The Pack finished with a winning ACC record and advanced to the league cham- pionship semifinals, where it lost to Duke. However, Robinson never managed to get over the recruiting and academic restrictions from the NCAA probation he inherited from Valvano and stepped down after five con- secutive losing seasons. Herb Sendek, 1996-97, 17-15 regular season, 4-12 ACC, lost in ACC tourna- ment finals to North Carolina, lost in sec- ond round of National Invitation Tourna- ment to West Virginia NC State athletics director Todd Turner was looking for new blood when he set out to replace Robinson, who resigned just after the Wolfpack lost in the quarterfinals of the 1996 ACC Tournament. Turner selected Sendek, a Rick Pitino protégé who compiled a 63-26 record in three seasons at Miami of Ohio, including a win over Arizona in the 1995 NCAA Tournament. At 33, Sendek was the ACC's youngest coach. The school had loosened almost all of the recruiting and academic restrictions that hampered Robinson, and Sendek managed to put together a four-player recruiting class that included forwards Damon Thornton, Tim Wells and Andre McCollum along with guard Justin Gainey. Playing a rough-and-tumble defensive style necessitated by a thin roster, Sendek and his team began and ended strong dur- ing the season. It struggled during the ACC regular season, being swept by North Caro- lina and Duke, but Sendek and his team did score a 60-59 overtime victory in Winston- Salem against second-ranked Wake Forest, led by senior All-American Tim Duncan. That victory helped propel the Pack to a strong finish that included three straight wins to end the regular season, three straight wins in the ACC tournament in Greensboro and a victory against Southwest Missouri State in the NIT. The scrappy Pack, led by Gainey's 160 minutes of play, surprised the ACC by ad- vancing to the conference championship game, where it fought closely with No. 5 North Carolina before ultimately falling by 10 points. Still, Sendek returned the Pack, and a fan base hungry for success, to postseason play for the first time in six seasons. It was an auspicious start to Sendek's 10-year career with the Wolfpack. Sidney Lowe, 2006-07, 20-16 overall, 5-11 ACC, lost in ACC tournament finals to North Carolina, lost in third round of NIT to West Virginia After a prolonged coaching search that checked in with some of the biggest names in college basketball, athletics director Lee Fowler turned to one of his search advi- sors, legendary Wolfpack point guard Sidney Lowe, to take the job at his alma mater. Lowe had orchestrated the Wolfpack's run to the 1983 NCAA title with fellow se- niors Dereck Whittenburg and Thurl Bailey, and then embarked on a long NBA playing, broadcasting and coaching career over the next two decades. At the time he was hired, Lowe was an assistant with the Detroit Pis- tons. The former Wolfpack star matched Send- ek's record of winning his first five games of his inaugural season, including an 88- 76 victory over Michigan at PNC Arena. Lowe thrilled the home fans by beating No. 3-ranked North Carolina in his first contest against the Tar Heels, but perhaps even more importantly he led his team to a 7-2 record against in-state teams during the regular sea- son. In the opening round of the ACC tourna- ment in Tampa, the Wolfpack downed an- other in-state team, upsetting No. 21 Duke 85-80 to kick off a run to the championship game. Lowe joined Case, Maravich and Sendek as Wolfpack coaches who reached the title game of the league tournament in his inau- gural season with the team. The Pack fell 89-80 to North Carolina in the finals, but had made a strong enough case to receive an invitation to the NIT, where it beat Drexel and Marist in the first two rounds. Lowe joined Robinson, Maravich and Case as first-year NC State coaches that won a minimum of 20 games. Mark Gottfried, 2011-12, 24-13 overall, 9-7 ACC, lost to North Carolina in ACC tournament semifinals, lost to Kansas in NCAA Midwest Regional semifinals Another prolonged coaching search ended when second-year athletics director Debbie Yow turned to Mark Gottfried, whom she had known since his playing and her coach- ing days at Oral Roberts. Gottfried had once led Alabama to the nation's top 1 ranking and was working at ESPN when he was hired to take over the Wolfpack. Led by future professional players center Richard Howell, forwards C.J. Leslie and Scott Wood, and guards C.J. Williams and Lorenzo Brown, the Wolfpack exceeded ex- pectations throughout the season, finishing with a 9-7 conference record. Gottfried's initial team beat Boston Col- lege and Virginia in the ACC Tournament in Atlanta, but lost to North Carolina in the semifinals. An invitation to the NCAA Tour- nament followed, with Gottfried joining Robinson and Maravich as the only first- year Wolfpack coaches to qualify for the NCAA field. In Columbus, Ohio, the Pack downed both San Diego State and Georgetown to advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where it fell the follow- ing weekend to eventual national runner-up Kansas. Gottfried's 24 wins were the most for an NC State first-year coach since Case had 26 in his inaugural year. ■ Since 1946, Mark Gottfried's 24 wins in his NC State debut ranked second to only Everett Case (26), while he posted just the fourth winning record in conference play during a coach's first season with the Wolf- pack. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN Tim Peeler is a regular contributor to The Wolfpacker. and can be reached at tmpeeler@ncsu.edu.