I heard Jeff Goodman (FoxSports) on the Dave Glenn show today.  Jeff (who is an Arizona alum btw) brought up that if Sean Miller manages to somehow take down Duke tonight, that Debbie Yow should give him a blank cheque.  This prompted Glenn to ask Jeff why it is so tough to lure coaches away from a top 25 job (I know, dumb question).  Goodman's answer focused on NC State . . .

He said that in the case of NC State, there are 4 issues that keep coaches from taking the job:

1) Crazy fanbase

2) Duke and UNC

3) You can't win there unless you cheat

4) Negative opinions of Yow in the coaching fraternity

It is Goodman's assertion that these are widely held opinions of coaches.  Of course Glenn, who I am no big fan of, did not choose to question any of these points, so I will.

1) Let's see how NC State's "unrealistic" fanbase has treated its most recent coaches.  Sidney Lowe coached for 5 years without finishing better than 9th in the ACC, and he still had significant support until his 5th season proved to be another failure.  Herb Sendek coached for 10 (TEN!) years receiving wholesale support from the fanbase until his disastrous 5th season where his team fell extremely short of expectations.  He managed to hang on for another 5 years, but in my opinion once you lose a significant portion of the fanbase, it will take an extraordinary achievement to win it back.  Unfortunately for Herb, he only had moderate success and decided to head west for more money.  So our lunatic fanbase has made is so hard on the coaches at NC State that we have had 2 coaches in the last 15 years.

96-97 season to present
BC - 3 coaches
Clemson - 4 coaches
Duke - 1 coach
GT - 3 coaches
FSU - 3 coaches
UNC - 4 coaches
Maryland - 1 coach
Miami - 3 coaches
Virginia - 4 coaches
Virginia Tech - 4 coaches
Wake Forest - 4 coaches

Man, NC State fans sure are awful.

2) Why are coaches not fleeing the Big East?  Why would anyone want to coach in the SEC when you have to go up against Florida and Kentucky?  Why would anyone want to coach in the Big 10 against Ohio State and Michigan State?  Why would anyone want to coach in the Big 12 against Kansas and Texas?  Why would anyone want to coach in the Pac-10 against UCLA and Arizona?  The Duke-UNC argument is beyond stupid.

3) It seems to be a widely held opinion that NC State is, at worst, a top half ACC job, and most people seem to think of it as the 3rd or 4th best ACC job along with Maryland.  Are you telling me that coaches do not think you can win at a top half ACC job without cheating?  Herb managed to go to 5 NCAA tournaments and I never heard rumors of him cheating.  Why would a coach have to cheat to succeed at an ACC school with a large fanbase that is passionate about basketball and has had success in the modern era and seems to have no trouble recruiting?

4) There seems to be so much conflicting information about what the coaching collective thinks of Yow that it leads me to believe that there may be some coaches concerned about her relationship with Gary Williams, but it is by no means the majority.

I mainly thought Goodman's response was noteworthy because the cheating response was a new one and, imo, ridiculous.