LOWE AND BEHOLD

It has been almost 4 years since the NC State Wolfpack hired Sidney Lowe as their head coach, and although it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing during his first three seasons, Lowe is confident and excited about the direction the program is headed.

Sidney Lowe began his career at DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, Maryland where he was coached by arguably the best basketball coach in the history of the sport, Morgan Wooten. Wooten is the winningest coach of all-time at any level and earned the admiration of former UCLA coach, and hall of famer, John Wooden when he stated “I know of no finer coach (than Wooten) at any level; high school, college, or pro. I stand in awe of him.” Wooten took an interest in Lowe and helped mold him into what he considered to be the perfect point guard. “He (Lowe) understood the game so thoroughly,” Wooten explained. “He made everybody else better. He made everybody else believe in themselves. He wanted to be part of something greater than himself. He left his ego at the door. When Sidney had the ball in his hands, you knew everything was going to be all right.”

With the praise of Wooten and his high school success, NC State came calling. Four years later Sidney Lowe had become a legendary figure for the Wolfpack as he and Jim Valvano led the 1983 team to the schools second national champtionship via one of the most unexpected and exciting Cinderella runs in NCAA history. “Sidney Lowe was the brightest player I ever coached in 23 years.” Valvano said. “He was the epitome of the cliche ”coach on the floor.”

Later that year Sidney Lowe was drafted to play point guard for the Chicago Bulls. After almost 7 years of bouncing around the NBA Sidney Lowe gave up his dream and began perusing a new dream, one he felt he was almost more suited for,... coaching. Sidney caught on quickly with the Minnesota Timberwolves as an assistant, and when their coach was fired in 1992 it was Lowe they turned to for the head coaching position. Coaching a very undermanned squad Lowe and Wolves struggled to get things going. After the experience with the Timberwolves Lowe took an assitants job with the Cavs until the Vancouver Grizzlies hired him in 2000. After leading them to a franchise best record the team decided to move to Memphis, but Lowe stepped down. He returned to Minnesota to work under Flip Saunders who soon moved on to coach the Pistons and Sidney followed.

Throughout his journey Lowe made great connections and made a lot of good relationships from the high school ranks to the NBA, which is why when NC State was looking for a new coach, NCSU AD Lee Fowler came calling to Sidney. Thinking that
Lowe was uninterested in a move from the NBA, Fowler was simply calling to get a referrel. As Sidney listed the attributes he felt were necessary to succeed in coaching the Wolfpack, it began to dawn on him that he was describing himself. It was NC State coming full circle. It was the hire that could re-unite the fanbase and bring their tradition to the forefront once again. He understood the rivalries, he could relate to the players putting on the red and white and most of all, he was a Woflpacker at heart.

Three seasons later, Sidney Lowe is in the midst of building his own tradition at NC State but patience is wearing thin with some fans. They want to win and they want to win now, but the problem with that is the same problem you’d face if you attempted to build a house without a foundation. It would eventually crumble. Sidney is just now putting the finishing touches on the programs new foundation and all he needs is your patience. Ask yourself, what has NC State done the past 20 years to make them marketable to players outside the area? Why choose NC State as opposed to Memphis, Kansas, or Tennessee? The answer is simple, it's Sidney Lowe. We're not guaranteeing that Sidney is the answer, because it's surely too early to tell, but if the way he is handling his team, and the way he's working on the recruiting trail has any implications, then we think he just may be.

Recruiting works when coaches create relationships with players when they're as young as freshmen or sophomores in high school. When Sidney got here he had no relationships with recruits because this was his first College gig. He used his NBA resources to lure JJ Hickson and pulled a fast one to swipe a 5 star, and top player in NC, Tracy Smith, out from underneath LSU. He then needed to fill the backup point guard role that was vacant, and after missing on a few guys he had to scoop up an un-recruited unknown Javi Gonzalez, who was the best of what was left at the end of the signing period. Sidney, still behind most schools relationship wise, picked up two under rated recruits in CJ Williams, and Julius Mays who wasn't highly touted at all until teams began to pick up on the fact that he led his high school to two consecutive state title games in the basketball hotbed of Indiana.

Lowe is finally on equal footing with all the other programs. The guys he's bringing in next year and there on, are the ones he's been able to get in early on and the ones he's had relationships with since their sophomore years. And guess what, he's landed the #7 PG in the nation in Zo Brown, beating out Texas, Florida and Memphis. Then picked up 4 star power forward Richard Howell, and sharp shooter (ESPNU's #1 signing day sleeper), Scott Wood, who by the way averaged almost 25 points a game his senior season while being the 5th leading vote getter for Indiana’s Mr. Basketball Award. Throw in that the Pack has landed under the radar role players Jordan Vandenberg, Josh Davis and is liking it's chances of landing 4 star PF DeShawn Painter and you have yourself quite the class. A class which is already ranked 19th nationally. NC State was also one of the top 3 schools for the top 3 players in the nation . Among them is the still undecided John Wall of Raleigh, NC.

Should we also bring up the 2010 class where we are perusing the top players in the class, including CJ Leslie ( 5 star forward), Luke Cothron (5 star center), Mychal Parker (4 star SF) and Will Barton (5 star SG) and already have a commitment from Ryan Harrow (a once unknown PG, who averaged 28 points and 9 assists and now is the #50 player in his class) who is climbing higher and higher in the rankings everyday. We know that sometimes it can be hard to be a Wolfpack fan, but our time is coming and we believe it will come under the reign of Sidney Lowe. So Wolfpack Nation, we say this, stay patient, stay passionate, stay positive and stay together... the Wolfpack needs you!