The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/141892
What are your thoughts on the state of NC State athletics, starting with on the field? "I'm very pleased with where we are right now. We are in the process of driving towards becoming a top-25 athletics program. "We are doing two metrics right now. One of them is top 25 including all the publics and all the privates, and we do another metric internally which is: out of all the public schools, where do we fall. Last year, as an example, we finished No. 37 overall in the Directors' Cup, but if you only considered the public universities, or schools that look like us, we were No. 31. "We're watching both of those statistics." How about academically? "One of the things I have learned since coming to State and working full-time is that we are a STEM school. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. There are other STEM schools that we should be comparing ourselves to like Georgia Tech and Clemson. "We are not a liberal arts school. Because we are a STEM school, classes are very specialized and technical. We do offer a liberal arts education, but it isn't our focus. I'm learning that the academic environment here is very challenging, and we probably shouldn't be trying to compare ourselves to liberal arts universities and their graduation rates. "It's going to be very challenging for us to ever have a graduation rate in the top half of all the publics because a number of them are liberal arts schools. Please don't take this wrong — I know those liberal arts schools are challenging universities. "I say this as an English major myself, but interpreting poetry is different than taking statistics. There is no room for error in statistics. The answer is either right or wrong. There is room for opinion in looking at a poem and trying to determine its meaning." The last couple of times we have talked, you mentioned how you have spent an inordinate amount of time on financial and budget matters. "We have what I referred to in 2010 as a starved athletics program. I was really referring to the teams themselves, and our inability to sufficiently provide for them. That's been our focus and has remained our focus for the last three years: the coaches and the teams. What is it that they need, whether it's in recruiting, team travel, etc. We are not completely there, but we are very close. "Part of the ramp-up on the amount spent on teams includes mandatory increases in scholarship costs, something over which we have no control." Moving on to the main revenue sports, what were your thoughts on men's basketball this year? "I think Coach [Mark] Gottfried has said it better than anybody, and that is we're thrilled that we went to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year, but he had higher goals set for us. It doesn't feel as good as it would normally feel. I think Temple proved in playing Indiana that their game against us in the NCAA Tournament was no fluke. "His recruiting has gone very well. I have met most of the players coming in and have met their parents in a number of cases. I feel very good about the direction of the program." In football, you have a new head coach in Dave Doeren. "He is knocking it out of the park in recruiting, to use baseball language for a football program. We are doing so well in recruiting, and I'm appreciative that Dave has asked me to meet several of those recruits. I've had a very small part in that. "Dave and his staff are so competitive, and it's exactly what we need: high-energy coaches willing to go up against anyone in recruiting to get the very best players at NC State. You can say, 'We could shoot too high and lose players.' I don't really think that way myself, and I don't think Coach Doeren does either. "I think we both believe that NC State deserves the best, and I think they are proving that in their recruiting." How gratifying was it for you to get your No. 1 target in the search? "Coach Doeren was our No. 1 target, for sure. That was stressful because there were so many other schools waiting in the wings waiting to talk to him. We got to him first. It turned out that was a key. "I also had the benefit of also having a relationship with his agent Jordan Bazant, who is also Mark Gottfried's agent. Jordan and I have a relationship originally through Mark's hiring. I feel like Jordan knew a lot more about us through Mark — what it's like to work here day to day, what level of support we provide our coaches. "I think he was an advocate for us, in that regard, with Dave." How about new women's basketball head coach Wes Moore? "Coach Moore had his first signee, and it was a four-star athlete. Dominique Wilson is a transfer from the University of Arkansas, and she will not be able to play in 2013-14, but in '14-15 she will be able to play. Out of the gate that's not a bad first recruit. "He brought in three talented assistant coaches, including the lead recruiter for the last five years at Georgia Tech in Gene Hill, and his No. 1 assistant from UT Chatta- Yow hired former UT Chattanooga head coach Wes Moore to take over the women's basketball program and return it to top-25 status, which is her goal for all Wolfpack athletic programs. photo courtesy nc state media relations July 2013 ■ 25 24-26,28.Debbie Yow.indd 25 7/2/13 11:23 AM