The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/73006
imagined or hoped for this much excite- ment in men's basketball? "Actually, I hoped for this amount of ex- A year ago at this time could you have citement. It's who I am. I just love working here, representing the Pack, believing in our promise. When you believe in some- thing you get to the place where you say, anything's possible. "That's where I was when I came home two years ago. We're a little bit ahead of schedule, but that doesn't mean we stay ahead of schedule. "I have seen so many programs go back- wards when they thought they had it going. There are no guarantees, and we are go- ing forward. We have a great senior man- agement team and a great group of head coaches. "We see them every month at the head coaches' meeting. I like it because we are in seven different buildings, and we don't see each other very often. I like that we have that one time every month where we can break bread together and talk about issues. "There's a head table, and only the head coaches can sit there, but there is lots of other seating, and it's a combination of assistants and administrators. It's in the Murphy Center." year, what should fans realistically expect? "I don't know, but I do know this: the Given what the basketball team did last proclamation from a number of writers that we are a top-10 team is overhyped. I also know that Mark is amazing as a coach in pulling out the best that our players have to give. "I think we have some question marks, and I share those with Mark and not other people. Mark is terrific about visiting with me about those things. He has a great deal of confidence in these players and believes in them just like he did last year. It'll be interesting to see how it all comes together." them last year, do you think that scheduling model is trickling down to other sports? "We give a great deal of latitude to our Clearly the basketball schedule helped head coaches in scheduling. We let them take the lead. A number of coaches feel, like Coach Gottfried does, that a tough non-conference schedule serves them well. Others do not. "But until we see a particular situation where a team might be failing because of their poor scheduling, we will probably not make any kind of move in that regard, but we watch it, and we talk about it. "Seven of us serve as sports supervisors, 22 ■ THE WOLFPACKER is hopeful of seeing the Pack playing for the ACC Championship in football. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS Yow (shown with former football standouts Mario Williams, left, and Willie Young, right) said she thing special this year, and I'm hopeful that we're going to see the Wolfpack playing for the ACC championship." The new TV deal has a nine-game ACC schedule. Have you talked to Coach O'Brien about what kind of impact that may have on future schedules? "How the ACC is going to set this up is that if you are in the Atlantic Division, in a given year all of you will be playing either five at home or five on the road. "I have been here two years and have yet to schedule a football game. I believe we need to schedule up a little bit in football in the non-conference, but we haven't had an opportunity to do that yet." Regionals a little bit, but what were your thoughts in general about what baseball did this year? "I think there are two things that im- pacted all of us about this team. One is the dramatic fashion in which we beat Van- You touched on baseball and the Super ketball? "We have to get back to the tournament. What are your thoughts on women's bas- Kellie [Harper] knows that, and I believe we will. Kellie, I've said publicly so many times, is a very talented X and O coach. I appreciate that so much. We need to do better in recruit- ing quality depth, and she's trying to do that with her staff. "It's going to take the combination. You can't do one or the other at this level. You have to have it all. Maryland has it all, so does Duke, so does North Carolina in wom- en's basketball. Now so does Miami, so does Georgia Tech. It's a fierce conference for women's basketball." wrestling, hiring Pat Popolizio, and your have one pending with softball. Can you talk about Popolizio, and also the direction for softball? "Coach Popolizio just finished having a You've made one coaching change in top-25 recruiting class in year one, not even year one, month one. We have a heavyweight from Binghamton that's transferring who's and we meet once every two weeks. One of the topics we talk about is non-conference scheduling." on last season and how do you feel about where the program stands? "The obvious is that we had a very poor Football-wise, what were your thoughts start and a very strong finish. I'm grateful for that. We did finish seventh out of 12, and that's not the vision that either Coach [Tom] O'Brien or I have for this program. "We're entering year six with a returning quarterback. We have a chance to do some- derbilt to be able to advance to the Super Regionals. "The second fact is that we are very young, and I think when people see young teams do that well, their hopes are elevated for the future. They think, 'Wow, if they are that talented as freshmen …' Of course it's not just the freshmen, but part of it was that group for sure. "I think expectations are going to be heightened and appropriately so. I don't think Coach [Elliott] Avent pulls away from that, and I know I don't. I think the future is very bright for that sport here."