OK. I'm now sold on Sidney Lowe.
Mind you, I wasn't expecting him to be unimpressive... Frankly, I didn't know WHAT to expect. But so far, the first-year coach of the Wolfpack has been pushing all the right buttons.
If I'd told any of you that Engin Atsur would miss nearly the entire game against Michigan, and the Pack would still win... would you have believed it? Lowe has his team motivated. They believe in the "team concept," but they don't believe their team depth is too thin. Beating a quality team -- without Atsur -- is proof positive.
And how about Lowe's in-game coaching? He's animated. He's intense. And his first-half timeouts -- which are becoming a game-by-game event -- always seem to spark his team at the right time.
Maybe the most impressive thing has been his recruiting success: J.J. Hickson and Tracy Smith are both big-time recruits. As a career NBA coach, recruiting is the one thing Lowe hadn't done before taking the job at N.C. State. But he certainly seems to be learning well on the fly.
I'll admit it ... One month ago, I covered the Red-White game, and I thought the State team I was watching would be worse than I'd expected. I had a feeling I'd only experienced once before -- while watching Carolina's Blue-White Game during Matt Doherty's second season -- I came expecting to be pleasantly surprised, and I left shocked at how unimpressed I actually was. I was truly concerned that State's season would be downright dismal. And let's face it, covering a dismal season is not exactly an ideal work scenario for me!
But that feeling is gone now. Yes, it's only five games ... but the Wolfpack has impressed me. And so has the Pack's coach.
What are your thoughts out there?
