Sidney Lowe will be named the head basketball coach at N.C. State on Saturday, but this would not be happening if later this month he wasn’t becoming a college graduate.
I heard somebody the other day talking on the radio asking, "Why does Sidney Lowe need to have a college degree? Why should a degree have anything to do with coaching basketball?"
Well, it means a heck of a lot if you’re coaching a college team and the answer is obvious. The goal of all colleges is to graduate students, and of course that includes student athletes.
How can a coach emphasize to his players how important it is to go to class and how important it is to graduate when they haven’t done so themselves? The answer is, they can’t.
It took Lowe 23 years after his class graduated at N.C. State to get his degree, but the important thing is, he will get it. And that is very much to his credit. As he grew older, he realized this was something he needed to do. And going ahead and making it happen was not just something that he thought of doing last month -- he had to work a number of years while coaching in the NBA to make it happen. It took perseverance and determination, and you have to admire him for it.
Lowe, a very bright and articulate man who knows basketball, left State after the 1983 championship to play pro ball. He’s either played or coached in the NBA ever since. He was making excellent money, but in the back of his mind, he knew he wanted and needed a degree. Finally, later this month he will get his diploma. He would not be the new coach at State without it.
Lowe will be asked many times from many people about the 23-year interval between leaving State and finally finishing up at St. Paul’s College. He has a chance to make a statement. I’m sure that over the years it’s been embarrassing to him. Even at the start of the search for Herb Sendek’s replacement, he was always ruled out because he never graduated. It was talked about, it was in print and I’m sure that it was something that Lowe got tired of hearing about. He may have wanted to coach in college basketball before this and he may have had some chances, but the lack of a degree kept him from it.
Coach Lowe has a chance now from first-hand knowledge to tell his players how important it is to graduate. He can tell them how making big bucks in pro basketball is no sure thing, and how not working as hard as he should while he was at State may have cost him some opportunities. He has a chance to use his experience to push others. He can really look someone in the eye and tell them how important it is to go to class.
I’m hoping that he will come right out and say he made a mistake during his four years at State by not working hard enough in the classroom. From his experience, he can make sure what happened to him will not happen to his players. Sidney Lowe can make his mark at State on and off the court, and I believe he will.
Yes, it’s most important for a college coach to have a degree. It’s for his credibility as well as the school's. It has to be that way and all school administrators know it. A college coach is a teacher, and teachers are college graduates.
