Now that Sendek is gone, where does N.C. State turn?

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Posted 9:51PM on Monday, April 3, 2006

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) Herb Sendek leaves the basketball program at North Carolina State in very good shape. No one knows that better than Les Robinson, the coach Sendek replaced 10 years ago. At the time, the Wolfpack were coming off five consecutive losing seasons, the worst stretch in school history. ``By the time Herb got there, we were barely above water,'' said Robinson, now the athletic director at The Citadel. ``We went from the basement to the ground level, then he's taken it to the next level. But I guess he ran out of gas, too.'' Sendek's tenure officially ended Monday when he accepted the job at Arizona State. He departs after leading N.C. State to the NCAA tournament the past five seasons, including a run to the regional semifinals a year ago. Sendek takes over a program that has reached the NCAA tournament three times in 28 years. He got a five-year contract to replace Rob Evans. ``I really was not surprised,'' Robinson said in a telephone interview from Indianapolis, site of the Final Four. ``I thought he had done an admirable job there.'' By most accounts, that was true. Sendek had a losing record only once, reached the postseason nine times and recruited players who rarely strayed into trouble off the court. He was 191-132 with the Wolfpack. ``Herb inherited a program in 1996 that was in need of consistent success, and he brought that back to N.C. State basketball ... ,'' N.C. State athletic director Lee Fowler said in a statement. Yet the past couple of seasons have been marked by unrest among a large portion of the school's rabid fan base. Sendek's perceived lack of charisma was part of it, as was his reliance on a Princeton-based offense. Perhaps most of all, he finished 8-38 against Duke and North Carolina, two schools within 30 miles of the N.C. State campus. ``And they all share the same airport,'' Robinson quipped. ``I used to tell people I had the toughest airport in America to be a basketball coach.'' He was reminded of this in 1991 at the end of his first season with the Wolfpack. They had lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament while the Blue Devils and the Tar Heels both advanced to the national semifinals. As Robinson prepared to travel to the Final Four, a porter helping him with his luggage at Raleigh-Durham International Airport innocently asked where his team was. ``He didn't know any better,'' Robinson said. ``He already had seen Duke and Carolina going, so he thought everyone who had a team did the same.'' Sendek's replacement probably will face the same questions the Tar Heels won the national title last season and Duke is a perennial contender. Both also have coaches (Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski) who cast long shadows around the Atlantic Coast Conference. ``You want to be part of program that has high expectations,'' Sendek said Monday in Tempe, Ariz., where he was introduced as Arizona State's new coach. ``You don't want to be part of a situation where you're not expected to do well.'' Dereck Whittenburg, who as a player helped N.C. State win the NCAA championship in 1983, agrees. ``I think that's what makes the job great,'' said the current coach at Fordham. ``Being so close to two programs with two Hall of Fame coaches, I think that's exciting. I think for any coach, it would be a great challenge.'' Whittenburg, who also served as an assistant with the Wolfpack under Jim Valvano, is one possible candidate for the job. Others widely mentioned include Memphis' John Calipari, Texas' Rick Barnes and Xavier's Sean Miller, a former Sendek assistant. Barnes denied any interest in the job before the Longhorns beat N.C. State in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Dallas, and he reiterated that in an interview with the Austin American-Statesman. ``I feel the same as I felt when I was asked that question in Dallas,'' he told the paper. ``I have one of the best jobs in the country. I've got no other thoughts about it.'' Whoever comes in should be successful from the start. The Wolfpack return four players from their rotation, along with talented freshmen Ben McCauley, Courtney Fells and Brandon Costner. Costner played in only five games before shutting down with a stress fracture in his leg, so he probably will receive a medical redshirt and have an extra year of eligibility. Sendek also signed three highly regarded recruits for next season guard Larry Davis, forward Dan Werner and forward Dennis Horner. ``Herb Sendek left the next coach in really good shape,'' said Dave Telep, the national basketball recruiting director for Scout.com. There are other benefits, too. Few programs can match N.C. State's success over the years, and there is sparkling arena that is as good as any in Division I. Throw in a chance to coach in the ACC and it's easy to see why Robinson calls it one of the best jobs in the nation. ``Absolutely, it's a good job,'' he said. ``The guy coming in has to realize what his competition is. But whoever comes in, he'll know what he has to do.'' (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)