Is firing Mark Gottfried with three weeks left in the season the start of a trend or the latest example of North Carolina State having no feel for where it fits in the college basketball landscape?
The latter is always possible. The school’s administration and fanbase seem to operate under the inflated impression that the Wolfpack should be on equal footing with neighbors Duke and North Carolina.
There’s a reason, or truthfully reasons, that their last two hires — Sidney Lowe and Gottfried — weren’t anywhere near the top of their hiring wish lists. Elite coaches are leery of coaching there.
Firing Gottfried, who’ll coach the rest of the season, is a defendable decision. N.C. State has undoubtedly had a disappointing year given the talent on its roster. The fans, who were never in love with Gottfried to begin with, despite two Sweet 16s in his first four years, have had the torches lit and pitchforks sharpened since December. Lots of people assumed he’d be out after the season.
But what’s the value of doing it in February? It’s not like there’s an assistant coach worth auditioning for a month, or a scandal that the school wants to start distancing itself from immediately. Just a coach who didn’t win enough. The school is going to end up hiring the same coach whether it publicly starts its search now or after the season.
There’s no real advantage to a head start. The type of coach N.C. State is going to pursue is either:
1. Headed to the NCAA Tournament and won’t be available for a few weeks anyway.
2. Waiting to see if Indiana opens first. If the Hoosiers fire Tom Crean, Indiana is going to have the type of candidate pool N.C. State thinks it should have. Indiana isn’t pulling any triggers until its season over.
For N.C. State to attract an elite caliber head coach, it will need to offer more money and more years on a contract than some higher caliber programs would in order to extract a successful coach from an AAC or an Atlantic 10 school, or someone like Gregg Marshall from Wichita State.
Even with those added inducements on the table some might still choose to stay put and wait for a school that:
1. Isn’t third in the pecking order in its own area code.
2. Doesn’t have an athletic director about to retire.
3. Isn’t willing to embarrass a coach who led it to four NCAA Tournaments in six years by firing him in February with games still to play.
MY TOP 10 — 1. Gonzaga, 2. Villanova, 3. Kansas, 4. Arizona, 5. UCLA, 6. Oregon, 7. Baylor, 8. Louisville, 9. Duke, 10. North Carolina.
For the rest of my Top 25, visit the College Hoop Week Guide on gazettenet.com’s UMass Sports Blog.
GAME OF THE WEEK: No. 7 Louisville at No. 8 North Carolina, Wednesday, 9 p.m. ESPN — This game will affect the ACC race and where each of these teams land when NCAA seeds come out.
ATLANTIC 10 GAME OF THE WEEK: VCU at Rhode Island, Saturday 2 p.m. ESPN2 — VCU needs this to keep pace with Dayton for the league regular season title. URI needs to keep NCAA hopes alive (see below).
BUZZER BEATER — It figures to be an anxious few weeks of bubble-life for Rhode Island until Selection Sunday.
As of Monday, ESPN had the Rams out of its projected field of 68, while CBS has them in a play-in game.
At 17-9, the Rams are ranked 55 in Kenpom.com and 51 in the RPI.
The Rams are 1-3 against the RPI top 50, with the lone victory (Cincinnati) coming in November. Their two losses to Dayton were by three on the road and by one at home. Flip either of those results or their Feb. 15 albatross of a home loss to Fordham (RPI 191) and the prognosis would be brighter.
Rhode Island is 3-8 vs. the RPI top 100 with two opportunities to improve that before the Atlantic 10 Tournament. It plays at No. 95 La Salle Tuesday and hosts No. 26 VCU, Saturday.
After that, URI will be hoping for a deep run in the Atlantic 10 Tournament and results around the nation to go its way.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage