AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > March > 10 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USLowe’s ‘Pack show its true colors
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Tampa — The jacket was freshly dry-cleaned for Saturday’s game, which pretty much douses the whole superstition thing. A team goes on a winning streak, and sometimes nobody changes socks. Not Sidney Lowe. He keeps sending out the lucky red jacket to have the sweat stains removed.
Mojo, apparently, is unaffected by Martinizing.
Not this team.
Not this week.
Not yet.
N.C. State won another game Saturday, another game it wasn’t supposed to. First it punts Duke from the ACC tournament. Then it vanquishes the state of Virginia (Virginia and Virginia Tech). Win today over North Carolina and you might want to check the odds on the Wolfpack in the NCAA tournament. And ignore them, and plunge.
Another win. This time, the bunch that won five conference games all season overcame the odds on Jim Valvano’s birthday. Of course.
“I pay some visits to his [grave] site,” Lowe said of his former coach, who died of cancer in 1993 and is interred in Raleigh.
Maybe the first 5,000 State fans into the arena today should be given Ouija boards and incense.
Valvano, it seems, is returning Lowe’s visits.
This team has not yet won the ACC title, as Valvano’s did in Atlanta in 1983. It hasn’t even made the NCAA field, which Valvano’s “Cardiac Pack” somehow conquered that same year.
Remember? Lorenzo Charles stuffing home the missed shot by Dereck Whittenburg to beat Houston in the championship game. Valvano running around the court.
That team’s leader? That would be Sidney Lowe, then the point guard, now the ‘Pack’s first-year head coach. He has brought back the ‘Pack’s flair for the dramatic, and wrapped it in the same red sports coat made famous by predecessors Norm Sloan and Valvano.
In many ways, this team is like that one. Players overachieve. They hit key shots. They make free throws (21 of 24 in the second half of the win over Virginia Tech). They hung together this year when they lost starting point guard Engin Atsur for 12 games with a hamstring strain. They’re both tough and cool under fire — a reflection of their coach.
“The way we’re doing it right now is very similar to what our fans saw in 1983,” Lowe said.
When Atsur was out, Lowe said, “I just told them to keep fighting, stay together and good things will happen. I had no idea that we would be playing in the ACC championship game. But I told them that every game here special things can happen in the tournament every year. Whether it’s a player who emerges or a team that does something special. And I told them, ‘Why not be that team?’ “
It would take one more miracle. N.C. State would be the lowest seed (10th) ever to win the ACC tournament. It also would be the first to do it winning four games in as many days. Something outer-worldly will have to carry them today against North Carolina if their legs don’t.
Lowe is doing his part. Sometimes, he is overdoing it. He suffered severe dehydration at halftime of a game against North Carolina earlier this season and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance.
He received fluids — and scoring updates.
“When I had tubes running in my nose,” he said, “I had somebody relaying the score to me.”
State fans love that. They never warmed up to Herb Sendek, who took the team to the NCAA tournament five straight years. Sendek was perceived as aloof. Lowe is gregarious, like Valvano was. Sendek wouldn’t even wear the red jacket.
Lowe won as a player. Now he’s winning as a coach. He said he “has to hold his emotions in check” more now for the sake of his players.
But the winning?
“The feeling is the same,” he said.
Valvano might have said that.
He would’ve been 61 on Saturday. He was 47 when he died, the same age Lowe is today. The late coach and the current coach had a strong bond back in 1983. They’re still connected.
Lowe was asked how their conversation would have gone Saturday. Easy answer. “I wouldn’t have been able to get a word in,” he said.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Post your comment | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
Comments
By Ken Stallings
March 11, 2007 1:11 AM | Link to this
I was a sophomore at NC State in 1983 and remember those days literally as though they were yesterday.
When Sid came home, it was like family reunited.
It is more than obvious that to Sid the position at NC State is far more than a job. He’s family. And that passion for the game is driving his efforts.
From a purely technical standpoint, his coaching efforts are masterful. He has the team playing a wonderful combination of inside-outside game and a solid man-to-man defense that is joyous to watch.
The results on the court remind me so very much of the magic of 1983. NC State has the right man in charge now. It shows!
By old Tech fan
March 11, 2007 8:44 AM | Link to this
ABC
By Titus
March 11, 2007 11:09 AM | Link to this
Lowe is definitely one of those charismatic leaders, much like Valvano. And he’s proving to be a highly adaptable tactition on the sidlines.
They don’t just give away HC jobs in the NBA and with his experience/ties, natural charisma, he’ll be in excellent recruiter (eg, JJ Hickson of Atlanta).
No matter what happens in the title game, the team’s efforts are to be applauded
By TechRox
March 11, 2007 11:52 AM | Link to this
The thing that stands out is that RED JACKET! I think Hewitt would look good in a Yellow jacket or a blue one like it. I hate to say this, but I have to root for NC because Tech could be NIT bound if the Pack wins. Good Luck anyhow. Go Jackets.