The Face of Evil

In case you were wondering, or had forgotten.

If you ever wonder why our kids are in Iraq, or what exactly the war on terror is about, all you have to do is listen to Zacarias Moussaoui "t(ell) jurors Thursday he has 'no regret, no remorse,' was disgusted by the heart-rending testimony of victims and relatives and only wished they had suffered more."

I always thought Moussaoui was a little bit crazy. I mean, you have to be to orchestrate and execute something like the 9-11 attacks. But as General Taylor tells Sgt. major Dickerson in Good Morning, Vietnam, "you're not crazy, you're just mean."

Whether or not you agree with how the war on terror has been prosecuted, how can you not be chilled when you hear Mossaoui's testimony and his view of America and its place in the world.

Moussaoui's vitriol is what is being taught in the streets in much of the Muslim world, by mullahs and others who seek to keep the pot stirred and indoctrinate the impoverished and hopeless by beating the drum against the United States.

If you ever need a reminder of why we must remain ever vigilant, just hear Moussaoui's own response to the prosecutor's question of if he would be happy to see a repeat of 9/11:

"Every day until we get you," replied Moussaoui.

Chasing a Ghost

Now that Rick Barnes has ruined NC State's weekend, it appears State is playing footsie with John Calipari of Memphis. Apparently the AD, chancellor, and chief booster have flown to Memphis to get some ribs and throw a wad of cash at Calipari.

Believe it or not, this may actually be a better fit for the Wolfpack than the homegrown Barnes. Calipari is much more confrontational than his Texas counterpart, despite Barnes' well-cited crossing of Dean Smith . At least I have never heard of another coach threatening to kill Barnes, as former Temple coach John Chaney threatened Calipari.

No, Calipari may be the best man for the real burden of being the head basketball coach at North Carolina State University - chasing the ghost of James T. Valvano.

Jim Valvano was brash, he was passionate, and he was funny. He handled winning and losing with class and style, and his battle with terminal cancer showed grace, courage, and humor and ultimately cemented his status as the gold standard of NC State basketball. How he handled dying also masked the mixed legacy he left in Raleigh.

Everett Case was the architect not only of NC State basketball but also of ACC basketball. He, too, was brash and passionate, and also faced a terminal illness while he was actually coaching. His successor, Press Maravich, succumbed to the white-hot spotlight of chasing Case's ghost and took his all-world son, Pete, to the less pressure-filled atmosphere of Louisiana State. State followed up Maravich's tenure by hiring another outspoken coach, Norm Sloan, from Florida. Sloan won a title with one of the best college basketball teams ever, then moved aside for the entertaining Valvano.

Valvano enjoyed the spotlight and took fun in cracking jokes about himself. He played the "misplaced Yankee" routine to the hilt, winning over fans and boosters alike. And in 1983, he caught lightning in a bottle, riding an average team to the most remarkable post-season run in college basketball history. And, with typical flair and the Valvano gift for timing, he did it just one year after hated rival North Carolina won the NCAA title, trumping the Tar Heels' reign along Tobacco Road.

He followed the 1983 title with a share of the 1985 ACC regular-season championship and a trip to the Elite Eight. With Virginia fading and Duke not yet having risen from the ashes, it appeared State was ready to challenge Carolina for ACC basketball dominance. Valvano was a hero to the Wolfpack faithful and was literally handed the keys to the university's athletic department when he became athletic director in 1986.

But by 1989, the empire was crumbling. Rocked by poor recruiting choices, player indiscretions, a scurrilous tell-all book about his program, and a general lack of control over the athletic department, Valvano was in deep trouble, certainly as AD and most likely as basketball coach as well. Still, in the midst of that turmoil, Valvano won his only outright ACC regular-season title in 1989 and had brought in a recruiting class that would include the school's all-time leading scorer, Rodney Monroe.

By the time Valvano resigned under pressure in 1990, NC State's chancellor, and chief Valvano ally, Bruce Poulton was run off and both the basketball program and the athletic department were on the rocks. NCAA probation was imminent and the academic community of the university was up in arms. Valvano retreated to the broadcast booth while Les Robinson, one of the last of Everett Case's boys, was brought in to clean up the mess.

There was a brief honeymoon for Robinson while State tried to distance itself from the Valvano mess. Robinson won early with Valvano's recruits, but NCAA probation and increased academic scrutiny made it nearly impossible to compete in the ACC. Valvano, meanwhile, tuned his charm and humor on the ABC and ESPN basketball audiences and when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, fought his battle on television for all to see.

Valvano salvaged and in fact re-made his legacy as a result of his highly visible and publicized battle with cancer. People forgot the free-wheeling, free-spending coach and AD that left NC State in an absolute mess, and instead focused on the courageous and gregarious man that literally died before our eyes. In doing so, he became a martyr to the Wolfpack faithful, and his ghost haunts that basketball program even today, nearly 15 years after his death and nearly 25 years since the magical '83 title.

Les Robinson, an outgoing, decent and honorable man who loved NC State very much, took the fall for sinking the basketball program Valvano had run onto the rocks. As a consolation prize, Robinson was named athletic director and had an underappreciated hand in righting State's overall athletic program and healing many old wounds.

As Robinson's successor, Herb Sendek was in many ways the anti-Valvano - introverted, aloof, seemingly dispassionate - and that was on purpose. Valvano's ghost was still haunting enough in 1996 that State felt they had to run away from it. But like Robinson, Sendek's achievements have been underappreciated. By the end of his 10 years in Raleigh, Sendek was producing 20-game winners and NCAA appearances at a rate similar to Valvano's, but all the while graduating players and keeping them out of trouble off the court.

(It is interesting to note that two of Valvano's players, Sidney Lowe and Nate McMillan, have played and coached in the NBA but could not be considered for the NC State opening because neither earned their undergraduate degrees).

But ultimately, State fans tired of Sendek's dry as toast appearance, his lack of passion, and his inability to beat Duke, Wake Forest, and especially North Carolina. His success on the court drew comparisons to the success in the 80s when NC State basketball was relevant, which in turn drew comparisons of Sendek to Valvano. There is no way Sendek could have matched Valvano's energy or humor when Valvano was alive; he certainly couldn't match up with a ghost 20 years later.

So, like Jacob Marley's torment of Scrooge, the ghost of Jim Valvano still haunts NC State basketball, its program and its fans. In order to be successful as the basketball coach at NC State, you have to be colorful and you have to beat North Carolina (and now Duke) on a somewhat regular basis. And if you can't do that, you at least have to steal their thunder (as in a classic Valvano story, where after State and Carolina played what was supposed to be the last game in Carmichael Auditorium before the Heels moved into the Smith Center, Valvano went and grabbed a ball after the game and shot a basket so it could be said "Jim Valvano made the last basket in Carmichael").

You have been warned, John Calipari, or Jay Wright, or whomever takes this job. Get that often-shown picture of Jim Valvano running furiously around the court in Albuquerque in 1983 in your head, because until you win a national championship, or at least go .500 against Carolina (which Valvano never did, by the way - his record against the Heels was only slightly better than Sendek's, but Valvano seemed to win the big games against UNC), then you will be chasing that timeless figure around and around the basketball court for your entire tenure in Raleigh.

It takes an enormous ego to try and knock heads with Mike Krzyzewski and Roy Williams and take on Valvano's martyrdom as well, but of all the candidates mentioned for the State job so far, Calipari may just be the most qualified in that area.

I thought you were supposed to be the tolerant ones...

Seems there was this group of 25,000 teenagers who assembled in San Francisco, the self-proclaimed "most tolerant and progressive city" in America. But there was a problem - the assembly was of a group of evangelical Christians, and they were not welcomed warmly.

The rally, called "Battle Cry for a Generation" was led by a guy named Ron Luce, who wants "God's instruction book" to guide young people away from the corrupting influence of MTV, MySpace.com, and other parts of popular culture that seek to glamorize sex and violence. Seems wholesome enough, right?

Not in the eyes of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, who passed a resolution condemning the "act of provocation" by what it termed an "anti-gay," "anti-choice" organization that aimed to "negatively influence the politics of America's most tolerant and progressive city."

In addition, the gathering was met by about 50 protestors representing a broad spectrum of San Francisco's finest-- from abortion-rights advocates to anti-war activists to atheists.

I guess America's most tolerant city can't tolerate Christians.

The State of State

Well, NC State fans have gotten their wish and have run off the Willy Loman of the ACC, Herb Sendek. The predictable feeding frenzy that has followed has been humorous to watch. Here are some observations from this side of the fence.

Herb Sendek: Much has been made of Herb getting a raw deal at NC State, and there is some truth to that. All he did was take a moribund program reeling from the aftermath of probation and return it to respectability in the ACC, all the while graduating players and keeping his program squeaky clean. Further, he took his teams to five straight NCAA tournaments and to the NIT three more times, for a total of 8 trips to the post-season in his 10 years in Raleigh. As State's Tony Haynes says, Herb did what he was hired to do.

What he did not do, at least to the satisfaction of Wolfpack nation, was beat the other members of the Big Four enough. Sendek was a combined 15-53 against Wake Forest, Duke, and North Carolina, including back-to-back losses to the last-place Deacons this year. Moreover, the stoic, publicly dispassionate Sendek seemed to treat a Duke, Wake, or Carolina game as no more important than any other on the schedule. That may be true from a coaching standpoint, where each game is just one of 27, but it drove the fans bonkers.

This is not to say that Herb did not sow some of the seeds of discontent himself. He alienated many of the high school basketball coaches in the state, preferring to do his recruiting through AAU coaches. He is not a particularly camera-friendly person, nor does he have a quick quip or a warm smile that plays well on the barbecue-and-sweet-tea booster club circuit in the spring and fall. He was respectful of the university and its history, but never seemed passionate enough to please the masses.

He was also aloof and bookish, leading some to think of him as snobby and stubborn. He clung fiercely to his "Prince-State" offense and peppered his non-conference schedule with patsies that raised the record not not necessarily the level of play for conference time.

But let's cut to the chase - throw Duke and Wake out the window - what did in Herb Sendek with the fans was his inability to beat North Carolina on a consistent basis. Sendek was 0-6 against Roy Williams, and the Pack's lackluster performance against a rebuilding Carolina at the RBC center this year just seemed to seal the deal. Moreover, and what cut State fans to the quick, was that he just didn't seem to CARE!

So Sendek pulled the rip cord, jumped to Arizona State for more dollars and someplace where 5 NCAA tournaments would be celebrated. It truly was a win-win in that State fans weren't truly happy with Sendek and he, in turn, could go somewhere warm and make more money.

The Successors. The public, but unofficial courtship of Rick Barnes has almost been comedic over the past week. The biggest attraction of Barnes for NC State fans, as near as I can tell are (in reverse order): 1. He once coached in the ACC, 2. He's from North Carolina, and 3. He once told Dean Smith to stick it in his ear. But Barnes has it good, and no matter ow much money State throws at Barnes, Texas' pockets are deeper; plus, as much money as Mack Brown makes, Barnes will never have to worry about making more than the football coach.

What State fans fail to realize is that whoever they choose will not just be the #3 coach in the ACC, they'll be the #3 coach in their own area code. It's a thankless job, and someone who has it good, like Jay Wright or John Calipari, would probably think twice about jumping into a situation where you have to duke it out with Roy and K before you even square off with another coach with a ring, Gary Williams, or young hotshots like Dave Leitao and Paul Hewitt.

The word is that "State will not have to go to their B-List". If that's the case, they'd better have 10-15 names on their A-List.

The "Tradition". NC State is an interesting study in the history of college basketball. The father of ACC basketball, Everett Case, was at State, and one of the five greatest college basketball players ever, David Thompson, played for the Pack. But most often State basketball is best remembered for the ultimate Cinderella run in the NCAA tournament, winning the title on the ultimate Cinderella play.

But beyond those three things, State basketball has a spotty tradition, more rich and colorful than it is successful. State has 10 ACC tournament championships, but five of those were in the first 11 years of the league, and none since 1987. And the last two - 1983 and 1987 - must be considered upsets. The Pack won a pair of regular season titles during the David Thompson years, but have won only two in the 30 years since, with the last of those in 1989. Since that time, in addition to Duke and UNC, Maryland, Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, and even Clemson have won the ACC regular-season crown.

On a national stage, State stacks up less with the Carolinas and Dukes, Indianas and Kentuckys of the world and more with the Oklahoma States, Louisvilles, and Utahs. Any commentator over the past week and a half will tell you that State has won two national titles, but they neglect to say that the Pack has been to only three Final Fours. Arkansas, by contrast, has only won one title but been to 6 Final Fours. Utah has one title in 4 trips. Louisville has 2 titles in 5 chances and Oklahoma State has 2 titles in six visits to the Final Four. And all of those schools have been since State last went in 1983. In its own league, both Georgia Tech and Maryland have been to multiple Final Fours (with the Terps winning an NCAA title) since State last sniffed the Elite Eight, much less the Final Four.

State fans are clamoring for Wolfpack basketball to be relevant again, and I don't blame them. But the glory days are past, and venerable old NC State has been passed by old conference rivals and while State should aim for the highest, whoever takes that job should realize that the school of the "Grey Fox" has since become the old grey mare.

Brain Dump

I just realized it's been almost two months since I wrote anything up here. I'm really not that slack, and but sometimes I have things on my mind that just don't make it up to the web. I'm not one of those people who blog everything that happens to them ("so then Missy said, 'I've never seen that much cat vomit in my life!'" or "it rained today and I'm sad")

But then my good buddy K-Nine over at Dead Dog Walkin', my only reference point in the blogosphere, suggested trimming his blog roll. I don't think he was singling me out, but it guilted me into actually putting some things down.

I've got some ideas on things that I will post and back-date, and I have made a goal to update at least twice a week. The brain dump is forthcoming...