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.
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