Thursday, May 18, 2006

More From Dave Glenn, Plus Other Items

-- NCSU Search Notebook, Part I:

Several weeks after the departure of Herb Sendek for Arizona State, a few media members (including this one) received phone calls from someone in the coaching community who's very close to Sendek. The caller basically screamed into the phone for two straight minutes -- it felt longer, but the clock doesn't lie -- and detailed the many reasons why (in his opinion) more Wolfpack fans should have given Sendek more respect and appreciation.

If "hatred" was the right word for the feelings of the most extreme segment of the anti-Sendek crowd at N.C. State near the end of the coach's tenure, and it probably was, then "anger" is the right word for the feelings of some of Sendek's closest coaching associates toward his most vocal critics. Think message-board posters can be tough? Coaches, talking off the record, can be just as vicious in their criticisms of fans. ...

Let the guessing begin. Larry Hunter? Sean Miller? Someone who worked with Sendek under Rick Pitino?

-- SMQ has posted previews of two of NC State's out-of-conference opponents: Akron, Southern Miss. SMQ is a Southern Miss fan, so take particular heed of that preview. On the Golden Eagles:

The best position on the team, from sheer depth if nothing else, is receiver, where 195 catches and 2,500-plus yards returns with, most notably, Anthony Perine, Josh Barnes, Chris Johnson, Tavarres Williams, Damion Carter, Joe Singleton, running back Larry Thomas and, most exciting, potentially freaky-good tight end Shaun Nelson, who managed to lead the team in catches and yards and attract some freshman all-America notice after a good bowl game despite manning a position heretofore barely known to exist in this scheme's passing progressions.

So if USM can find a reliable QB, it may improve at the offensive end. With the defense losing so many starters, they're gonna need to score more points. Except against us; I'm sure we'll help USM out by scoring less than 20 points.

I'm thinking about road trippin' down to Hattiesburg for that game. After all, how often do you have a reason to go to Hattiesburg?

SMQ has also previewed UNC, if you're interested.

-- Check out the win probability graph from yesterday's wild Rangers/Yankees game. Of note:

Down 10-1 after just two and a half innings, the Yankees Win Probability was sitting at 0.017. In other words, just 1.7 percent of teams in the Yankees’ position came back to win.

In the bottom of the ninth and prior to Posada's game-winning tater, the Yanks' win probability was around 15%.