When looking back at N.C. State’s last search for a basketball coach, it’s best to start near the end.
So much happened during the search in 2011, which started with the March 15 resignation of Sidney Lowe and ended with the hiring of Mark Gottried from ESPN that April 5 – the waiting, the public rejections, a panicked email to fans from athletic director Debbie Yow – that it would be less painful to just skip the weeks in between.
After a “thanks but no thanks” from Arizona coach Sean Miller and an underwhelming interview with Texas A&M’s Mark Turgeon (who was deemed by Yow as too “reverential” towards North Carolina and Duke), Yow had identified Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart as her main target.