Difficult Start to the Mark Gottfried Era at NC State
North Carolina State basketball starts a new era in 2011-2012…the Mark Gottfried era. He formerly coached at Alabama for 11 seasons and hopes to have a good run starting this year at NC State. Things started off turning attention in the wrong way when light was shed on old news of Gottfried being involved in a Ponzi scheme.
As it turns out, no negativity was brought on Gottfried, as anybody who was involved or invested anything in the Ponzi scheme had no clue what they were getting themselves into. His name was just mentioned in the same report as Jim Donnan who was running a scheme that the FBI is investigating. Unfortunately, this is not the kind of attention he needs starting a new coaching position.
The ACC tension can get a little heated when they play Maryland. Debbie Yow, the Athletic Director of NC State, called out Gary Williams, who was the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins at the time, accusing him of sabotaging the head coaching search of NC State.
It should be noted the two have bumped heads quite frequently while Debbie Vow was the Athletic Director at Maryland for 16 years. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the recruiting process in 2008 of two high-profile players that slipped out of Maryland's hands. The blame as to why the players never played with Maryland was being tossed around from Yow and Williams and that is where the tension was said to have started.
As far as the interference of the NC State coaching job, Williams has released a report to a Baltimore newspaper stating that he has not had any contact with anyone affiliated with NC State. The heated rivalry between NC State and Maryland will fade away with the retirement of Williams, but for Coach Gottfried none of that really matters. It is all about building his new program and winning games.
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