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| The Sports Page |
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| January 28, 2002 Leo Rizzuti, Editor No Respect for the Pack I have been biting my tongue on a subject that is near and dear to my heart for quite some time now. Eventually, however, the pressure gets too great and a man just has to say, �Enough is enough, dammit. I've had all I can stand, I can�t stands no more.� I, of course, am talking about the fact that, for some ungodly reason, N.C. State University continues to get absolutely no respect in the world of college basketball polls. NCSU is currently sitting at 16 � 4, and has yet to garner even a slight burp from the national sports news reporters. If all you ever listened to was ESPN and Fox Sports, you would think that NCSU was some third rate school for typing out of Nome, Alaska. The closest that the Wolfpack has come to even getting a score mentioned on national television was a feature report of the red-headed stepchild-like thrashing that they handed the gloried Tarheels of UNC earlier this week. While it was nice to hear N.C. State�s name mentioned on ESPN, I quickly changed the channel when I realized that the entire subject matter of the report was� the collapse of UNC�s vaunted basketball program. Of course, it only makes perfect logical sense to spend 10 minutes talking about a team that is as far from a simple .500 season as Gilbert Godfrey is from raging masculinity. I have exhaustedly researched all the college polls I could find, and the highest mark I found was a pathetic 30 ranking in the RPI poll, as reported by The Sporting News. This poll is pretty similar to the much vaunted BCS poll used to rank college football, taking into account strength of schedule and the such. They don�t involve coordination with the NCAA and the popular coach's poll, so some may argue that this is more of a pure poll. It is hard to argue with such flawless logic, but it does seem strange that they are the only poll I have found that has Duke ranked #2 and Kansas sitting at #1. Also, it would seem odd that while NCSU is ranked #30, teams with worse records are ranked far above them, i.e. #28 Arkansas (11 � 8), #27 St. Johns (13 � 6), #22 Wake Forest (14 � 6), #13 Illinois (15 � 5), #12 Indiana (12 � 5), et al. The worst insult (not only to N.C. State, but to many other teams) is some of the upper rankings: Arizona (15 � 6) and Kentucky (12 � 5), ranked # 5 and 6, respectively. (This puts these teams ahead of the 18 - 2 Miami Hurricanes and the 16 � 3 Maryland Terrapins, teams that, while I do not like in the least, I will give respect to when it is deserved.) I am not calling for NCSU to be named to the national top five. I an not crying in the streets for them to be given a prime-time scheduling on any national college game broadcasts. I am not beating the proverbial drum to see them hollered about in the same vein as a Duke, or even Texas Tech. All I am asking is for them to be shown a little of the respect they have so richly deserved. |