I hope that Mark does a great job at NC State. He's already got a bright red jacket to kick off next season. Even though Mark took Alabama to heights unknown before ( #1 ranking for a week, and an Elite Eight) something happened to him.
Rumors continue to swirl about his personal life. Maybe that is what caused his career ending swoon at Bama. I don't know and really don't care. Mark really wanted the Utah job.If anyone thought that Utah, the home of Mormons, was going to hire Mark they just don't understand the religious concept of that faith and their communities. Foregiveness is not one of their strongest virtues so to speak.
But NCState is the ACC. That is big time. State is not an insignificant program by any stretch of the imagination. They have won a national title, and have always been a contender except the last 12 years. That happens to programs. That is where Alabama was headed until public pressure forced Mal Moore to step in and start over. That is what Mark Gottfried is going to be forced to do at State.
Maybe that makes Mark and State a good fit. I believe that Mark can coach when properly motivated. We all believe he can recruit but I'm not one of those who just say that to be the truth. I think he recruited good players but he had a lot of personality problems with his top recruits such as Gerald Wallace. But all that is history. Gottfried now embarks on a new start and I have always believed that everyone deserves a new start. Mark wasn't the first choice of State. He may have been the fourth choice but the main thing is he got a second chance. Who knows what this hire will look like in five years?
Part of my problem with Mark was a couple of things that were personal. I don't really want to go into them. Those things made me angry but not so angry it caused me to become unobjective. The marriage of Mark and Alabama was going to end in divorce one way or the other. It might have been ugly or it might have been uncontested. In the long run Mark did the right thing for his family and the Bama Nation. I hope he is sucessful. Being stuck dead in the middle between North Carolina and Duke isn't easy. Roy and Mike showed they are human after all by stumbling in the NCAA, and a new wind is blowing on tobacco road today. Mark had his problems in Tuscaloosa but you can bet your last dollar that the ACC will take notice that he is on the bench. People often make the best of a second chance. For Gottfried this is also a final chance.
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