Lowe set to begin cramming

Coach must adjust from NBA to Pack

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CORRECTION

The shot clock is 11 seconds longer in men's college basketball than in the National Basketball Association. A Sports story Saturday about the adjustments N.C. State's new head basketball coach will have to make reported that information incorrectly.

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Halves vs. quarters.

Parents instead of agents.

And 11 fewer seconds on the shot clock.

Those are just a few of the adaptations Detroit Pistons assistant coach Sidney Lowe will need to make when he becomes N.C. State's head basketball coach.

"Obviously, the biggest thing is going to be getting adjusted to the rules," Lowe told reporters in Detroit on Friday. "From recruiting, to the time of the games," to who can call timeouts.

He went on to say, "There are a few more concerns. You have to worry about kids going to class -- you're like their guardian. That's a big responsibility."

Indeed, in more than two decades as an NBA player, broadcaster, assistant coach and head coach, Lowe has been more of a boss than a mentor, managing multi-millionaires rather than schooling students.

But Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton, a former coach for the NBA's Washington Wizards, said the difficulty of the transition is overrated.

"He has a tremendous basketball mind, plenty of experience,'' Hamilton said in a telephone interview. "It might be easier in some ways, coming from the NBA, because he'll command the attention from the players, from the fans. ...

"Probably the biggest difference is the recruiting aspect, but I'm confident he'll adjust to the issue. He'll surround himself with people who have that experience."

Plus, Lowe likely has learned from his previous bouts with inexperience.

When he was named interim coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves midway through the 1992-93 season, Lowe became the youngest head coach in the NBA at age 33.

Eventually he was named the permanent coach, but the 1993-94 season was marked by run-ins with former Duke player Christian Laettner, who was benched twice by Lowe. He also suspended rookie Isaiah Rider for missing a practice.

Lowe eventually was fired after after compiling a 33-102 record and a new owner took over. At that time, center Stacey King told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Lowe "did a good job under the circumstances."

"He had a lot of energy for the game," King said in August of 1994. "I respected him, but I don't think a lot of players respected him as a coach. It was the inexperience thing. They didn't believe in what he was doing.

"In the college ranks, I'm convinced he could win a national championship. He's played on a national champion. But here, in the pros, it's harder teaching when people don't listen to you."

Still, Lowe stayed in the NBA, bouncing around as an assistant and broadcaster until he got his second chance in the head coaching ranks in 2000 with another former expansion team -- the Vancouver Grizzlies, who moved to Memphis a year later.

This time, an ever-rotating roster hurt the team's continuity -- and Lowe's winning percentage. After an 0-8 start to the 2002-03 season, Lowe and Grizzlies president Jerry West mutually agreed to part ways. Lowe was 46-126 as the Grizzlies' coach.

"It was tough from the standpoint that we didn't always have NBA-level talent," Shane Battier, a Grizzlies veteran, told the Memphis Commercial Appeal a year after Lowe left. "I don't care who you are -- you could be John Wooden -- if you don't have talent in this league you're facing an uphill battle. That was the position Sid was in. I thought he did a good job getting us to play hard my rookie year. We just didn't have the horses to compete with the best of them."

Despite the adjustments ahead, Lowe told Detroit reporters his years in the NBA would help.

"Obviously, when you're thinking basketball for 24 hours [a day], then I guess you have an opportunity to learn more, gain more knowledge. And hopefully, that can help me in the collegiate game,'' Lowe said. "Whereas basketball is 100 percent here, I've had a lot of people already tell me that in college basketball it's probably 15 percent. You're dealing with all the other things.

"Hopefully, I can take some of the knowledge that I've learned over the years down there and get this thing going in the right direction, if this thing works out."