Times are tough for the NC State men’s basketball team.
The Wolfpack are 14-14, and that is about the best you can say for the team right now. NC State is a dismal 3-12 in ACC play — only Boston College is worse at 2-12 — AD Debbie Yow effectively fired coach Mark Gottfried, although he will finish out the season, and they just dropped their seventh straight game Saturday, falling to Notre Dame, 81-72.
The Wolfpack are so bad that within the half empty PNC Arena, a fan was reading a Volvo owners manual. So, this guy clearly wasn’t reading for entertainment. Or who knows, compared to NC State, a Volvo owners manual looks better and better.
There is a man at the State basketball game reading his Volvo's owner's manual. Rock. Bottom. pic.twitter.com/IoSYIypiP5
— Whit Salmon (@whitsalmon) February 18, 2017
Anyway, Gottfried, who has three more games and the ACC tournament left in his NC State tenure, delivered one of the stranger pregame speeches you will see. Addressing the elephant in the room, Gottfried compared his lame-duck state to being a dog that was run over by a car.
Pregame, Mark Gottfried compared himself to a run-over dog …
"Bite the damn tire!" pic.twitter.com/nnENfpSkSI
— Bret Strelow (@bretstrelow) February 18, 2017
Gottfried certainly gets a point for uniqueness, but that might be the saddest motivational speech any coach has ever unironically given. I don’t think they’ll be printing “Bite The Damn Tire” merchandise anytime soon.
The game itself went about as well as that pregame speech. Rock bottom, indeed.
