Sidney Lowe is moving forward, plowing through recruiting, working on scheduling and staying focused.
He has to considering his son, Sidney Lowe Jr., has made a few court appearances facing charges of drug possession, aiding and abetting attempted armed robbery in a dorm shooting at UNC-Greensboro. He was arrested with Brian Patrick Martin, who is facing attempted murder and attempted robbery charges in the March 24 shooting, which wounded a man.
The police at the time, according to the AP, arrested Lowe and Martin for trying to steal cash and marijuana.
That's obviously some heavy charges and hard for any father to deal with, regardless of profession. Yet Lowe, who took a few days off to deal with the initial court appearances (the next one is July 2), is running the Wolfpack program as strongly as he did during his first season that was highlighted by wins over North Carolina (in the regular season) and Duke and Virginia (in the ACC tournament). The Wolfpack finished 20-16 (5-11 in the ACC), losing to West Virginia in the NIT quarterfinals.
"I'm doing good," Lowe said Friday. "All things considered, I'm getting through it. I'm moving forward. I'm keeping focused and getting our guys ready for the summer."
Lowe said he didn't want to discuss his son's current legal issues.
He said he didn't take much time off. He took a little time to get things situated with his son but then went right back into his job.
"Every now and then I'll have to attend something but I'm trying to keep everything as normal as possible," Lowe said.
The good news for Lowe is that the Wolfpack are on high. Sure, they have to replace Engin Atsur at the point. But the rest of the upstart Wolfpack return, led by Brandon Costner, Gavin Grant, Ben McCauley and Courtney Fells. The Wolfpack have a top 20 recruiting class (N.C. State was No. 24 in my latest pre-preseason top 25) led by forwards J.J. Hickson, Johnny Thomas and Tracy Smith and point guard Javier Gonzalez.
"I'm real excited about the possibilities," Lowe said. "We've got a lot of talent coming in and the biggest question will be who is going to replace Engin."
But worrying about who will play the point doesn't faze Lowe. Those are the kind of good problems he doesn't mind dealing with this spring.
Final nuggets
• Former Arizona assistant Jim Rosborough will work as a special assistant to athletic director Jim Livengood. He won't work in basketball, which was originally offered to him when Lute Olson hired Kevin O'Neill as an assistant coach. He had been Olson since the 1980s back at Iowa with the exception of brief stints as a high school coach and Northern Illinois coach.
• Drexel forward Frank Elegar will continue to play for the Virgin Islands in the Tournament of Americas this summer in Las Vegas.
• Drexel is a bit bitter that LaSalle backed out of playing a true road game at the DAC.
• Georgetown forward Octavius Spann is making the transfer round and, according to one source, is looking hard at Oregon, Drexel, Appalachian State and Murray State. The 6-6 Spann played in only 16 games for the Hoyas. But the word on Spann is that he was simply caught in a numbers game behind the host of forwards on the team, notably returnees DaJuan Summers, Vernon Macklin and Patrick Ewing Jr. (still don't know about Jeff Green yet). Remember, Oregon beat the Hoyas last season in D.C.
• Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said rising sophomore center Hasheem Thabeet will work out with former NBA guards John Lucas and Kenny Smith in Houston. Calhoun said that former UConn center Emeka Okafor will also work with Thabeet in Houston. But prior to his departure for the summer, the Huskies will have former UConn center Hilton Armstrong work with him as well. Meanwhile, Calhoun is getting rising sophomore guard Jerome Dyson to work out with former Husky Caron Butler in D.C. He also made sure his players were watching Thursday night as former Huskies Ben Gordon and Richard Hamilton played in the Bulls-Pistons series. Calhoun said the Huskies are still recruiting -- even though the month-long recruiting period is over -- and could end up grabbing a foreign player.
• One correction from a blog item on Kansas State: New coach Frank Martin must have been thinking about his brief stint at Cincinnati when he said the Wildcats were playing Cincinnati next year. K-State will play a return game against Xavier in Manhattan, not Cincinnati.
• Derrick Rose is eligible to play for Jerry Wainwright (of DePaul), Flint and Karl Hobbs (George Washington) in the USA's Young Men's World Championship (19 and under) team that will train in Dallas and play in Serbia in July. The question is will he? Flint is hoping he can talk to his former boss, Memphis coach John Calipari, about getting the stud incoming freshman guard to play for the United States this summer.
Andy Katz
