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Editor's Note: This column has been corrected. Herb Sendek resigned to take a job at Arizona State.

GREENSBORO — The wild rollercoaster ride that is N.C. State athletics went high and low Tuesday as the Wolfpack experienced both an end and a beginning on the same day.

Sidney Lowe was in town Tuesday, the day the signing of prep phenom C.J. Leslie became official, the same day State announced athletics director Lee Fowler would be stepping down. Wolfpack boosters came to the Emerald Events Center to hear the State basketball coach talk about the thing they most wanted to hear about. Not the news about Fowler but the return to prominence of Wolfpack basketball.

With the uncertainty of a change at the top of the department looming, one of the biggest days in long time for State basketball played out with the third player in a big-time recruiting class officially declaring himself a Pack signee. At that moment, N.C. State had finally resumed its chase of Duke and Carolina.

"This is the start," Lowe said on a warm May afternoon after coming to Greensboro directly from witnessing the signing of the most heralded recruit to come to State in several years. He said he wanted to watch Leslie sign the letter of intent to make sure the kid from Raleigh wasn't being stolen away by Kentucky. And then Lowe set out on the rubber-chicken circuit to take the news to Wolfpack fans across the state.

They have three players coming in, a class rated among the top three or four in the country. Along with Leslie, a slashing forward from the same school that produced John Wall, the Pack will bring in point guard Ryan Harrow and two-guard Lorenzo Brown. Together, they form a trio of talent better than anything State has landed in 20 years or more.

"This is how you get a program going," Lowe said before going into a packed room filled with Pack fans waiting for something they haven't felt in a long time.

"I know our fans have been waiting," he said. "I'm excited that they're excited, and that's what it's all about."

Bobby Purcell, the head of the Wolfpack Club, came to meet Pack fans from Greensboro. In all, they will go on a 22-city tour of the state to carry the news. Purcell stood, like most everyone at the events center Tuesday, with a big smile on his face and goose bumps on his arms.

"I knew it was going to be different," he said. "I didn't know it would be this much this quick. I've been at State for a long time, and I haven't seen this in a long time."

Back in Raleigh, things weren't going so smoothly. Fowler was informed that he would be stepping down as the athletics director, throwing the department back into another national search for a leader, the kind of search N.C. State has struggled with in recent years, the kind of search Fowler himself led when he brought Lowe back to Raleigh to coach the basketball team.

Lowe's four seasons have been average at best while the school's two rivals were winning national titles. It's not out of the question that Lowe will be gone without a great season this year, the kind they've been waiting for at State for a generation.

"A lot of coaches think they're really good," he said. "But we're only as good as our players."

Since the great upheaval after the Jim Valvano years, State has struggled to bring in great players. Thus, the coaches and ADs have paid the price. Les Robinson, who did what he was asked to do and cleaned up the program, was fired for not winning, then Herb Sendek, who graduated players and took his team to the NCAA tournament, resigned because he couldn't keep up with Wake, Duke or Carolina.

Lowe was brought in after Fowler missed on bigger names at a time when State was still reeling from a run at football greatness, a run that ended like we thought it would.

N.C. State is a basketball school with a basketball history and national titles that loom over everything. And until Tuesday, there was doubt that Lowe would deliver the news he brought to Greensboro.

"No question this is the start," he said. "When you look at Carolina when they won, they had four or five All-Americans. When you look at Duke, they had some pretty good players there, a couple of All-Americans. We haven't had that luxury. Now we have that. This is where it starts. Now the other guys coming out will watch these kids play and realize, 'Boy, that's a pretty good program. I'd like to get there.'"

On a strange day in State athletics history, the Wolfpack lost its boss and maybe got back its basketball program. Judging from the reaction here Tuesday, that will be considered a good deal.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com