= > What a difference a year makes?
Watching the Wolfpack implode (again) on Thursday night in our 86-74 loss against Duke reminded me of the exhaltation that last year’s State win over Duke (on Fox’s SundayNight Hoops) provided me. Heck, I even kept that game in my video-tape. It was such a gratifying capstone to our four-week run of great basketball, that I even logged a Brock’s Bytes on PackPride.com.
That was the last “Brock’s Bytes” that I ever did. I guess now I do, “Brock’s Blog”?
Oh the irony that the last Bytes that I ever wrote was such a glowing, happy piece related to NC State Basketball. Since I get labeled as a “Herb Hater” by the Herb Sendek Sunshine Sqaud (HSSSer’s…or “HSS” for short) , I take huge satisfaction that my last Bytes exemplified my perpetual point that I analyze actual facts & results without much regard for personal bias.
When the program performs, I share what some consider “positive” thoughts; when the program underperforms (like it has in 8 of 9 of Sendek’s years), then I have no choice but to analyze that data. It is not my fault that the results produced by Sendek & Company is perceived to be “negative”. Give us performance like last year, and you will get analysis like last year. I don’t create the actual performance…I just comment on it.
(By the way….how do you like the turnabout as fair play in the labelling game with HSSSers?).
= > All the articles about last nights game that you could want to read…or not read, can be found here. The rest of this Blog will be random observations related to last night’s game.
= > Mike Krzyzewski is truly a master. His first half substitution pattern was unbelievable. I called a friend during the first half to share my perspective that we were literally watching Mike Krzyzewski toy with us. It was amazing. He sat his three best players for most of the half as they struggled with offense, or fouls, or focus. Coach K had so much confidence in his team, and had so much control over the events on the court, that he literally sacrificed much of the first half by limiting the minutes of Shelden Williams, JJ Redick, and Daniel Ewing.
= > Since I live in Houston, Texas, you can imagine that attending games with my Liftetime Rights can be quite challenging. Last night was no different. But, I do have TiVo and I do have XM Satellite Radio. Last night on my drive home to watch the game on TiVo, I had the pleasure of listening to Gary and Tony through the power of XM Satellite Radio.
The dynamic duo was quite verbal in the first 10 minutes of the game about the lack of Wolfpackers who seemed to be in attendance. After making two or three snide comments about the attendance, they were alerted to a traffic jam on Wade Avenue that backed all the way to Harrison avenue. By halftime, the RBC was filled and the crowd looked fine on national television. Too bad the product that they were watching didn’t look as good on national television.
= > “There is no way on earth that Duke should be within 10 points in this first half.” – Mike Patrick, ESPN
= > With every possession of the second half, it became more clear that there was no way that the Wolfpack would be mounting any comeback. (Which is why I can type this with 10 minutes to go in the game). Ultimately, State just isn’t playing good enough defense this year.
The Pack got into what amounted to trading baskets with the Blue Devils in the second half on Thursday night. By itself, that is bad enough. But, when you struggle as much as State does Chip Alexander called it when he said on offense
= > With 6:14 left in the game, Ilian Evtimov was called for a defensive foul against DeMarcus Nelson while in the act of shooting. It was a bad call that prompted ESPN’s, Mike Patrick to say, “…and Herb Sendek has a legitimate gripe on the NC State bench”.
Forgive my amusement at the camera shot of Sendek as Patrick made his comment. Who could blame Patrick for assuming that any coach who had just gotten hosed on such a call would be riding the officials as if they were bareback on Taylor Hays? But, when the camera focused on a silent and stoic Sendek just staring into space, I was reminded how & why ACC officials feel as though they can run over the Wolfpack like Larry Rose did in last year’s ACC Tournament game. (…or like Larry Rose does in any game).
= > It was nice to see Cameron Bennerman play so well in the first half after his comments following the Miami loss when he said, “I don’t know why we are choosing to do something like that now. I’m a coach able player so I am going to try to do my best to have 100% trust in what he is telling me. I don’t know, but maybe that is why we lost–I don’t know. It was a weird game and it was definitely a weird game for me.”
= > This Duke team is just not that good. As crazy as it sounds, if Duke finishes better than 4th in the ACC this season, then Mike Krzyzewski deserves serious consideration for ACC Coach of the Year.
= > I will leave you with an outsider’s perspective of the Wolfpack since so many Sendek Sunshiners still seem to suffer from delusions about a turn around this year. For the fourth consecutive year I have joined Jerry Palm’s CollegeRPI premium website. (It is a super resource that I recommend to College Basketball Junkies). With a subscription, I have access to a private Yahoo Group. This morning, the first post I saw read on Group was as follows:
“Stick a Fork in State”
They are done.
From 9th to this.
Obviously this poster must have a personal grudge against Herb Sendek to feel this way about the Pack.
