Two of our authors were writing simultaneoulsy loggin similar entries about last night’s loss to Iowa, so we have put them together here.
BJD:
On a late field goal, Kirk Ferentz’ Iowa Hawkeyes edged out the visiting NC State Wolfpack 45-42, in a high-scoing gridiron affair…wait a minute, wrong sport. A 45-42 BASKETBALL game? In the 21st century? Yes, it really happened.
I will nominate this contest as perhaps the ugliest game ever between two ranked teams (as the announcers pointed out, neither squad played like a ranked team). It was fitting that the game ended with an airball from NC State, a familiar ending to anybody who follows the Pack closely.
Still, there were a few positives. Cedric Simmons was a dominating force in the low post, especially on defense. He’s a good passer, too. IMHO, he has the chance to be NC State’s best low-post player in about 30 years (yes, better than Fuller, Shack, and Washburn – Bailey is a tougher call). To his credit, Sendek did seem to run plays for him to operate like a traditional low-post offensive threat (which is why we broke the 30 mark). And we all know that Sendek’s teams often look horrible in November/December. Basketball is still a tournament sport, and this one game really did nothing to hurt our tournament standing.
But damn, was it ever ugly to watch.
Jeff
I was going to apologize for falling asleep in the middle of this ‘big’ game…but, when I turned on ESPN this morning and heard them describe State’s 42-45 loss to Iowa as an “ugly game” I didn’t feel the need. Every time that I started to dose, I would flip over to Duke @ Indiana and get refreshed with high-level play and excitement.
(You know…Indiana…whose coach played one of the toughest OOC schedule’s in the country last year despite the fact that his job was on the line because the Hoosiers missed the NCAA Tournament the previous year? Oh…to have standards)
* The N&O described the game as “sloppy”.
* Iowa announced attendance less than 13,100 for the Big 10 Challenge and for the ranked Wolfpack. Surely, NC State’s criticize your own fan suppot brigade will find a way to criticize the Hawkeyes for only 13k fans?
* The beginning of the game reminded me of the egg that NC State laid at Michigan just two years ago. (See a pattern?) But, after five minutes on Wednesday night…State’s horrible performance translated into bad performance by Iowa, so the loss didn’t ultimately look as bad.
* Congratulations to the Wolfpack women for their big win last night and to the ACC for winning our seventh ACC-Big Ten Challenge. The ACC has won EVERY Challenge ever played with the Big Ten. (I really thought that this was going to be a year that the Big Ten finally got on the board).
* What is the purpose of recruiting McDonald’s All-Americans if they aren’t even good enough to get into a game where the guys on the court are obviously playing of their worst games of the season?
“This was an ugly game”
-ESPN Sportscenter
