Mission Accomplished!

General NCS Basketball NCS Football43

What a great weekend in Wolfpack Athletics!!

Both the basketball program and the football program took advantage of their opportunities over the weekend and logged solid wins. Yeah….I think “solid” is the perfect adjective for the wins.

On Friday, I called the weekend’s games an “opportunity” for both programs “not to screw up”. Both programs succeeded with flying colors on that mission. In fact, had football exercised more offensive proficiency when given the opportunity, both programs could have elevated themselves from “not screwing up” to “making a helluva statement”.

By all accounts, football’s win in the Meineke Car Care Bowl was boring. Who cares? It was a win. It was a shutout win against a team that beat Louisville by 30 points. (I’m sure some of our friends remember Louisville.

Basketball’s win over George Washington was more impressive.

Of course, I am tempted to ask just how good GW really is? Who wouldn’t be after watching that performance last Friday night. I know after watching them that they aren’t a fundamentally sound basketball team; I also know that their record is grossly inflated against horrible teams as evidenced by their current computer records – #94 RPI; #50 Sagarin; #297 strength of schedule But, who really cares right now? We will find out how good GW is by the end of the season.

The key element on which fans should focus is that for only the second time in ten years, NC State has performed acceptably well against our non-conference basketball schedule. State has avoided the inexcusable losses that have plagued us in the past and succeeded in building a record that produces confidence on the team and cushion in their quest to play for NCAA Tournament seeding throughout the year (as opposed to playing just to get into the NCAA Tournament).

At this point, I am not as concerned with how strong/weak the OOC schedule has been. We have the ACC to help us with more tests against good competition. I want to focus on the fact that to this point – we’ve lined ’em up, and we’ve knocked them down. We haven’t been able to say that nearly enough in the Robinson/Sendek era. The Wolfpack is now being rewarded for consistency with a #12/#13 current national ranking, a #43 RPI, and a #16 Sagarin. Time to focus on the ACC.

There are tons of thoughts to share from the experiences of the weekend….so, I hope I get the time to get to the computer this week.

Happy New Year!

General NCS Basketball NCS Football

43 Responses to Mission Accomplished!

  1. JeremyHyatt 01/03/2006 at 8:28 PM #

    Evtimov is an excellent shooter and highest basketball IQ next to Atsur on the team. I did see him have a down game against GW and fumble a bit, but I’m sure statistics have shown we need him on the floor.

  2. Trout 01/03/2006 at 11:20 PM #

    “And maybe it’s just me, but I would rather see Atsur take the clutch 3 at the end than Evtimov (or Brack if he’s open). ”

    There is no one I would rather take a clutch 3 than Atsur.

    Boy, did Wake Forest look pathetic tonite. They almost allowed ECU to get their first ACC win ever.

  3. SaccoV 01/04/2006 at 7:52 AM #

    I wouldn’t refer to Brack and Simmons as “under the radar” recruits. Simmons was the TOP recruit out of North Carolina two years ago (although Jameson Curry and Anthony Morrow got more attention). Also, Ced was a 5-star according to scout.com and the only 5-star recruit who never panned out from scout.com was Shav Randolph. Brackman was a highly-touted two-sport star from Moeller in Cincinnati (same high school as Ken Griffey, Jr.) So these two are by no means “under the radar.” As for Atsur and Evtimov, yes, those two definitely fall under the radar. I especially remember Andy Katz talking about State perhaps having the best recruit no one had heard of with Engin Atsur.

  4. Jim 01/04/2006 at 10:08 AM #

    Ced’s high school coach is a State grad. I think that helped IIRC. Also, having Doh at UNC-CH at the time did not hurt us.

  5. Rick 01/04/2006 at 10:11 AM #

    I thought we got a commit from Ced before he got real big.
    I think we got BRackman because we would allow him to play baseball.

    I agree that Herb has been finding the right players but he needs to start signing them. Chris Wright is a watershead player in my mind. We were on him early and he is the type of player that will make a champnionship type team.

  6. Jim 01/04/2006 at 11:30 AM #

    You would have to call the Ferguson kid an “under the radar” recruit.

  7. Mr. O 01/04/2006 at 11:31 AM #

    I guess it all depends on how you define “under the radar”. What I meant is that Herb is finding undervalued players early that end up giving us the same value as higher ranked players that programs like UNC and Duke sign regularly.

    We did get a commit from Cedric very early before he had a chance to be on everyone’s radar. He was the top recruit in NC, but he was also very raw. He wasn’t a no-name, but considering how good he is now then clearly he would have had offers from every top program in the country. Instead, we had basically no national competition and no competition from Duke or UNC. Wake offered him, but we had too much of an advantage because we were on him so early.

    On Brackman, if P. Hewitt knew how good he could be, then he most certainly would have allowed him to play basketball. He desperately could use someone like Brackman (any program in the nation could use him in fact), so obviously Herb valued Brackman’s skills more than Hewitt. It wasn’t until the final rankings of his senior year that he became a consensus top 50 recruit and even higher in some individual rankings. Prior to the final rankings he was a top 100 guy.

    Other I would put in this same category: J Powell(top 75), C. Bennerman(top 80), I Evtimov(not top 100 when he commited), and Marcus Melvin.

    Additionally, Herb has been finding guys that are more valuable to us than they might be to other programs because of our style of play. And lastly, he has been finding guys that he can coach. Cleary some kids Herb recruited early have had difficult times playing for Coach Sendek. I harped on Herb for years about the transfers and recruiting kids with bad attitudes. I always said that he should better identify guys who can be successful in his program. Clearly, he has been finding those kids.

    I know that someone did a long piece on here about how Herb really hasn’t improved our recruiting the last several years. Maybe our recruiting rankings haven’t improved, but I think he is clearly recruiting better based on putting teams together that can be successful. That is the ultimate measure of how well a coach recruits.

  8. Rick Jernigan 01/04/2006 at 12:49 PM #

    This is a great discussion concerning player identification & finding proper fits for your program. I find the upcoming recruitment of Eric Wallace (2007 class) a great example of the quagmire coaches must navigate. As an 8th & 9th grader, Eric was a complete man-child that was rated in the top ten of his class by everyone. He is also a good student, high character kid from a great family. I believe Coach Sendek offered him a scholarship in the 9th grade with UNC-Chapel Hill & Wake following. Apparently, Eric was an early bloomer, hasn’t grown much and is now viewed as a world class athlete with average shooting and ball handling skills. Still rated in the top 50 but no longer in anybody’s top ten. What school will really push hard to sign this kid? Coach Sendek must decide if he’s more like Anthony Richardson (he was right on this one) or Josh Howard (clearly wrong). No coach is always right on these type of decisions but they are very important to the success of every program.

  9. SaccoV 01/04/2006 at 1:02 PM #

    It’s funny you mention Eric Wallace and Josh Howard, Rick. Both went to Glenn High School in Kernersville.

    ^ Mr. O. Thanks for clearing that up a bit. I agree that Ced Simmons wasn’t a national can’t-miss guy. Brackman I think was more highly regarded because he was basically a guard until his junior year in high school, so his ball-handling skills were solid despite his growth. I agree with you also that Brack would have gone somewhere, but it would have been a major league team instead of Ga Tech.

  10. Jim 01/04/2006 at 2:21 PM #

    The way he has found success after an extended period of “patience” shown by the administration, Herb, IMO is similar to Frank Beamer.

    I’m not going too crazy with an exact parallel there so don’t pick me apart with details and stats but I think there is enough similarity to notice. Hopefully Herb will play for a NC and/or win the ACC soon to make it more exact.

    The track both have followed is very unusual in today’s college athletics world.

    I remember Brock (I think it was) had an interesting piece several years ago (Hodge’s freshman year iirc) talking about how how few (if any) coaches who had failed to get their team to the NCAAs over the first x years ever got them there. Herb has obviously turned that corner and sustained it in the face of an avalanche of negative historical data.

  11. BJD95 01/04/2006 at 2:34 PM #

    The potential “Sendek anamoly” in the face of historical data is p[robably best explained by his youth when hired. Simply put, he wasn’t ready yet, and had to grow considerably as a coach.

    You need so many players to build a football program that a “Beamer-level” of patience is often justified for football coaches (NOTE: This is 100% NOT a defense of Amato), but as a general rule, I still don’t think it flies for 99.9% of basketball coaches.

  12. choppack 01/04/2006 at 3:59 PM #

    BJ – I don’t know if Sendek was ready or not. I think he probably didn’t have a clear place to start.

    I think he was comer, smart, and ambitious. He probably wanted to recreate Kentucky when he got hear – and probably thought that he could – but had never been the head coach who a) had to deal w/ these egos and b) had to go up against Duke and UNC-Ch and c) had to deal w/ overall talent and skill in the ACC.

    He had done well at Miami of OH in a very short time. However, I think it took time to find a style and players that worked for him in a big-time conference. Each school presents it’s own set of challenges and I think Sendek’s problem was adjusting to the egos and needs of the kids he couldn’t get at Miami, but that probably weren’t a good fit for him at NC State at the time.

    Of course, we’re not out of the woods yet…He still has to have a “special season” – and 13 games doesn’t make a season.

  13. Class of '74 01/04/2006 at 4:01 PM #

    If you look around the major b-ball conferences you’ll see most coaches don’t last more than 5 years without making an impact. Five years is an eternity in a basketball coaches life.

  14. Mr. O 01/04/2006 at 4:38 PM #

    Sacco: Glenn was also the HS of two other NC State players Bryant Feggins and Kevin Thompson. The center played in the NBA. The year those guys were seniors, my HS won the NC 4A championship with another NC State player in Marc Lewis (walk on with little impact).

    Five years is a pretty long time in college basketball. Definitely long enough for most coaches to at least show promise. However, as it turned out hiring Herb would have essentially guaranteed that he was fired if he was held to the 5 years. Clearly he wasn’t ready to handle the situation at NC State and needed to time to figure out how to succeed at NC State.

    He could really solidify his place in the ACC if we can have a big year. Like someone said above, this year is far from over. But if he could pull out a top 10 type of season, then maybe that would put him in position to not have to find “under the radar” and/or undervalued recruits and he could more frequently win recruiting battles for top 25 players. Heck, I am having fun talking about NC State basketball again.

  15. BJD95 01/04/2006 at 5:00 PM #

    I know what you mean, O. It’s like a “Prague Spring” of sorts, actually enjoying watching and talking about NC State basketball, instead of feeling like I’m watching a train wreck slowly unfold. Hopefully the Soviet tanks aren’t lurking around the corner…

  16. choppack 01/04/2006 at 5:11 PM #

    “The year those guys were seniors, my HS won the NC 4A championship with another NC State player in Marc Lewis (walk on with little impact).”

    This isn’t the 6-7 forward Les Robinson recruited is it?

  17. Mr. O 01/05/2006 at 7:58 AM #

    Choppack: I think it is.

  18. Sammy Kent 01/05/2006 at 9:56 AM #

    Herb still has not “found success” by my definition of where the program ought to be. We still don’t know how the rest of this season will turn out, nor can we be certain that any success this year will translate into consistent success or championships. One good flash-in-the-pan season will not constitute “success.” That said, I am, for the first time since 1997, somewhat optimistic…especially with the good recruiting news from last night.

    With the talent on this year’s team and Chris Wright coming on board for 2008 there is definitely the potential for the kind of sustained, consistent top tier success we should be enjoying year in and year out. It will continue, IMHO, only if Herb recruits another 4-star center to anchor the post when Ced moves on, and if Herb significantly changes his recruiting patterns to stop concentrating so heavily on 6’6″ ish wing players. Concurrent to that has to be the permanent dispensing of a “positionless offense” and exclusive reliance on backdoor cuts and three point shots. There’s no reason to re-invent the wheel. Basketball has been played a long time, and some things just don’t change. This season’s success thus far is a result of utilizing guards to handle and distribute the ball, and having a bona fide post player actually playing the post instead of wandering around the arc.

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