What the Hell Happened?

General NCS Basketball70

Well, NC State came out as lackadasical as it did against Wake. Against a slightly better opponent, that spelled disaster in the form of an 83-65 home loss. No undefeated home season, and question marks abound. How do you come out that flat 2 games in a row?

In short, everybody sucked. I was glad to see Sendek play Fells and McCauley towards the end (but before pure garbage time). The regulars sure as hell didn’t earn their PT.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

General NCS Basketball

70 Responses to What the Hell Happened?

  1. Packbackers 01/27/2006 at 11:04 AM #

    ^It’s obvious who is choosing to believe the latter. IMO, it’s still to early to tell.

  2. class of '74 01/27/2006 at 11:31 AM #

    ^You are right as I believe history has a way of repeating itself.

  3. Cardiac95 01/27/2006 at 2:35 PM #

    For those predicting wins at home over unc a few weeks ago, this loss should serve as a good eye-opener.

    If we can lose at home to a team that’ll likely miss the NIT…..we can lose at home to any team in the ACC.

    That said….I still predict 10 or 11 conference wins.

  4. Rick 01/27/2006 at 2:52 PM #

    “It’s obvious who is choosing to believe the latter. IMO, it’s still to early to tell.”

    But it seems earily similar to past seasons. Depressingly similar.

  5. Jeff 01/27/2006 at 3:32 PM #

    Jeff, no one is saying it doesn’t matter. But here is what you said:

    “The potential magnitude of overall success generated in this season continues to dissipate very quickly. Looks like another “nice little season� for any program that simply wants to get into the NCAA and attempt to get to the Sweet 16. Nothing more.�

    If that’s not freaking out over one loss, then I don’t know what is!

    Then you obviously don’t know what is.

    With all due respect…..Dude….we lost our FOURTH GAME of the season, NOT OUR FIRST. When you are trying to put together a “PEAK SEASON”…every game DOES MATTER. You people are so unaccustomed to being near the top of anything that you don’t have a clue how excellence and success is measured and judged.

    Nominally incremental differences make HUGE impacts when you compare against successful entities and have high standards (as opposed to just wanting to make the NCAA Tournament as #65 each year).

    If we don’t lose another game this season before the ACC Tournament, this game could easily mean the difference between: a #2 seed in the NCAA and a #3 seed, a Top 10 ranking, a Top 10 Sagarin and a Top 10 RPI, etc, etc, etc

    Now…I TOTALLY agree with all of your perspective that all is relative and it isn’t “that” big of a deal to be #11 instead of #9. But, since we haven’t achieved anything close to these types of rankings & performances in the last decade, it would be nice to actually achieve some great milestones.

    Because someone is smart enough to realize that losses actually impact the season doesn’t mean that they “freak out” over the loss.

    Every game that we lose is going to put us further from peak milestones that are worth bragging about at the end of the year. State fans have become so so accustomed to no succeeding over the years that they are just happy not to be totally failing.

    I ask you to think about it like this — Think of each ACC team’s basketball season as it own event. Herb Sendek is completing his 10th ACC season this year. At the end of this season, the other ACC programs will have compiled 85 different total seasons to compare against Herb’s 10 different seasons. Amongst the 95 total ACC seasons comprised by all the teams over the last decade…wouldn’t it be nice if NC State had at least ONE of the ten best seasons? Maybe just one of the twenty best seasons? At what point do you think that NC State should expect/hope to have a season that compares with the best seasons of our peers over the last decade?

    ^This is the way that I look at this….”chance to make the Final Four season.” I want something that compares to our peers at the high end. I think we f’ing deserve it after 16 years of waiting. There is NO DOUBT that the SH loss is not a big deal in the scheme of this season. There is also no doubt that this season is inching towards not being a big deal in the scheme of things, either.

    Many Wolfpackers are obviously more than content with that. Sorry that I want better.

  6. RickJ 01/27/2006 at 5:26 PM #

    In one of V’s books, there is a hilarious page about the beginning of one year. I’m pretty sure it was his second year but am not positive. Anyway we get off to an undefeated start and go to a tourney in Alaska (might have been Hawaii ). We win the first two games and now have a 10 – 0 record. We lost the championship game (I think it was Rice) and are now 10 -1. V writes something like “I’m trying to build a program and there are about 200 teams with a 10 – 1 record but only 10 or 15 at 11 – 0.â€? He is totally pissed at the lost opportunity. Sometimes, one game means a lot. With Seton Hall, UVA & Maryland at home and a game at Clemson, we had a straight shot at making the top 10. It isn’t the end of the world but it is a heck of a lost opportunity.

  7. Mr. O 01/27/2006 at 5:31 PM #

    Jeff: It would be nice to have a great season. However, it is still possible, so that is why I can’t figure out why these discussions happen at this point in the season. We are still top 15 with 10 ACC games to go, the ACC tournament and the NCAA tournament. We could end up playing another 15+ games this season.

    It is a long year and personally I am just going to enjoy our position instead of micro-analyzing every single performance. I will be in Littlejohn this weekend to pull for the Pack and I can’t wait.

    I hope everyone has a great weekend!

  8. Mr. O 01/27/2006 at 5:34 PM #

    RickJ: That is a great story. But V was also the guy who said he didn’t care what his ACC record was as long as he went 8-8. So in a different context, he didn’t care about those 8 lost opportunities.

    I agree with you though that I was also hoping to break into the top 10 and that Seton Hall was a lost opportunity.

  9. Mr. O 01/27/2006 at 5:35 PM #

    Oops…that should be 7-7 :).

  10. Sammy Kent 01/27/2006 at 5:57 PM #

    quote: State fans have become so so accustomed to no succeeding over the years that they are just happy not to be totally failing.

    Nail, meet hammer.

  11. JeremyHyatt 01/27/2006 at 10:19 PM #

    Nail, meet hammer, umm…more like head meets ass. If we are “not totally failing” and nothing more this year, you need to pay more attention.

  12. packbackers 01/28/2006 at 12:11 PM #

    To say that we are “not totally failing” is ridiculous. We are in the top 15 in the nation out of over 330 schools. That means over 315 schools in America would love our ranking and our record… and that’s just in Division I. Maybe we could look past one non conference loss to a scrappy team if our coach’s name wasn’t Herb, or if he had a little more charisma, or if he cursed at the referees a little more. Instead, we use phrases like “a season dissipating” and “it’s groundhog day”, projecting a slide or a season ruining slump after ONE LOSS. Oh yeah, you said each loss was a “missed opportunity”. Well, we have 15 “gained opportunities” this year, though it’s funny I never hear anyone refer to it that way when we win. It is this glass half empty, living in the past, negative, anti-Herb agenda that some people will never be able to look past because, at the end of the day, Herb Sendek is Herb Sendek and that’s what fuels this garbage. But here is the cold hard truth: NC State basketball has improved in every measurable way in the past 10 years. We have a young coach who has his team positioned in the top 15 midway through this season. He is an excellent teacher, disciplinarian, and he’s constantly getting better. And most importantly, his players are good kids on and off the court. That’s why Herb Sendek will be at North Carolina State University for years to come…so get used to it!

  13. class of '74 01/28/2006 at 12:46 PM #

    ^Remember this post if somehow the season slips away with little or nothing to show once again.

  14. BJD95 01/28/2006 at 1:03 PM #

    My God, how I hate the “330 other teams!” argument. As if Charleston Southern, Eastern Washington, or VMI should be looked upon as a peer. That’s complete garbage, and everyone knows it.

  15. Rick 01/28/2006 at 3:13 PM #

    “Maybe we could look past one non conference loss to a scrappy team if our coach’s name wasn’t Herb, or if he had a little more charisma, or if he cursed at the referees a little more.”

    Or maybe, just maybe, we would look past it if Herb had actually accomplished something.
    No, that is not possible, it MUST be everyone’s dislike of Herb. Such lame, yet predictable argument.

  16. packbackers 01/28/2006 at 11:00 PM #

    I know Rick, none of the strides our program has made counts as an accomplishment to you. Until he wins a title, (which is the only accomplishment that matters, right?) he will have haters. Will you get off his back if he wins an ACC title?

  17. Rick 01/28/2006 at 11:12 PM #

    Absolutely.

    Will you quit criticizing others for expecting a title?

  18. packbackers 01/28/2006 at 11:59 PM #

    There is nothing wrong with expecting a title, so do I. Here’s a question for you. Do you think Herb Sendek should be fired?

  19. class of '74 01/30/2006 at 6:43 AM #

    ^should have happened five years ago but the knuckleheads we have running things would not pull the trigger. Now we have a program that considers 3rd place in the ACC an accomplishment. Getting invited to the NCAA’s a reason to celebrate and making it to the sweet sixteen a national holiday. Oh how the once mighty have fallen!

    But in this day of lets not blame anyone or hold anyone accountable for anything this is what the heck we get. Blissful mediocrity.

  20. All your base... 02/09/2006 at 3:07 PM #

    Jeff,
    Didn’t realize that the media wrote about Groundhog’s Day and the Pack. My buddies and I have been calling the Sendek era “Groundhog’s Day” long before the 2004-2005 when that article was published. Because as I’m sure a lot of other Pack fans have noted, there was season after season of PAINFUL repeats well before 2004-2005. And it’s one thing to write a cute little media piece…I’ve been living in this insane aylum called Wolfpack fandom that all started during Sendek’s second season when we all first witnessed the first of what was to be repeat after repeat after repeat. That and I woke up to discover Andie McDowell wasn’t lying next to me. 😀

1 2 3

Leave a Reply