Worst Loss of the Sendek Era?

General Headscratchers NCS Basketball161

I think so. It was disgusting to watch this overachieving Carolina team come in and outwork us like that. They wanted each loose ball, each rebound 1000 times worse than we did. To his credit, Sendek didn’t try putting any lipstick on the pig, admitting that we were outcoached, outplayed, out-everything. And that pretty much sums it up. It was humiliating, and it will take more than a 12-win ACC season to make up for it. And I really don’t want to see the “0 for Roy” streak extended in the ACC semis.

What will make up for it? An Elite Eight or an ACCT title. Anything less, and this season will leave a very bitter taste in my mouth.

More thoughts in the morning. I need some freaking sleep.

TWO LAST THOUGHTS: The game got so out of hand that Quinton Thomas got significant minutes. Quinton f’ing Thomas! And they extended the lead with him in the game. Also, my last fuse was lit when we refused to speed up the offense or press on defense down 18 points with 5 minutes to play. But when Roy sent in the blue team in the last minute, we pressed ’em with our regulars! Way to show some real stones there, Coach!

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 Headscratchers NCS Basketball

161 Responses to Worst Loss of the Sendek Era?

  1. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 6:33 AM #

    Ironic. I was preparing to go to the game last night and I watched the highlights of the Tiger vs. Stephen Ames match. I mean how can you not watch a 9 and 8 beatdown in golf? But little did I know that was to be a preview of what I was about to see at the RBC.

    Yes, Roy is the Tiger of coaching and our guy was Stephen Ames. But last night it wouldn’t have mattered if our guy was Phil or Ernie or VJ we were up against Tiger. And the really sad part is he will be there for years. So don’t look for any substantial differences anytime soon. Now that I think about it I’m not sure if I watched the Tiger Woods of coaching at the RBC or the Roy Williams of golf on tv last night!

  2. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 6:55 AM #

    Wait a minute. I just read the post game comments from Herb and he said this: “It’s obvious we have a good team”. Well note to the cerebral coach. I sat through that debacle last night and it was NEVER obvious last night that “we have a good team” or a good coach based on last night!!!

    Note to Herb: when in a hole stop digging you idiot!

  3. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 7:07 AM #

    ^To topOftheorder. I would be remiss not to acknowledge your post as it is right on. Well said for 1:38 am in the morning!

  4. TP 02/23/2006 at 8:09 AM #

    The team is just Ok but that is not good enough. How many leads were blown this year? How many games did they win by just hanging on intsead of taking care of business. It’s a coin flip offense.
    Whatever happens in the locker room at halftime does not work they seem to come out worse. Over achieving this year in every way.They are not good.This team is truly an extension of their coach. Watch how calm they are when they are getting their backsides handed to them. The season might as well have ended last night.

  5. Victim's Mentality 02/23/2006 at 8:24 AM #

    The title of this thread is “Worst Loss of the Sendek Era.” I say that last night was the worst loss in the history of NC State sports. The clueless fellow who for some unknown reason continues to show up night after night and is allowed to take the position of our “coach” should have resigned last night. However, that would have required some modicum of class. Last night’s loss was so devastating that at one point I had to wonder if there was something “questionable” about how the NCSU players were “playing.” And, those who went through the long denial of what happened to us before (remember the infamous game highlights of a certain NCSU player shooting air ball free throws while at the same time enabling a Wake Forest center who could not jump two inches above sea level have a career game against us) perhaps had the same feeling. The only good news would be that if a new scandal is brewing , this could be used as the reason to send this man back to wherever he came from.

  6. Kirk 02/23/2006 at 8:37 AM #

    This team just does not match up well against a team with speed. My main problem with last night, was the refusal to drop into a 2-3 zone, when clearly each man is getting beat off and on the ball. You have to be able to keep up with your man (hence the name) in order to be able to play man to man.

  7. Mick 02/23/2006 at 8:40 AM #

    The entire debacle was predictable. I think most of us, down deep, knew the outcome before tipoff. Herb is Roy’s butler!

  8. Kirk 02/23/2006 at 8:43 AM #

    “As for the – we don’t match up well with the “athletic Tarheelsâ€? premise.
    We didn’t have any trouble beating a more athletic (and future champion0 UNC team three years ago. Wonder what the difference is? COACHING!!!”-That team was exploiding with issues which is why they brought in roy, so you cant even compare.

  9. a garden gnome 02/23/2006 at 8:44 AM #

    It seems that this team peaked in the Duke game this year. I can’t see them going anywhere from here. TP is right. We’ve won so many ACC games this year just by holding on, when we should be able to post solid games against these teams (i.e. Clemson, Va. Tech).

    Another thought. In my limited experience in competitive basketball, I was told that rebounding was important. If “the system” that State runs doesn’t lend itself to getting large (or seemingly, any) numbers of rebounds, maybe they should rethink it. Last night (and the last several years) it was a big problem.

  10. packer74 02/23/2006 at 8:48 AM #

    Another loss to Chapel Hill. It hurts to be Wolfpack fan this morning.

    Herb’s Regular Season ACC Record versus the upper level teams during his 10 year tenure.

    Duke Wake UMD UNC Total
    2 Wins 6 Wins 5 Wins 5 Wins 18 Wins
    16 Losses 13 Losses 14 Losses 15 Losses 58 Losses

    It’s his system and he recruits the players to run it. Unfortunately, the beat goes on and on and on.

  11. WTNY 02/23/2006 at 8:51 AM #

    Much of what has been written is pure hogwash.

    Enough of this “we should be happy”, “we can’t compete so let’s settle nonsense”.

    State can beat Carolina. State should have done so last night. Period.

  12. VaWolf82 02/23/2006 at 9:00 AM #

    Sendek is doing very well with the talent he has.

    Oh never mind, it’s not worth it.

    Just remember this game the next someone tries to claim that Herb and State are competitive with Roy and UNC.

  13. a garden gnome 02/23/2006 at 9:00 AM #

    packer74, what is his record if you add in ACC tournament games against those teams? only fair to include those, since they are more important games. i’m sure it’s not much better.

    does anyone know right off hand what is his overall record and his overall record against ACC teams (including ACC & NCAA tournament games)?

  14. Jim 02/23/2006 at 9:13 AM #

    If we don’t “accomplish” something big this postseason (ACC title or at least final 8), Herb will go into an inexorable decaying orbit.

    IMO when the band played happy birthday last night, that was his high water mark. The morning before Gettysburg.

  15. Sammy Kent 02/23/2006 at 9:15 AM #

    Sorry, John. Herb is not a scratch golfer. A scratch golfer doesn’t use his putter on the tee and putt with a seven iron. He doesn’t chip around the edge of the green ten times before finally sending something towards the hole. He doesn’t use a driver to get out of a bunker, and then after doing all that unorthodox stuff, have no idea why he gets his can whipped so badly.

  16. Jim 02/23/2006 at 9:18 AM #

    ^ that should say final 8 with a close parens.

  17. Zahadum 02/23/2006 at 9:20 AM #

    Yes, that was truly a horror show. I’ve been following b-ball for over 40 years now and I can’t recall ever seeing a major college team get manhandled on the boards like that.

  18. cfpack03 02/23/2006 at 9:29 AM #

    It was just embarrassing… We actually shot the ball well (55% to their 45% I think), but when the opponents gets 3 offensive tries to each 1 possession, our probably of us winning the game is slightly reduced. …note the sarcasm. Herb had better produce and finish the season strong or he’ll get a FIRM TALKING to from Lee Fowler.

  19. Mr O 02/23/2006 at 9:34 AM #

    That was easily Herb Sendek’s worst game of his tenure considering the circumstances. What was the statistic they showed last night? That was only the 3rd time in 31 years we have been the higher ranked team when playing UNC?

    Anyways, what was so disappointing to me is that UNC took us completely out of our offense. They bullied us on the perimeter as their defense was phenomenal.

    At this point last year, I remember thinking that Herb Sendek was going to be fired because we were in danger of not making the tournament. Fortunately for him, we won just enough to get in and made the Sweet 16 to make the season successful.

    Nobody is going to be happy if we tank from this point. I don’t expect us to do so, but anything is possible. We need to win these last two games, make the ACC tourney Final and get to the Sweet 16 as a minimum.

  20. cfpack03 02/23/2006 at 9:35 AM #

    ^^^
    forget what I said above about shooting well, UNC shot 55% to our 43%…
    still the offensive rebounds and second/third/fourth chances killed us.

  21. BJD95 02/23/2006 at 9:45 AM #

    Since our “high water” mark of a competitive LOSS at Duke on January 18, we’ve played exactly TWO teams with at least a 50/50 shot to make the NCAAT. We lost both games, AT HOME, by a combined 42 points.

  22. class of '74 02/23/2006 at 9:49 AM #

    How any of us can really expect this team to win the ACCT or get to a sweet sixteen at this point is beyond me. We are unable to string together enough consecutive quality performances to make any real run in either.

  23. packer74 02/23/2006 at 9:51 AM #

    Regular Season ACC
    72 Wins, 86 Losses

    ACC Tournament
    UNC: 0 Wins, 2 Losses
    Duke: 1 Win, 5 Losses
    UMD: 2 Wins, 2 Losses
    Wake: 3 Wins, 0 Losses
    FSU: 3 Wins, 0 Losses
    GT: 2 Wins, 0 Losses
    UVA: 2 Wins, 0 Losses
    Totals: 13 Wins, 9 Losses

    I don’t believe we have played an ACC team in NCAA tournament under Herb.
    We had a loss to in the NIT to either Wake or GT some time ago.

  24. WTNY 02/23/2006 at 9:53 AM #

    “Nobody is going to be happy if we tank from this point. I don’t expect us to do so, but anything is possible.”

    What supports your thesis of not expecting us to tank? Of the high-major bball games this season, who did we thoroughly beat in this “best year” since the beginning of time? Geo. Wash, BC, FSU, maybe one more. Out of maybe 20 significant games we have 4 performances that suggest this is team going places, i.e. ACCTitle, Elite8.

    My rough breakdown is as follows:
    – 20% of the time we will play with all cylinders firing (GW, BC, FSU)
    – 20% we will play reasonably well
    – 40% we will struggle to win (Nailbiters, OT games)
    – 20% we will have engine failure (Seton Hall, UNC)

    I guess those odds are better than they have been but State can do better.

  25. All your base... 02/23/2006 at 9:54 AM #

    “We’re a one-trick pony, and if you take away that one-trick, we become a side-show clown.” – best quote ever!

    I TiVOed the game so I could skip through the commercials. I started watching the game about an hour after it started. With about 5 minutes to go in the first half, I already knew what the outcome was going to be. So at that point I started watching the game at 2X speed. It’s interesting how watching a game at this speed makes trends in the gameplay painfully obvious…
    – UNC was outrebounding State so bad, at one point I thought to myself “We look like a bunch of clowns out there.”, hence my applaud for the pony/clown reference. We looked like the kid in the neighborhood who just got his hat taken by the rest of the kids on the block…chasing the hat around while they laugh and pass it around, all the while falling and stumbling in the mud. I think on one UNC possession, they cycled through their offense, missed a shot/got rebound, and this happened for three or four cycles, until they got a wide-open dunk.
    – I have never seen a game where a team (UNC) missed so many foul shots and got the rebound back…and then hit a three to cap off the missed foul shot! Um, block out the foul shooter too, guys.
    – UNC’s wide open buckets underneath…how many times did one of our player’s get burned on a backdoor cut, leaving a UNC player with a wide open dunk/lay-up? So much for help defense…
    – State’s abyssimal shot selection at times. The NCSU Brick Mason’s Convention was in full effect last night.

    That about sums it up IMHO…break it down to the basics. The core problems with how State played last night. It all starts (or ends) with the fundamentals. You have to block out first…and then rebound. You have to play solid help defense in man to man if you are going to be successful with it. And you can’t have terrible, low percentage shot selection and still expect to win, especially if you can’t rebound to begin with…

    Bottom line, they were not prepared for this UNC team. This is a reflection on the coach. Herb got outcoached in-game as well. And it’s not ever going to change…it’s just not. Sonny and Cher every morning on the clock radio…

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