NC State 64, ECU 57 (whew) [Updated 11pm]

06-07 Basketball General72

Here’s the recap. The Pack dodged a very embarrassing bullet (unlike BC, who fell to Duquesne). Ferguson missed the game with the flu, depriving us yet again of witnessing a robust 7-man rotation.

Please discuss below, especially if you were there tonight.

The following are some quick bytes from Jeff:

* Playing ECU in basketball couldn’t be more strange. State people could seriously care less about beating the Pirates but would consider it a half-step away from Armageddon if the Pack ever lost to the Pirates.

* Tonight’s win makes it 17-0 vs the Pirates with an average margin of victory over 22 points per game. And, tonight represents the closest that ECU may ever get to the Pack in the foreseeable future.

* Dear Lee Fowler- just like football, there are LOTS of reasons that this game hasn’t been scheduled since 1982. What the *#*@ do you think that you know that the five Athletics Directors before you didn’t know? Tonight’s game should have NEVER been scheduled for this season (Coach Lowe’s first year). What’s worse is how it still has not been made public – despite lots of attention on this website – that Lee Fowler may have signed NC State up to actually travel TO Greenville in future years to play basketball in Greenville. We will continue to wait and see.

* What I do know is that Terry Holland is powerful in the world of college athletics and Lee Fowler would never do anything to be in conflict with someone like Holland. Doesn’t matter that NC State hasn’t scheduled ECU in over 23 years. Doesn’t matter that no ACC school of stature has ever traveled to Greenville for a basketball game. Only matters how Lee can make someone powerful happy in the event he ever needs a reference.

* Ben McCauley saved the Pack in the first half. Brandon Costner saved the Pack in the second half. And Courtney Fells played one of his most complete games of the season. It is very nice to see him continue to evolve into the kind of player that he can be. Dennis Horner won’t be mentioned by a lot of folks, but the kid started and contributed important minutes (and shots) for us.

* Is it acceptable yet to whisper just a little criticism about Gavin Grant’s play? Having to suck it up for the team and play point guard has little to do with many of his bad decisions some of the listless play that results in unforced turnovers that are puzzling.

* It was a littler hard to notice because ECU did us a little bit of a favor by playing zone in the second half, but Coach Lowe deserves a TON of credit for taking the ball out of Grant’s hands in the second half and shifting Courtney Fells to the ‘point’ of our offensive attack. State only turned the ball over twice in the entire second half after the move.

* Stat of the game: State shot 31 free throws to the ECU’s 9.

* State ended up at almost 68% from the free throw line…but, it sure didn’t feel that good. (Not that 68% is necessarily good free throw shooting).

* The Wolfpack now is past the half-way mark for wins required to get an NIT bid (15). State still has two out of conference games that should be wins and will hopefully boost us to ten before conference play begins in earnest on January 6th vs Boston College.

* Have you looked at our schedule until the middle of January? HOME GAMES GALORE vs the likes of Boston College, Virginia, Clemson and Duke after UNC-G and UNC-W and before having to hit the road in the conference. Simply put – the next three weeks will be the deciding factor on postseason play for the Wolfpack.

* Engin Atsur’s health will be talked about a lot in the coming weeks. With him the Pack could make a mini-run that would set us up nicely for the NIT and at least position us to dream about some upsets and an NCAA Tournament berth. Without him we will have to claw for everything we can get to keep momentum towards 15 wins and the NIT. This team has shown that they can do it.

* Did you know that the NC State-ECU football series was halted because of a fight between the teams in 1987? I was at the 1987 game and don’t recall seeing NC State players take part in a fight. I recall ECU’s fans storming NC State’s field to destroy property (on a more grand scale than they had after 1985 and the warning’s from NC State the followed 1985). You learn something new from ESPN(U) every time you turn on the television.

* Speaking of the announcing, Doug Gottlieb made some real jackass remarks during the game that were pretty embarassing. As Gottlieb literally was sitting UNDER TWO NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP BANNERS and TEN ACC CHAMPIONSHIP BANNERS, he was chirping away about NC State’s fanbase being “totally unrealistic” in wanting to win National Championships. Considering that there are only five (out of 320) basketball programs in America to win more National Titles than NC State then I wonder who the hell should expect to try to win titles?

Image

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.

06-07 Basketball General

72 Responses to NC State 64, ECU 57 (whew) [Updated 11pm]

  1. brown pelican 12/29/2006 at 10:08 AM #

    the comments regarding mccauley are well deserved—agree about his ability to catch the ball in traffic—also—his vision and footwork are truly above average—the greatest thing about him is the work ethic—if he continues to build on that ethic—in time—he will be an all acc performer—the reality of our situation at the present must be dealt with by coach lowe—we defend poorly—fundamentally we are often unsound here—particularly on close outs—we leave our feet more than the average high school team when closing on shooters—our free throw shooting must improve—we will be hard pressed to ‘steal’ wins down the line with the below average shooting that we are displaying now—finally—our half court offense agains the zone is often a turnover waiting to happen—ball movement and player movement is not as sharp as it should be here—still we are a fun team to watch that looks like it is having fun playing the game—and playing for the new coach—as an alumnus i’m proud of their effort so far and expect that coach lowe will get them to continue to improve—the wins and losses will sort themself out if he can do this—congrats on the win—first time that we have come back from a half-time deficit?—go pack

  2. old13 12/29/2006 at 10:16 AM #

    I REPEAT – Foulup needs to be gone NOW!

  3. RAWFS 12/29/2006 at 10:23 AM #

    I was going to write this myself this morning, after I had some coffee, took care of some work, and quite frankly, regained my normally sanguine composure. Our friends over at Statefansnation beat me to the punch, however, which is not surprising, because they are one of the most on-the-ball sports sites covering one team in the country — and NC State’s fans are lucky that there are as many dedicated writers penning articles beneath their banner. Anyway, they said the things I had to say about ESPN-U announcer Doug Gottlieb’s commentary about the “unreasonable expectations” of State’s fans expecting the school to field teams that compete not only in the ACC but also nationally.

  4. Buddygreen 12/29/2006 at 10:26 AM #

    A good win for us. A positive step towards that State championship Mack Brown created for Carolina sports.

  5. rockwolf 12/29/2006 at 10:31 AM #

    “Dear Lee Fowler-… What’s worse is how it still has not been made public – despite lots of attention on this website…”

    just curious, but is the athletic department covered under nc’s public records law? if so, couldn’t you make a request to nc state for all communciations regarding scheduling?

  6. Mr O 12/29/2006 at 10:38 AM #

    I don’t see a problem with playing ECU. We should beat them in football in most years and every year in basketball. It was nice to see the RBC mostly full for the first time this season.

    Costner reminds me so much of T. Prince from Kentucky and now with the Detroit Pistons. IMO, Costner has the most potential of anyone on our team to play at the next level.

    For our team, it doesn’t matter how we win or how much we win by. Just win. Nice comeback last night against a team that apparently played one of their better games all season. If Atsur can play this year, then maybe we could win 5-8 ACC games this year.

    I am a huge fan of Horner. Good size, pretty good athlete, very good shooter….I think he is going to be a heck of a player for us the next 3.5 years. Not necessarily an all-ACC player, but someone who will be a major contributor for his entire career. He is very versatilte, so he can play multiple positions. Nice player to have on your roster for a coach I would imagine. Horner and McCauley are both good examples of how well our previous staff was doing in finding ACC players that weren’t big-time recruits. With Horner who was a top 200 guy, we basically have a freshman who appears ready to play in the ACC this early.

    McCauley played another very good game. However, he missed a few tough shots that I think we have started to take for granted. McCauley is the team MVP so far and was again last night.

    He had 20 pts, 10 rebs, and 3 assists and nobody has really even mentioned him yet. Shows you how consistent he has been all season long.

  7. cpwolfpackfan 12/29/2006 at 11:00 AM #

    I think atsure will not play saturday but will probley play tuesday, I heard that he could have played last night, but chose not to. We don’t need him to get injured before acc again. All we need to do is tread water unitl boston college. Find a way to win the next two, weather it is by 1 or 30, just win, get atsure back and lets go from there. I know everyone is bashing grant, but lay off of him, he is a 6’7″ foward that was thrown into the point. I think he did a good job with all things considered. The guy is a wing and nothing more, with atsurer back the offense should start clicking again. But the next two games are huge, we have avoided the “upset” game so far. I can deal with going into the acc at 10-4 with the first two games at home. Setting up nice for us. By the way clemson is a fraud

  8. cpwolfpackfan 12/29/2006 at 11:02 AM #

    things could be a lot worse. we could be 6-6 with a loss to portland state, and davidson

  9. Girlfriend in a Coma 12/29/2006 at 11:06 AM #

    Hypothetically, could Atsur redshirt? IIRC Michigan was our 5th regular-season game, but I don’t know the rules for medical redshirts.

    If this injury drags on, and if a medical redshirt is possible, we should do it. With him back, in 2008 we could be in the mix for an NCAA bid — something impossible this year with or without Atsur.

  10. brown pelican 12/29/2006 at 11:10 AM #

    the obvious ignorance expressed by announcers regarding our proud basketball heritage calls for the mute button to be immediately deployed—the acc championships and ncaa championships speak for themselves—the mediocrity of the past 15 years still includes ncaa tournament participation in 6 seasons and acc tournament championship appearances in 3 others—our expectations as fans should be in synch with the heritage and history that we all must support—from case to lowe

  11. crackdog 12/29/2006 at 11:12 AM #

    A couple of friends who came late to the game said that the game was a sell-out. The folks at the ticket window were all out of tickets.

  12. Clarksa 12/29/2006 at 11:26 AM #

    Tony Haynes said this morning on TheBull that Atsur practiced on Tuesday, but was sore on Wednesday and he will continue to be out until he can practice without feeling the effects of the injury.

  13. Mr O 12/29/2006 at 11:29 AM #

    I am kind of torn as far as what to expect out of this team. Look at last night…

    Starters:
    1. Junior – never started in the ACC prior to this season
    2. Sophmore- played sparingly as a freshman
    3. Sophmore – played sparingly as a freshman
    4. Red-shirt freshman – played even more sparingly as a freshman
    5. Freshman – top 200 recruit not originally expected to play as freshman

    Bench:
    6. Walk-on – never expected to play for any major division 1 team

  14. beowolf 12/29/2006 at 11:39 AM #

    Good point, Mr. O.

    One thing about this team that I like is that they make comebacks. Even if right now it’s generally been against subpar competition. They were down 8 to Wofford and came back to win. Down 12 against Michigan, won. Down 15 to ECU, won.

  15. Clarksa 12/29/2006 at 11:58 AM #

    Michigan win is looking better every day…they are 12-2 with losses to us and #1 UCLA.

  16. RAWFS 12/29/2006 at 12:03 PM #

    My expectations were as they were: rebuilding year shy on ACC top-half talent. Yes, there are some pieces in place, but depth and positional issues will prevent this team from achieving last year’s results.

    I feel much better about the capabilities of the coaching staff. I knew Coach Lowe and the rest understood the unique position of NC State in the college game, and having met Sidney before I knew he would be able to recruit. I was not entirely certain of his strategy and tactics, but feel very good about them now. As for the players, there are a number of good ballers wearing our uniform, but not enough of them, and quite honestly, we’re shy down low and at the point. That will hurt…this year. Next year looks brighter, and the year after that, you will hear the name NC State when the top 20 is mentioned.

    Our basketball program is looking bright. It may not seem like it at times, times like the first half of ECU last night, but these are the days we’ll pay our dues for the rewards we can reasonably expect in the future.

    This coaching change may well work out for both NC State and Coach Sendek.

  17. harrisek 12/29/2006 at 12:18 PM #

    One thing about Gottlieb’s comments. I think we all have gotten the message that ESPN totally disrespects and despises NCSU. Maybe it’s time for blogs and such to start ignoring those comments.

  18. RickJ 12/29/2006 at 12:27 PM #

    “Michigan win is looking better every day…they are 12-2 with losses to us and #1 UCLA.”

    Clarksa – respectfully disagree. Michigan lost by 37 at UCLA and lost to us without Astur. Their best win by far this year is Davidson at home by 10 points. Their strength of schedule is really bad. I don’t see Amaker surviving at Michigan.

  19. reanalyst 12/29/2006 at 12:28 PM #

    When we played ECU in the RBC Center November 19, 2004 (we won 100-66) did you guys want Lee Fowler fired because of it then too?

    Atsur would be eligible for a redshirt if at this point.

    SFN: Dear Einstein – That game in 2004 was not scheduled.

    That game was the result of both teams winning games in a tournament. ECU pulled an upset(s) to get to that game.

    When NC State TRAVELS to Greenville in the coming years, what fabricated precedent will you contrive then?

  20. BoKnowsNCS71 12/29/2006 at 12:33 PM #

    I don’t think the game last night has anyting to do with the thought process about firing Fowler. The dump Fowler movement has been going on here for a long time.

  21. DIXIE Wolf 12/29/2006 at 12:37 PM #

    Does anyone know Gottlieb’s e-mail address @ ESPN Radio? He needs to read this entry on SFN!

  22. geojim1990 12/29/2006 at 12:59 PM #

    Just a couple of remarks:

    From Tim Peeler — “The Wolfpack (8-4) was also without redshirt freshman guard Trevor Ferguson, who was out with a flu bug he caught over the Christmas nolidays. He’ll be evaluated Friday to see if he can return for Saturday’s noon game aginst UNC-Wilmington, Lowe said.”
    I seem to remember a couple of seasons ago when half the team came down with the flu in Dec when they were already short-handed. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY…GET FLU SHOTS.

    You can critque Grant anyway you want about the way he’s running the pt. but I choose to give him alot of room for error. He’s not a pt. guard & has never claimed to be (that I know of). He was asked to do it because he’s the most experienced guard on the team with Atsur out. If it turns out that Fells has a slightly better basketball IQ than Grant, well then, good for Fells & good for the team (now that they know). I guess my only point here is that it’s difficult for me to ever fault a player too much for making bad decisions playing a position that he doesn’t know & was asked to do to help out the team.

  23. JT 12/29/2006 at 1:06 PM #

    I can’t fault Grant for having difficulties. If it weren’t for the roster, he shouldn’t sniff the PG position. Hell, Atsur is the PG, and he really isn’t a PG by any standard definition. Cut Grant some slack. If Lowe can juggle this position halfway effectively through the year, he’ll have done some great coaching.
    And, yeah, Fells has serious upside. It’s great to hear him call for the responsibility and come through. Kudos.

  24. CarnifeX 12/29/2006 at 1:15 PM #

    My curiosity about this team and its depth is what will happen with regards to stamina.

    Do we become a more robust team or do we run out of steam once we start playing ACC schedule and are getting run ragged. Just a thought and concern that I had; any thoughts?

  25. BoKnowsNCS71 12/29/2006 at 1:24 PM #

    Geojim — Agree on the flu shots. It makes no sense for basketball players to not get a flu shot. Two years ago when they had a shortage and were only offering it to seniors and young children, I saw where Duke’s BB team had gotten immunized. BB season falls right in the flu season. And if one kid gets it, expect the rest to follow. Sid needs to make this a priority.

1 2 3

Leave a Reply