Pack Gets Lackluster Win (Updated 10 am)

06-07 Basketball General Sidney Lowe64

Well, the one benefit to staying inside wrapping Christmas presents was the opportunity to listen to the Pack’s 80-65 win over Mount St. Mary’s.

Hopefully, it was just an exam-related hangover, because the Pack was mostly sloppy and ineffective. State’s transition defense sucked, and the defensive rebounding (against an undersized and poor rebounding team) was even worse. After falling behind 20-6 early, the Mountaineers actually outplayed the Wolfpack for most of the rest of the game, getting as close as 3 before NC State pulled away late.

The always-analytical Section Six tells us that Saturday’s game was Bryan Neiman’s best statistical game of the season and Brandon Costner’s worst of the year.

Is there a pattern to the team’s performance as it relates to Gavin Grant’s workload? This is something I’ll be keeping an eye on. I’m not putting any stock in these numbers yet, because Gavin’s high workload games have come against the toughest part of the schedule, but here’s what we’ve got so far:

Grant %Poss Under 30.0: 4 games (Woff, Del St., Sav St., Mt. St. Mary’s)
Grant’s Average %Poss In These Games: 24.7
NCSU Average Offensive Efficiency In These Games: 118.5

Grant %Poss Over 30.0: 5 games (Valpo, G-W, Mich, UVA, WVU)
Grant’s Average %Poss In These Games: 32.5
NCSU Average Offensive Efficiency In These Games: 105.2

The N&O’s blog said:

Every N.C. State player — all six of them — scored at least 11 points in the Wolfpack’s 80-65 win over Mount St. Mary’s on Saturday afternoon. Courtney Fells led the Pack (7-2) with 16 points, including a critical 3-pointer when the Mountaineers (2-7) made it a three-point game early in the second half.

The Mount gave State trouble with a 2-3 zone and on the offensive glass. They finished with 20 offensive rebounds, compared to eight for State, and with an overall 39-34 rebounding margin.

The Pack made up for the boards discrepancy by shooting 56.3 from the floor (27 of 48) and by making 21 of 28 free throws, compared to seven attempts for Mount St. Mary’s.

Saturday marked the fourth straight game senior guard Engin Atsur missed with a hamstring injury. That’s why the Pack has had to go with just six players.

Even though State shot fine from the floor (on Saturday) without Engin Atsur, the Turk’s return and ability to shoot the three will play a major impact on the Wolfpack’s ability to combat zone defenses. The N&O also ran a very nice blog entry on the importance of Engin Atsur.

One silver lining – Sidney Lowe will have no problem getting his team’s attention heading into Wednesday night’s home tussle against #9 Alabama. Hope to see everyone there and hear you get loud.

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06-07 Basketball General Sidney Lowe

64 Responses to Pack Gets Lackluster Win (Updated 10 am)

  1. schitzonation84 12/17/2006 at 2:35 PM #

    All good seats are locked up by season ticket holders who don’t bother to show up until the conference games start. I’ll be up in my usual third level seat for the Alabama game eyeing all the empty cushy seats.

  2. NCStateDud92 12/17/2006 at 2:45 PM #

    Sad but true, schitzonation. I will be stuck in 318 with many others. I really think that after halftime they should find a way to allow people to move so that they fill the lower bowl. It would come in especially handy on a day like yesterday.

  3. Mr O 12/17/2006 at 3:07 PM #

    “It would make more sense to play 6 or 8 “big” games at the RBC and the remainder at Reynolds, sort of like what Ga Tech does w/ Philips Arena and Alexander”

    Ga Tech plays near 100% of their games in Alexander. If they have played in Philips, then that was a special occasion.

  4. Lee Fowler 12/17/2006 at 4:19 PM #

    Schizo is right. The prime seats in the lower bowl are owned by the sweater vest wearing elites who work for the likes of GlaxoSmithKline or other corporate behemoths, and who have no connections with NC State whatsoever. The suits pay $1,000 a year so they can entertain clients for the Duke and UNC games.

  5. VaWolf82 12/17/2006 at 4:27 PM #

    Everyone knows that State has lousy facilities and lousy fans. [sarcasm]

    State ranked 13th in the nation in attendance last year….averaging 2000 more people per game than would fit into Reynolds. I wish people would find something else to complain about other than the RBC Center. (Link)

  6. VaWolf82 12/17/2006 at 4:28 PM #

    Obviously cut and paste will be required to get the link to work.

  7. NCStateDud92 12/17/2006 at 4:38 PM #

    You know what? screw yesterday. Anybody who has tickets, SHOW UP ON WEDNESDAY! Fegie’s debut? Atsur’s Return? Vs. #9 Alabama? do you need more reasons? pack the gym and get loud, they will need us.

  8. wolfonthehill 12/17/2006 at 5:20 PM #

    If we’d worn black unis & had live wolves on the sidelines, the place would’ve been packed.

  9. Lee Fowler 12/17/2006 at 5:37 PM #

    VaWolf, I’m sure those stats include the sweater vest wearing non-fans I described above. When I lived in Raleigh and had LTRs (in the 3rd deck), I routinely recall many games where there were fewer than 6,000 fans.

    I would like to see “turnstile” stats, but I doubt those are available.

  10. Lee Fowler 12/17/2006 at 5:38 PM #

    that 6,000 is an estimate of course.

  11. Woof Wolf 12/17/2006 at 7:26 PM #

    Someone should start a non-profit. Season ticket holders donate the tickets they don’t plan to use. Resell them on the Internet and donate the after expenses proceeds to charity. The guys in the nose bleed seats could donate their tickets and upgrade (move down) for a game or two. Some fat cats could buy a group of tickets and give them to the Y W or M CA or whoever.

    Tax deductions; charities profit; and more butts in the good seats. Everyone wins.

  12. c6by66 12/17/2006 at 7:58 PM #

    As a matter of information, I think I read the box score in the N&O and they listed attendance at 12,276…..RIGHT….I think it was around 6,000 as on of the previous posters indicated. Look at it this way…the game generated revenue…however the vendors (drinks, food, etc.) did not get their share.

    Does anybody know what the SOLD out capacity of the RBC is?

    Thanks….

  13. Woof Wolf 12/17/2006 at 8:06 PM #

    19,722 for basketball according to their website.

  14. doug 12/17/2006 at 8:22 PM #

    As much as i enjoyed the Reynolds days its time has passed. I was there in 83 when they beat unc and i had ringing in my ears for 3 days after that game (this along with last years stanley cup game was the most fun that i have ever had at a live sporting event) . I have also watched 3 games in one week at Reynolds and had in one of the worst back aches ever because of the sight lines of the building. One game in Reynolds every years in early December is perfect.

  15. PackGirl 12/17/2006 at 9:01 PM #

    There’s no way there were 12,000+ in the RBC on Sat. They must count season ticket holders whether they show up or not. The nosebleed seats were more full than previous games this year (because of the Toys for Tots tickets, I guess) but the lower levels were at about 30% at best. We have tried to sneak down to the primo seats this year, but except for 1 time when the usher was distracted, have had no luck. I think they have a new policy now. You used be able to move down after half-time, but I think the no-shows have complained that we’re stinking up their unused seats.

  16. Yosef 12/17/2006 at 10:54 PM #

    Perhaps this has something to do with the small attendance?

    A friend of mine (State grad) took his family to the game on Saturday and tried to buy tickets at the box office. He was told that the game was sold out due to the Toys for Tots promotion. They told him, however, if he dontated 6 toys he could get his 6-member family into the game…otherwise there were no tickets available. He explained that he did not have time to go buy 6 toys and come back to the game….but they still would not let them purchase tickets for the game. He and his disappointed kids had to leave. What the @!#?

  17. Lee Fowler 12/17/2006 at 11:01 PM #

    Yosef, that sounds about like something our athletics department would say or do.

  18. legacyman 12/18/2006 at 7:31 AM #

    Would make more sense to let that man pay five dollars for each person and get his tickets. Our athletic dept. does not always use their best sense, at least I hope it wasn’t.

  19. Rick 12/18/2006 at 7:49 AM #

    “VaWolf, I’m sure those stats include the sweater vest wearing non-fans I described above. When I lived in Raleigh and had LTRs (in the 3rd deck), I routinely recall many games where there were fewer than 6,000 fans.”

    I love it when a guy that says he does not go to games, complains about attendance and noise.

  20. Lee Fowler 12/18/2006 at 9:23 AM #

    Rick,

    I was a LTR holder for the first 4 years at the RBC (and still have LTRs for football) and only cancelled my season tickets after the birth of a child and the subsequent move out of state. I am intimately familiar with the RBC and all of its pros/cons.

  21. highonlowe 12/18/2006 at 9:29 AM #

    Obviously, fans who live outside the the Raleigh area have difficulty making it to games regularly and the mini-packs aren’t always feasible for these fans.
    Sure, the mini-packs encourage higher attendance to conference games by bulk ticket sales but the uncustomizable 2 weekday games/2 weekend games package aren’t an option for me as Charlotte resident and, unfortunately, individual-game tickets aren’t sold for conference games. Anytime a seller turns away a buyer, it isn’t good for business. Instead of offering only 2 arrangements of mini-packs, they could offer additional options, like all-weekend-game mini-packs or a choose-4 package.
    Non-conference games don’t apply to this scenario but if attendance falls below expectations for ACC games, this could be a factor.

  22. BigRed 12/18/2006 at 10:08 AM #

    I was at this game, and relegated to the 300’s, while looking down at a mass of great, but empty, seats. As others have noted, crowd energy was totally lacking, which had to affect the team. It’s just plain irritating and wrong.

    I’ll throw this out there: If you are holding a ticket to a game, it’s your RESPONSIBILITY to either be there or hand off the ticket to another fan.

    Sell it or give it away, I don’t care, just get a fan into that seat. To do otherwise hurts the team and is bad for fan morale. Season ticket holders who don’t put butts in seats are BAD FANS.

    Do you not know a neighborhood kid who would enjoy the game? Or maybe a co-worker? Is it too much trouble to put ’em up on CraigsList?

    And if anyone is serious about putting together a non-profit ticket exchange program, let me know.

  23. StateFans 12/18/2006 at 11:08 AM #

    All fans are reponsible for crowd energy.

    Students are responsible for DRIVING the crowd energy.

    Our students have forgotten how to be basketball fans in the last 15 years.

  24. gopherfan 12/18/2006 at 11:20 AM #

    Look at the bright side. You could have
    the Dean Smith ugly blue, cold, plastic
    monstrosity with their parking situation.

  25. Pack Laddie 12/18/2006 at 11:59 AM #

    Lee Fowler said—“The prime seats in the lower bowl are owned by the sweater vest wearing elites who work for the likes of GlaxoSmithKline or other corporate behemoths, and who have no connections with NC State whatsoever”

    That is total BS, and a slap in the face to all the loyal Wolfpackers, who are not corporate types, who gave very generously to the Pride Campaign.

    I have 8 LTRs, and can assure you that I am not a GlaxoSmithCline, or any other corporation. And there are many, many more just like me who supported the program, and have lower level sidecourt seats. There are others that post on this board.

    Sure, there are some corporate seats, but the percentage of those is probably 25%, or less, of the total lower bowl LTR seats.

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