Joel Coliseum was half empty Saturday afternoon when the chant came echoing out of the upper deck. At the free throw line with 1:46 to play, Wake Forest freshman L.D. Williams had to double-take to make sure he was still playing in the Demon Deacons’ home arena. “For as long as I’ve been a basketball player, never have I heard another team’s chant on my home court,†Williams said. “That just sent me over the edge.â€
Sidney Lowe gets his first ACC win as the Wolfpack take down rival, Wake Forest!!
I don’t care how bad Wake is this season – this win means a lot. In the history of NC State Basketball, ONLY Les Robinson and Herb Sendek had losing records against Wake Forest. It is imperative that NC State exercises its dominance over the Demon Deacons again. So on Saturday – despite Skip Prosser’s FIVE YEAR head start on Sidney Lowe – the Pack’s new coach starts on the right foot in this important intra-state rivalry.
* Take a quick look at some of these statistics about the history of sweeps in this series and note the discrepency in the long term history of the rivalry compared to the recent performance of the last 16 years.
On Saturday the Wolfpack didn’t waste another great shooting night by playing good defense and improving our performance on the boards. The Pack shot a blistering 60% from the floor, 45% from three point territory and 79% from the free throw line!! Unreal shooting and kudos should go out to most of the usual suspects with extra credit to Dennis Horner!
Boxscore | S6’s Analysis < = is always super!
Great comments in our comments section of the blog. Thanks to all! I thought that we would elevat the following:
I was thrilled to see Sidney go to the bench so much. Stealing minutes as I call it. We created so much offense with the 1-3-1 that it really took some pressure off of our half court game. Lengthening the bench sends a message to our guys to play hard, because you can take a seat for a while to catch your breath. The effort on our part was so much better today. We can be competitive when we work like this, although I don’t expect Mr. Fells to shoot like that every game. Dennis Horner is going to be a nice player. I don’t think a superstar, but a nice solid player for us.
I even got my wish for the new year that I posted earlier – 5 scrubs on the floor for the conclusion of an ACC road victory. Sidney Lowe – I think this guy can coach.
Some more Sunday morning comments:
* I don’t care how
* You can click here for some video highlights from WRAL-TV that includes Brandon Costner’s dunk. Surely someone will get this and Courtney Fells’ slam on YouTube in the coming days!
* Don’t ignore this entry on Sidney Lowe’s inclusion of David Thompson yesterday.
* Don’t miss GoPack’s hard work and great coverage. (Link here)
Some of our ‘live blog’ comments from the first 10 minutes of the game follow. We LOVE THE recognition of State’s recent inability / unwillingness to draw charges right before the Pack turned it around and had its best defensive half of the year in drawing at least three or four charges in the second half!
Additionally, the Trevor Ferguson comments foretold the playing time that Darrell Davis inherited as the game evolved. I think Coach Lowe may have altered his strategy for the rest of the year as the lack of offensive firepower that Davis, Neiman and Ferguson provide is outweighed by the other positive impacts of their presence on the court.
1st Half comments —
Not an all out liveblog. Just some comments during the game.
* Watching us just dribble can be awfully painful. Grant and Fells are just scary with their dribbles and the lack of fundamentals of some of their initial passes.
* When was the last time NC State took a charge? I just watched Gavin Grant literally RUN away from the opportunity to stop penetration and help Dennis Horner by taking a charge. The result? Two free points for the Deacs. You won’t see that in the boxscore.
* Nice to see Fells shooting so well and asserting himself offensively. Four three pointers in the first 16 minutes of the game. Wow! A shooting guard that can shoot (and slash the way that Fells can slash) will do wonders to free up everyone else on the court.
* Nice to see Grant slashing a little more and generally making better decisions than in recent games.
* Wake has generally worked hard to keep Costner somewhat quiet. Nice to see everyone else stepping up.
* Give State credit for significant improvement on our defensive boards.
* Ben McCauley hasn’t been as active as State needs; but the Pack has been able to build an 11 point lead with four minutes to play in the first half. This is good news. We have to hope that the Pack doesn’t completely forget Ben in the second half when/if Wake starts to make runs. Sure points (let’s call them “highly efficient offensive possessions”) that arise from getting the ball in McCauley’s hands will be key to the Pack maintaining the lead.
* Trevor Ferguson will not get many minutes if he doesn’t do more with them.
