Lowe Wins 3rd in Row vs UNC (Updated 2/4)

General NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe146

Two games this week…two wins over teams sitting in first place of the ACC!

Sidney Lowe “gets it”. 15 point underdog stuns UNC in Raleigh. What a difference a year – and a coaching change – can make! We had an entry open during the game that has some of our comments about the game.

* After finishing his playing career with two straight wins over Carolina in 1983, Sidney Lowe starts his coaching career by successfully defending NC State’s home court with a win over #3 ranked UNC-Chapel Hill.

* Every media outlet in America has mistakenly misquoted Sidney Lowe’s record against UNC today. I don’t know what our SID has been doing all day, but can SOMEONE please get in touch with ESPN (and other media outlets) and explain to them that Sidney Lowe’s playing days incuded more than just one win vs the Heels? This mistake is everywhere! (Kind of like how Philip Rivers ‘never lost a bowl game’ despite the fact that State lost to Pitt in the Tangerine Bowl). The mistake was even misquoted at halftime of the radio broadcast of tonight’s Maryland-Wake Forest game. Jeez.

* Speaking of media outlets:
(a) This link will take you to a consolidation of stories on the game.
(b) this link will take you to the N&O’s blog that has a host of links related to the game.
(c) This link will take you so a super audio slide-show done by JP Giglio at the N&O.
(d) This link includes 48 great pictures from the N&O.

* Like Jim Valvano used to do, Coach Lowe wore a red blazer for the occassion that he called “special” in his post game radio comments. Special? You mean it isn’t just 1/16th of the conference schedule? You can get a nice view of the attire here.

* In addition to notching the biggest win the ESA/RBC’s history, the Wolfpack have won consecutive games against Top 25 opponents for the first time since 1990-1991 (Georgia Tech, UNC-CH) .

* Carolina is the highest-ranked opponent State has beaten since the Pack’s win over third ranked Wake Forest in the 2005 ACC Tournament. You will remember that as the game that the Demon Deacons played without All-American point guard Chris Paul who was suspended for punching Julius Hodge in the groin in the team’s regular season finale the previous week.

* Additionally, Lowe joins Press Maravich and Les Robinson as NC State coaches since Everett Case who beat Carolina in their first game.

* Coach Lowe is now 2-1 vs Big Four opponents with return games (vs Wake, @ UNC) remaining on the schedule. Another win vs a Big Four team this year would get Coach Lowe three wins vs Big Four opponents in one regular season (in five games). The Wolfpack’s last head coach didn’t win his third regular season game against Big Four competition until his third season despite having six opportunities per year instead of five. This link will take you to an old entry (2005) related to recent performance against the Big Four.

* Many analysts are already talking about the Wolfpack’s win with terms like ‘passion’ and ‘hunger’ and ‘desire’. What a WONDERFUL testimomy to Coach Lowe’s intensity and ability to communicate to his players. It has been more than ten years since anyone has remotely associated a win by Stat to simple motivation and passion. WRAL’s blog says that “The Pack wanted it more”

It was an unbelievable day for Lowe, who was wearing a bright-red blazer. It was a good omen. As much as anyone, he knows how badly N.C. State fans want to beat Carolina, and he delivered in his first game against the Tar Heels.

* The win also saw students take to Hillsborough Street for one of the first times in years. Although the ‘celebration’ pales in comparison to the old days, it is nice to see it happen. Video (and other related items) can be found at WRAL-TV5.

* Loved these quotes not to be ignored.

* This national story from Fox Sports included a better acknoweldgement of the big picture than most national outlets typically get right:

Lowe was hired to win these types of games. He was the point guard on the Jim Valvano-coached Wolfpack team that beat North Carolina twice as a senior in 1982-83 and went on to win an improbable national championship.

In recent seasons N.C. State’s fan base grew increasingly frustrated with consistent losses to rivals Duke and North Carolina under coach Herb Sendek, who went 8-38 against those schools during his 10 seasons before leaving for Arizona State.

“It means (Lowe) is going to be around here for a long time,” Costner said. “You (media) guys can look forward to keep interviewing him, keep talking to him and just see Wolfpack basketball take off again.”

* To the ‘younger set‘ of Wolfpack fans whose memories don’t extend pass 1990, we’d like to say welcome to reality. THIS is what it is supposed to be like.

About StateFans

'StateFansNation' is the shared profile used by any/all of the dozen or so authors that contribute to the blog. You may not always agree with us, but you will have little doubt about where we stand on most issues. Please follow us on Twitter and FaceBook

General NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe

146 Responses to Lowe Wins 3rd in Row vs UNC (Updated 2/4)

  1. 70wolf 02/03/2007 at 7:34 PM #

    In case there is someone out there that still doesnt get it. THIS is why we ran Sendek out of town ….THIS is the way its supposed to be……We out dunked them…we out rebounded them……we out played them……We had heart….we had focus….after 15 years we are a basketball team once again !!

  2. StateFoxer 02/03/2007 at 7:35 PM #

    “The game they played against Virginia Tech, and to turn around and play like this against us, Sid and his staff and all the Wolfpack faithful should feel very good about that,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

  3. MikeMc_92 02/03/2007 at 7:35 PM #

    What’s up with this idiot on ESPN saying “carolina state” over and over again?! Think Stu is cashing in some clout?

  4. tractor57 02/03/2007 at 7:39 PM #

    “We’re just trying to get us back to where we rightfully should be,” forward Brandon Costner said
    AMEN!

  5. wirogers 02/03/2007 at 7:42 PM #

    Mr. O, was anyone else there with you, miss those days.

    My neighbors, here in frigid Pennsylvania (I hate Penn State), now feel they can 100% state I have went nuts.

    After the game, dancing in the front yard, cold and snow.

    Wished I could have been on Hillsborough as we all should have.

    Great game Sid, nice to see a team play with heart and bring back the State I remember of the 70’s and 80’s.

  6. doug 02/03/2007 at 7:43 PM #

    After the score was 29-20 the atmosphere in the RBC was as good as Reynolds

  7. Glen Sudhop54 02/03/2007 at 7:47 PM #

    Woo-Hoo!!!!

    Where are you RedFred?? You musta went shopping with the little lady again.

    I was at the game, I agree with TarHole nation, it WAS a horribly officiated game!! Without the refs KEEPING the Heels in the game at every conceivable big play we would have won by 20 points. Not sure how it looked on TV, but from row Q in the lower level the Heels got away with countless travels (mainly Tyler) and numerous over-the-back fouls on nearly every rebound.

    The hand check fouls were iffy on the Heels, but guess what? THAT”S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CHECK WITH YOUR HANDS!!

    Go Pack… I may have used all of my luck up on the Pack and have none left for my beloved Colts but so what?

    GO STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. JimValvano 02/03/2007 at 7:51 PM #

    Look at my screen name.

    Look at Coach Lowe.

    Did you see what he saw? Did you learn what he learned?

    Brilliant job mixing in multiple defenses. How very Jim Valvano of him. Coach Lowe used defense to help win this game. Coach Lowe used defense to outcoach, OUTCOACH ROY WILLIAMS. First, Coach Lowe used a triangle and two. Did you hear that? A TRIANGLE AND TWO…to throw the tarholes on their tarHeels. It confused them. Roy overlooked the fact that Coach Lowe was a player for the king of junk defenses…Jimmy V. Next, after the half, with Atsur, our catalyst, in foul trouble…what did Coach Lowe do??? He went to a 2-3 zone. What did that do? It was the use of defensive sets again which helped keep Atsur in the game. It kept him from the situation where he might have been isolated by roy and the tarholes and lawson…and he didn’t ever pick up that fourth foul. The coaching was BRILLIANT. It’s a rare thing to say, but Ol’ Roy looked like his nickname…Ol’ Roy…Walmart Brand Dog Food. He got outcoached.

    You also have to give it to the players. What a performance. Our starting five was gutsy, tough, smart, and conveniently ON FIRE! Neiman and Horner came off the bench with solid contributions. Can’t find their solid contributions on the box score? Well…the box score doesn’t tell you everything. It feels good to see McCauley outplay Hands-bro. It feels good to see Costner show that he can out play Wright. We beat their ass. Start to finish. We WON this game.

    The team as a whole…coaches included won this game tonight. Congratulations to the team, and thank you for PACKING THE TARHOLES.

  9. Mr O 02/03/2007 at 7:52 PM #

    There will be shots of Hillsborough St on the local news tonight. There were a good many students, but it didn’t seem like there were as many as in the past(maybe the time of the game had something to do with it.

  10. Packster 02/03/2007 at 7:54 PM #

    Herb would have blew the lead at the end. He always got outcoached at the end of the game time and time again. How great to have the coach make the calls to win it. Even with the missed free throws our defense still held them at the end.

  11. Red 02/03/2007 at 7:56 PM #

    I am now 100% sure that I’d rather listen to Woody Durham and Bob Harris call an NCSU game than have to listen to Jimmy Dykes. Brad Nessler is harmless as he has ridden the hot team in every games he has ever called (sans Georgia Tech). Whatever happened to Dykes being limited to Big 12 “Big Monday” games and the WAC Conference Tournament. I was fully preparred to hunt Dykes down if we had blown this game. My wife is thrilled we didn’t blow it. On another note, I am begging every NCSU fan not to look ahead in the schedule. Let’s play one game at a time before we begin to even dream about being in the field of 64. We’re 3-5 in the conference with a 1-4 conference HOME record. Let’s celebrate this win for 48 straight hours (ok, 96 hours will work), play one game at a time, and try to play our first ACC Tournament game on Friday! DT

  12. Woof Wolf 02/03/2007 at 8:03 PM #

    jamieinkorea and TopTenPack fan:

    http://acc.playonsports.tv/ streams almost all of the Raycom LF games live or maybe a few seconds delayed. They don’t have rights to the ABC/ESPN games so you would not have gotten today’s game. But you can get a lot of games live.

    Packpass doesn’t do much live video but they do put a lot of the games up overnight after the game.

  13. Woof Wolf 02/03/2007 at 8:17 PM #

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/

    Check this out. Click on the “College Hoops” tab above the picture or just wait for it to come up.

    I love it.

  14. Red 02/03/2007 at 8:20 PM #

    On more thing: I have told all of my UNC Tarheel friends all year that Ben McCauley can hang with Hanbrough any day of the week. Sendek didn’t play Ben much last year, but he surprised me every time he got minutes. I admire the way both guys battle their asses off every play of the game. Both guys are usually the first players down the court and are always ready for the ball. While Hansbrough is a relentless bull (thats gets away with 4-5 travels a game in the paint), McCauley has sick footwork, a soft touch, and has developed a nice mean streak (although I’d like to see him give more hard fouls since he’s not a shot blocker). It’s nice to see lesser athletes bust their asses for their teams and not even think about NBA scouts, ESPN, crossovers, and highlight dunks. It kind of reminds me of guys like Tommy Gugliotta, Todd Fuller, I. Evtimov, Jeff Lebo, Joe Wolf, Dante Calabria, and Rick Fox. It always seemed like they just wanted it more (although the Tarheel guys always had the upper edge in the talented teammate category). I have a feeling we’re going to see Ben and Tyler battle for two more years. DT
    ps: the ONLY beef I have with today’s game is the lack of hard fouls by the Wolfpack on wide open, fast break dunks. Whatever happened to the saying, “Make them earn in at the line.”? I know we’re thin on the depth chart, but where is Rick Mahorn when we need him? Maybe we can get Isiah Thomas as an assistant next year after he’s kicked out of NYC.

  15. the_phisherman 02/03/2007 at 8:24 PM #

    pinch me, I must be dreaming

  16. PapaJohn 02/03/2007 at 8:27 PM #

    It’s a great day for the Wolfpack nation.
    Maybe we’ve graduated from the “we’ve got a good reason to lose” to being a scary team who can beat anyone. Maybe we don’t play this well every game, but now we know it’s there. It took a 76% shooting effort in the second half to beat them – so we did what we had to do.
    I know this season won’t be the miracle we’d love to see, but now we can go into every game knowing that if we put it all together, we can win. No game is an automatic loss. (and yes, I thought this one was)
    The best part was to see them play so hard and be rewarded for it. Sidney said it well, “Guts!” That’s what it took.
    Sidney, I think we can safetly say they’ve bought into your system.

  17. WilmingtonWoof 02/03/2007 at 8:29 PM #

    Thank you Sid!!!

    As a wise man once said, “How do you go from where you are to where you want to be? I think you have to have an enthusiasm for life. You have to have a dream, a goal, and you have to be willing to work for it.”
    -Jim Valvano

    That is the kind of heart and work ethic you can see every time this team takes the court. Thanks for bringing that back home Sidney. We have been missing it for a long long time.

    WELCOME HOME SIDNEY!!!

  18. Champs 02/03/2007 at 8:32 PM #

    The las time Dykes called a game for us was Michigan right? So is he like our good luck charm or something?

  19. StateFans 02/03/2007 at 8:45 PM #

    An annoying, pain-in-the-ass good luck charm, maybe. One thing I definitely noticed is that Dykes comes into the game with a few things he wants to say (Sendek stuff in the MI game, Hansbrough’s “will” today), and he will just repeat them over and over pretty much regardless of the game situation.

  20. #44 17 24 02/03/2007 at 8:45 PM #

    i really want a picture of Hansbrough’s face when he swung his arm and got the tech. his face was beat red and he looked like a 5 year old who had just had his favorite toy taken away.

  21. Woof Wolf 02/03/2007 at 8:53 PM #

    StateFans:

    Exactly right. He knows what he wants to talk about before the game begins and then talks about that no matter what happens. Apparently he has no ability to analyze what’s happening. He just keeps repeating what his Mother told him to say.

  22. tractor57 02/03/2007 at 8:57 PM #

    and the action on the court be damned (seems to be the norm for “sportscasters” these days).

  23. chilly water 02/03/2007 at 9:02 PM #

    During the game, I had a certain routine where i would walk around 2 of my couches in a counter clockwise rotation stoping only when we shot free throws . Constantly reminding my self I am a state fan and finally running out of my house to howl at the neighbors after the game

  24. Cardiac95 02/03/2007 at 9:09 PM #

    As good as it was to beat them when they were down for a couple years….

    THIS is so much SWEETER!!!

    They’re at the top of their game!!!

    We’re having to rebuild in a bigtime way!!!

    SO MUCH SWEETER!!!

  25. Iremember87 02/03/2007 at 9:11 PM #

    I was at the game. Can anyone explain the tar heel pregame deal of lining up and sliding across the floor like a bunch of seals? I wish there was video of it so everyone could see. That exemplified the essence of UNC to me.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Leave a Reply