Fox Sports Article – Degand, Costner Tidbits

07-08 Basketball General NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe83

Here is the full article (Hat Tip to Pack Pride message boards). There’s a brief tidbit on Farnold Degand’s progress (still my bet to be the starter), but the most interesting part is Lowe’s acknowledgement that Costner could get minutes at the 3:

Lowe also mentioned that Costner could see some time at small forward this season with the addition of Hickson and Smith. “It’s possible,” he said. Lowe said that his goal for Costner is to improve his quickness and ballhandling prior to this season.

I’m thrilled to hear that. I don’t like the idea of Hickson, Costner, and McCauley (likely our 3 best players) only having 80 minutes to divide among themselves. This would also give us tremendous matchup flexibility, and make us nearly impossible to defend at times. I expect Degand to play point when Costner is at the 3 in our “big” lineup, due to his speed and overall defensive ability.

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.

07-08 Basketball General NCS Basketball Sidney Lowe

83 Responses to Fox Sports Article – Degand, Costner Tidbits

  1. Rick 08/20/2007 at 8:29 AM #

    brickman,
    Your posts are unreadable.

  2. noah 08/20/2007 at 9:49 AM #

    Fells starting over Grant?

    Why on earth would you do that?

  3. packgrad93 08/20/2007 at 9:52 AM #

    no way Grant doesnt’ start. Only Sr & best slasher.

    Fells, Grant, Costner & Ben: great foundation for Sid to build on, which he is doing very well.

  4. lush 08/20/2007 at 12:26 PM #

    ^ agree w/ pack grad. there is no way grant doesnt start. him and fells have pretty much the same role, i see them splitting minutes like hickson and mccauley. but to the experience goes the starter.

    if there is 200 minutes to go around i see our top 7 getting 25 minutes per. jj, mccauly, gg, fells, degand, costner, and horner. then johnson, smith, and javi getting 5-10 minuites per game. out of the second tier i think javi and johnson have a good shot at stealing some minutes from horner.

    of course this all depends on who we are playing and what matchups problems we can create.

  5. BJD95 08/20/2007 at 2:21 PM #

    Grant will play some minutes at the 2, but is not a “natural” there. I’m not really comfortbale starting a new PG and 4 forwards. I’d rather him come off the bench early and sub out one of the “Big Three,” and play his natural SF position.

    I think Grant could benefit from watching the first few minutes and getting a better feel for the game.

    There are 4 slots available for Fells, Grant, Costner, McCauley, and Hickson. All 5 will play starter minutes, but one will have to start the game on the bench. I think Grant is best suited to do so.

    One really nice benefit to having excellent depth is that “Good Gavin” can play as many minutes as possible, while “Bad Gavin” can spend long stretches on the bench.

  6. packgrad93 08/20/2007 at 2:43 PM #

    “I’m not really comfortbale starting a new PG and 4 forwards”

    new PG
    Fells
    Grant
    Costner
    Ben

    I’d be shocked if that isn’t the starting lineup. JJ will get a lot of PT, but I doubt he starts. JJ/Ben at the 5. Costner/Horner at the 4. Grant/Fells at the 3. Fells/MJ at the 2.

  7. BJD95 08/20/2007 at 2:46 PM #

    Hickson is a rare talent. I don’t see any way he doesn’t start, at least by ACC play.

  8. lush 08/20/2007 at 3:07 PM #

    ^ im not sure i understand the logic here. you think a true freshman with 0 college minutes is a guaranteed starter, and the lone senior with the most starts and experience on the team will come off the bench. that doesnt make sense.

    to make sure i have this correct, gavin shouldnt start because of his past, but hickson should start because of his future. nope, i dont get it.

  9. noah 08/20/2007 at 3:20 PM #

    Other than the Carolina game and a few flashes here and there, I’m not sure what Fells has ever done to convince people he’s ought to be starting over Gavin Grant.

  10. BJD95 08/20/2007 at 3:33 PM #

    I don’t think that Fells has earned anything over Grant, but I’m more suspicious of Grant as a secondary ballhandler. With the 3 bigs on the court at the same time, you need a secondary ballhandler. Overall, I agree that Grant is a better player, and if they were competing for the starting slot at the 3 instead of the 2, I’d agree.

    Hickson very well could have gone pro out of high school, without the new rules. That caliber of talent tends to start on teams that went to the NIT the previous year. There are maybe 10 programs in the country for which Hickson couldn’t start right away.

  11. noah 08/20/2007 at 4:32 PM #

    Hickson is a 6-8 power forward. That’s pretty small for the NBA at that position (yes, there are exceptions). I don’t know whether he could have gone pro or not…

  12. waxhaw 08/20/2007 at 4:34 PM #

    ^ 10 might be a little high.

    Costner and Grant both handle the ball well for forwards.

  13. packgrad93 08/20/2007 at 4:46 PM #

    “There are maybe 10 programs in the country for which Hickson couldn’t start right away.

    have to see that to believe it. hope you’re right. If he puts Ben on the bench he’ll be one & done for sure.

  14. brickman 08/20/2007 at 7:15 PM #

    rick, where did you go to school at?. unc!ha!ha! this is not english class i am in no way a talent on key board . what is it you need to understand .

  15. redfred2 08/20/2007 at 7:59 PM #

    I really wish you guys would stop with the “one and done” crapola. It already sucks that the least painless and easiest route to the NBA is what these kids are all about now days. I’d like to have some great players sticking around, but if they aren’t going to, I don’t want to have hear speculation about it before they’ve even played their first game. If early departure is going to the new reality from here on out and as some people seem to be so ready to accept, then reality sucks. Simply put, it means that the best of college basketball has already happened, say back in my generation, and it cannot ever be as good as it was just a few years back.

  16. brickman 08/20/2007 at 8:24 PM #

    bjd , why then is he a third round pick in the nba draft for next year? to many people say things they have no way of knowing .one good example is a kid played for rat face at dookey randolph .

  17. Rick 08/21/2007 at 8:19 AM #

    “rick, where did you go to school at?
    (oh the irony of this post)

    You are right this is not English class and I make typing mistakes all the time but your posts are simpy unreadable. If you want anyone to pay attention to your tripe at least try to follow basic sentence structure. You know capitalize and use periods at the end of sentences.
    Or you can continue and have people think you are simply ignorant.

  18. packgrad93 08/21/2007 at 9:31 AM #

    “It already sucks that the least painless and easiest route to the NBA is what these kids are all about now days.”

    who can blame them?

    “If early departure is going to the new reality from here on out and as some people seem to be so ready to accept, then reality sucks.”

    it’s called change

  19. lush 08/21/2007 at 9:48 AM #

    oh come on rick, you know what he meant by “rat face at dooky randolph .”

  20. noah 08/21/2007 at 9:51 AM #

    “Simply put, it means that the best of college basketball has already happened, say back in my generation, and it cannot ever be as good as it was just a few years back.”

    There are a loooot of people who believe just that. My personal opinion is that 1985 to about….1994 or so, was the golden age of college basketball. I don’t know if we’ll ever see anything like it again.

  21. tooyoungtoremember 08/21/2007 at 10:01 AM #

    I’m with ya Rick. I usually skip over brickman’s comments because they take two to three times longer to read than those belonging to any other person. Brickman, this has nothing to do with your character or what you have to say, it’s just very hard to read a string of words and get any meaning from them when you can’t even tell where one sentence ends and another one begins. Does it really take that much longer to use decent grammar when you’re hunting and pecking for keys on the keyboard?

  22. BJD95 08/21/2007 at 11:00 AM #

    Also, it’s not possible for Hickson to be a “third round pick.” The NBA draft hasn’t had a third round in at least a decade, probably longer.

    The insiders I have talked to say that, in a perfect world for the Pack, we get 2 years out of Hickson, but that 1 is more likely.

    If he’s good enough for one and done, we will likely have a great year and get positive recuiting ammo.

    Noah, I really would like to see a regional channel that showed more in-depth “classic” coverage of the ACC’s golden era (80s and early 90s).

  23. packgrad93 08/21/2007 at 11:03 AM #

    if Sid doesn’t add a big man to the ’08 class he better get a top big in ’09 since he’ll be starting for us. JJ & Ben will be gone.

  24. TNCSU 08/21/2007 at 12:29 PM #

    I think we are looking at one more “big” to add to ’08. We most likely will lose Brandon or JJ – possibly both. The good thing is that if we lose either, they (and the team) most likely had a great year. Not sure how the ’09 class is shaping up. Probably looking at a SG to replace Courtney.

  25. noah 08/21/2007 at 3:23 PM #

    Why are we losing Costner?

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